By OSV News
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (OSV News) — Several U.S. dioceses and archdioceses are reporting an uptick in adults preparing to join the Catholic Church at Easter, with some dioceses saying they are seeing “record” numbers. That tracks with 2023 and 2024, which also saw increases over the previous year. Sherry Anne Weddell, an expert in Catholic evangelization, said that the “high point” of adult Catholics joining the Catholic Church in the U.S. was in 1999, with 172,000 adult baptisms and receptions, followed by decline. But she has been watching the upswing. “There was significant growth between 2023 and 2024,” she told OSV News. And while the data for 2025 and 2026 have yet to be published, “the numbers that are being reported are getting bigger and bigger.” Increases in this year’s enrollment in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults have been noted across the country, from Boston to Portland, Oregon, and Newark, New Jersey, to Fort Wayne, Indiana. The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University counseled that reports of increased numbers of converts are still at this point anecdotal. The nation’s nearly 200 dioceses and archdioceses will not begin formally reporting 2025 sacramental data until early 2026, and those figures will only be publicly available with the release of the 2026 Official Catholic Directory later this year. And yet, “There’s this growth in the numbers,” affirmed Weddell, who visits dioceses from coast to coast. “Many of the parishes I’ve talked to say, ‘Yeah, we’re seeing it — in our own small way.’”
