It’s interesting to see so many Catholic dioceses around the world reporting booms in conversion.

France expects more than 10,384 adult catechumens at Easter 2025, a 45 percent jump from 2024.

In Belgium adult baptisms expected in 2026 are 689, up from 534 in 2025 and 229 in 2016

Ireland saw a record 129 catechumens attended the 2026 ceremony at St Mary’s Cathedral in Dublin, formerly the Pro Cathedral, on Sunday.

Los Angeles attributed its spike to intensive OCIA/RCIA training that was scaled up online during the pandemic.

At the ground level in New York City, parishes like St. Joseph’s (Greenwich Village), St. Vincent Ferrer (Upper East Side), and St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral report OCIA enrollments double or triple the prior year, with individual programs in the 90 to 130 participant range and Sunday Masses straining capacity.

On a numerical level this trend is still swamped by the overall pattern of death, disaffiliation, and families failing to baptize their children. But it does seem to point to an intensification of faith among a highly successful subculture in the West.

© National Review