A Return to Faith: The Quiet Revival in Our Churches
- Clare Kneusel-Nowak
- 3 days ago
- 10 min read
The Church is amidst a quiet revival, particularly among Gen Z and Millennials. More and more young people are seeking God and finding him in the Catholic Church.
Particularly since Pope Leo XIV's election, Google searches for “how to become Catholic” have soared as much as 373%. The number of new Catholics in England, Ireland and France is making headlines worldwide. Similarly impressive stories of record-breaking numbers of converts are being made in the US: at the University of Notre Dame, in Central Florida, in Los Angeles, Boston, Omaha and dioceses around the country.
A growing, quiet excitement around this sudden newfound zeal for the Catholic faith can be sensed around the Archdiocese of Denver as well.
“It’s amazing,” Father Ernest Bayer remarked to me. “It’s almost like we can’t keep up.”
Father Bayer is the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Northglenn. His parish alone has seen a steady increase in adult baptisms each year since 2020 (from 25 then to 52 this last Easter).
“Every weekend, somebody comes up to me and says, ‘I want to know more about the Catholic faith,’” he said.
His parish has seen the hunger for Christ, especially among young people, and they have responded with missionary and evangelical zeal through technological means, community events, ministries and young adult and youth groups. Ultimately, Father Bayer says the Holy Spirit seeks people out and brings them to the parish, sometimes in astonishing ways.
“There was a man who kept biking through our parking lot on the way to work, and finally, one day, he just felt called to go inside and see what was going on,” Father Bayer recalled. “So he wandered in on a Tuesday night, and it was the OCIA class. So he sat down, and then he went through the whole OCIA process and became Catholic.”
What is drawing all these people to the Church? The answers are numerous, but some common responses are the “renaissance” of Catholic apologetics available online, the new pope’s American roots, the Eucharistic Revival and increased outreach work in parishes.
Father Bayer attributes much of this new interest to the failure of postmodernism to satisfy “the God-sized hole” in the human heart.
“I think the current culture in the United States…is starting to seem more and more empty and meaningless,” he said. “It’s not giving people what they really want. It’s not giving them ‘life abundantly,’ or joy. They’re looking for something solid to build their life on and they’re finding it in Catholicism.”
Father Brian Larkin, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish in Denver, agreed that many are no longer willing to accept the postmodern worldview.
“The implicit worldview of secularism…tells people that their lives don’t ultimately matter, that the world in which we live is a sort of cosmic accident, that truth is simply a word which veils a will to power. That worldview is tired and worn out,” he told me. “The challenging message of the Gospel not only confronts modern man, it also inspires him and lifts him up in hope and love.”
This sentiment was strongly shared among those I spoke to across the archdiocese.
“I think in a world of instability, a world that’s becoming increasingly less Christian, there’s a desire for stability and to get back to traditional Catholic values,” Father John-James Arcidiacono, CSJ, parochial vicar at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver, told me.
“I believe that there is an increased interest in Catholicism because the world is becoming more and more effective at increasing hunger, but continues to fall short in satisfying that hunger. People are starving for the truth, which leads them to the only one who can satisfy — our Eucharistic Lord,” added Rachel Carlson, adult faith formation coordinator at Light of the World Parish in Littleton.
The OCIA program at Light of the World has grown from 18 in 2024 to 30 in 2025. Next year’s program has already received 70 inquiries. The average age of students in their class is currently 31.
Ryan Long, the OCIA director at Our Lady of the Valley in Windsor, said he thinks more young people are coming to the Catholic faith because they see it satisfies the longing of the human heart, as only a living relationship with Christ can.
“I think people aren’t finding the happiness they thought they would in the world. Most of the young adults that are coming to us are either in college or post-college. And the post-college experience can bring a lot of joy, but it can also bring a lot of emptiness when you’re away from home and trying to find your own way. They’re like Augustine, whose faith was implanted in him as a child. Slowly, they find ‘the religion of their youth’ slowly calling them back,” he explained.
Shirley McDermott, adult faith formation director at Our Lady of Loreto Parish in Foxfield, where between 45 and 50 people were welcomed into the Church last year, thinks people are looking for Truth that they can “sink their teeth into.”
What is making people come to the Church? McDermott says she can’t pinpoint just one thing, “Other than they’re looking for Truth and they’re finding it here in the Catholic Church.”
“People want a clear teaching, even a challenging one, because there’s an attraction even to the challenge,” added Father Arcidiacono, highlighting converts’ desire for the real, meaningful Truth of the consistent, unchanging and challenging Catholic sexual ethic amid the culture’s rampant promiscuity. “In fact, ultimately, they see it as good news.”
To live in a Christocentric way, he said, people are discovering that “that’s where our true happiness is found. That’s where true love is actually found. The more you can follow the Church’s teaching on chastity, the more you can actually have true, meaningful relationships.”
Father Arcidiacono noted that they minister quite frequently to Catholics with same-sex attraction at the Cathedral Basilica. “They are coming to the Cathedral because they’re striving to live according to the Church’s teaching on sexuality, and there they find that their happiness lies in striving for that.”
Three years ago, Father Arcidiacono estimated that the Cathedral Basilica’s OCIA program had maybe 12 people. Over the next two years, they revamped the program and had closer to 50. This last year, they had 80 people receive sacraments at the Easter vigil, and they anticipate another large number next year.
Likewise, Our Lady of the Valley in Windsor saw the number of adult baptisms more than double in the last three years (from 13 in 2023 to 31 in 2025). The pastor, Father Gregg Pederson, told me about a non-Catholic woman in her 20s who has been attending Mass because of a growing interest she has, especially, in the Eucharist.
“She asked if she could sign up for an hour of Adoration even if she isn’t Catholic yet,” he recalled. “I answered, ‘Of course you can!’”
Father Arcidiacono pointed out that these increased numbers don’t just mean more people at Mass but also a sharp increase in people coming to Confession.
“There’s always a line,” he said. “Being downtown, I think a lot of people come for Confession.”
“We have Confession every day, and people are just lining up,” Father Bayer said, noting the same increase at Immaculate Heart of Mary. “A lot of people are coming. Something is happening.” He reports that many penitents who haven’t been to Confession in thirty or more years are being moved by the Spirit to come.
“Grace is flowing from Heaven,” he added.
The sacrament of Matrimony continues to draw many to the Church, too, Father Arcidiacono noted. He estimated 100 couples sign up for marriage prep at the Cathedral every year — some of whom end up deciding to become Catholic.
He told me about one couple who were just married this Spring, saying, “Originally, he was Catholic and she wasn’t planning on becoming Catholic, but during their marriage preparation, learning more about the Catholic faith, eventually she decided to become Catholic and have a Catholic Mass at her wedding and receive Holy Communion with her spouse.”
Marriage preparation, he said, can be an excellent way to reach adults who want to get married in the Church but haven’t been going to Mass every Sunday.
“Well, this is a good chance to get them back in the habit of going every Sunday,” Father Arcidiacono said of the Cathedral Basilica’s ministry for reaching engaged couples, which has certainly helped provide the opportunity “for one or both of them to get back into the practice of the Catholic faith.”
Even before marriage preparation, relationships and community have a way of bringing newcomers to the faith, Long said.
“Other people have said that they came here through a girlfriend or boyfriend or a friend, and they felt something different. This Church felt alive. It felt vibrant,” he shared.
For some other converts, the beauty of the liturgy and Church architecture has been a strong catalyst for reflection and conversion, Father Arcidiacono added. He remembers one student from East High School who visited the Cathedral Basilica as part of a World Religions class.
“She said she felt the presence of God there more than in any of the other churches. So finally, when she was a senior, she decided to just start coming,” he said.
In Father Larkin’s estimation, these conversions are the fruit of our return to prayer and intimacy with Christ as a broader Church.
“When the Church lives from a deep connection with the mysteries of God, she becomes more herself and radiates an undeniable beauty,” he told me. “I think this is happening (at least in some places) with a renewed vigor in our time.”
Our Lady of Lourdes in Denver has seen a continued increase in OCIA members: from 17 baptisms and 12 confirmations in 2020 to 56 baptisms and 13 confirmations in 2025.
“I think Lourdes has seen real growth in evangelization because we’ve been able to avoid the all too easy dichotomies of embracing the age or of outright rejecting it. The Church brings the eternal into time; it shows that the eternal beauty of the Gospel can be at home in 2025,” he continued.
In the case of one young woman, it was the beauty of classical music that led her to some of the treasures of sacred music for the Mass. Born in Korea and baptized a Methodist, she came to the United States as a professional cello player. After making a new Catholic friend who went to Mass regularly, she was drawn to join the OCIA program at the Cathedral and become Catholic herself.
“Young adults seem to be drawn to more traditional music, chant, Latin, reverence, mystery, holiness,” Father Bayer said. “I just had a couple of young adults who came forward and wanted to do a schola. So we formed a schola, and they’re singing at Mass twice a month. These are young guys. They want to sing chant.”
Hungry for Truth, Goodness and Beauty, the world — especially young people — seek for something more, a sensible reality found in the Catholic faith that stands in contrast to the purely digital.
“These young people are finding something tangible and real in the Church that they’re not finding anywhere else … When you can smell the incense, you can see the candlelight, you can hear the music, you can taste the Eucharist … where you have an Incarnational, tangible, real Presence …that really makes the faith something you can’t simulate in the digital world,” Long explained.
Though the digital age in which we live does have its advantages, Father Bayer and Father Arcidiacono noted, pointing to the renaissance of Catholic apologetics on the internet and the sheer number of excellent resources available to anyone with an internet connection.
Whatever the reason, it’s clear that people are being led to the Catholic Church in droves, even right here in Northern Colorado. And that shift often seems to be beyond explanation.
“So many of these people are just coming,” Long explained. “We have a great small group culture, but that’s not actually where most of the OCIA interest is coming from. I get a couple of emails or phone calls each week where people tell me, ‘Hey, I’ve been coming to Mass, and I want to learn more.’ Or some people will say, ‘My friend referred me to you.’”
While parishes, pastors and people are cooperating with the Spirit across the archdiocese, it is the Holy Spirit that draws the newcomers closer to the Church.
“I think that deep down, it’s the Holy Spirit tugging at their hearts,” Father Bayer said. “Everyone is made for God.”
For those of us not formally involved in OCIA formation, there is still work to be done to support the Holy Spirit’s efforts: pray, pray and pray some more.
“Pray more! Just pray more and ask for the Holy Spirit to come,” McDermott concluded.
