Faith on the rise
More people in their 20s and 30s are discovering the Catholic Church. Nationally, clergy and new Catholics are crediting the growing interest to increased digital resources, interest sparked by an American pope, and a desire to fill a void with a deeper spiritual life – often at the encouragement of friends or family members. (Provided and Amy Burger | Catholic News Herald) CHARLOTTE — In line with national trends, the number of people entering the Church this Easter season is surging across the Diocese of Charlotte.
Diocesan leaders and new Catholics themselves credit a range of influences – from pop culture to Pope Leo – but point to a common question driving the surge:
Is there something more to life?
That search for meaning is drawing more people into the Church, with parishes reporting a sharp rise in baptisms and receptions into full communion. Clergy say many are in their 20s and 30s, often drawn by a desire for meaning, stability and community and sparked by personal relationships or encounters with the faith online.
The diocese is expected to meet or surpass last year’s 1,743 new members – the highest in at least a decade. That follows two consecutive years of 43% growth in people joining the Church.
Final numbers are still coming in from the diocese’s 93 churches, but several, including parishes in Charlotte, Hendersonville and Greensboro, are reporting a surge.
Parishes aren’t the only ones seeing growth. High Point University’s Campus Ministry saw 17 college students receiving the sacraments of initiation.
While population growth in western North Carolina is partly the reason – the diocese has grown 50% in the past decade – clergy say something deeper is happening.
“We are seeing the fingerprints of the Holy Spirit all over this amazing phenomenon,” says Father Andres Gutierrez, pastor of Immaculate Conception in Hendersonville, “from the moving personal stories of searching and meaning, to the conversations where the content of faith ‘clicked,’ to the experiences where faith transitioned from content to lived reality in their personal lives and in the community.”
The number of adults coming into the Church in 2026 is expected to surpass last year’s landmark total. The drop noted above reflects the disruption of services amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
FLOCKING TO THE FAITH
What’s happening here reflects a broader trend.
According to data collected by the religion app Hallow, American dioceses are seeing an average of 38% more converts to Catholicism this year than in 2025.
Secular and religious media are capturing the moment with headlines like the New York Times’ “Roman Catholics see a surge of new converts” and the National Catholic Register’s
“Something’s Happening: Catholic converts surge in many U.S. dioceses.”
Many report a similar pattern: Gen Z and Millennials – those aged 14-35 – are leading this resurgence.
Michael Shelton, 22, is among them. He and his wife Cressida were baptized during the Easter Vigil at St. Andrew the Apostle Church in Mars Hill.
“There have been so many changes albeit religious or political views, but we are starting to get more involved and are becoming something different than our predecessors,” Shelton says of his generation. “No matter what you are chasing, it doesn’t feel as good as following God. And I think we are starting to realize it.”
Olivia Owen, 26, had little knowledge of the Catholic faith until her Catholic fiancé invited her to Mass. She was among six people baptized and confirmed by Bishop Michael Martin during the
Easter Vigil at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte.
The moment was “life-changing,” Owen said afterwards. “It was beautiful, it was wonderful.”
CLICKING TO CATHOLICISM
Nationally, clergy and new Catholics credit growing interest in part to the digital world – with access to Church history, podcasts and videos by Catholic influencers, and apps like Hallow and Exodus 90. But it’s not the only factor.
“For many, it is a Catholic friend or relative who inspired them,” says Deacon Matthew Newsome, who leads Campus Ministry at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. “For many others, it is a desire to practice a more historically rooted version of Christianity. For others, it is a desire for more organized, traditional liturgy.”
Nicole Neuse, 18, always believed God existed, but as she neared the end of high school, “life questions” persisted: “Why are we here? Where did we come from? What is going on?” she says.
Visits to non-denominational megachurches failed to provide the answers she was seeking. Curious about the Eucharist, she searched online and learned about the Catholic Church.
“What really got me was the early Church Fathers and how strongly they believed in the Real Presence of the Eucharist,” she says. “And then it took a lot of time going through each teaching and slowly finding the justifications.”
Neuse was among 88 people welcomed into the Church during the Easter Vigil at St. Matthew Church in Charlotte.
Franciscan Father Casey Cole, a Catholic social influencer with 473,000 YouTube subscribers and 173,000 Instagram followers, has seen the interest among young adults firsthand.
To bridge the digital and real worlds, he and two fellow friars launched an outreach to young adults and the religiously unaffiliated. Between posting videos, they walk the streets of Uptown
Charlotte and the University of North Carolina-Charlotte, spending time in bars and coffee shops, answering questions about the faith.
“There’s a tremendous openness to faith – there is definitely something going on countrywide,” Father Cole said. “There’s more interest, more fervor. We’ve had great conversations with atheists, Protestants and others who are looking at the Church in a different way.”
Pope Leo XIV – the first pope born in the United States – is another factor, along with Catholic politicians, celebrities and hit shows like “The Chosen” that have popularized the faith.
YEARNING FOR HOPE
But even more than that, says Bishop Michael Martin, is a deep craving for hope and certainty among young adults navigating a turbulent world. A former high school coach, principal and campus ministry director, he understands the pressures that today’s consumer-driven culture puts on young people.
“All of us at some point need to ask ourselves, ‘If there is nothing greater than this, then I am not sure that I can carry the weight of that,’” the bishop said recently. “The increase in anxiety and depression in our world – in particular, among our younger people – is a result of the message that has been promoted to them that there isn’t anything greater than this. After a while they start thinking, ‘Wow, if there is nothing else and it is all on me. … Gosh, there is too much going on. I can’t deal with all of that.’”
“People are trying their best to search through the reality of bigger questions,” he says.
While clergy can help Mass-goers deepen their faith, Bishop Martin notes in his pastoral vision for the diocese that everyone should “go out” as disciples, sharing the Gospel with others in need of the message.
“It’s obvious,” Father Gutierrez says, “many people are in search for things more substantial and affirming than digital relations, half-truths morality and cultural confusion.”
This was the case for John Hanson, 28, who was received into full communion at St. Patrick Cathedral.
“I think a lot of young people are looking at the world, and if we are being completely honest, things aren’t working,” Hanson says. “You start to think, ‘Why is that?’ And, for young people that come to Catholicism, that is at least a question.”
For clergy, ministry leaders and “cradle” Catholics, the trend is a sign of the Holy Spirit at work and a call to action.
As Deacon Newsome notes, it’s about “meeting students where they are at and accompanying them on their faith journeys. Who knows who else the Holy Spirit may send our way in the months to come.”
— Lisa Geraci
Welcome our newest brothers and sisters in the Church
As the number of people entering the Church this Easter season surges, here are a few of the personal stories behind the numbers:
Michael Shelton, 22, St. Andrew Church in Mars Hill
Michael Shelton was raised in Mars Hill by a Southern Baptist family who stopped attending church when he was about 6.
When he felt called to return to his faith later in life, he wasn’t certain he wanted to go back to that denomination.
“I just started questioning everything,” Shelton said. “And it was a simple question, ‘What is truth?’”
Although his family was not particularly religious, Catholicism was a line never to be crossed, and stepping into St. Andrew Church to get more information was not part of his agenda.
“Growing up Baptist, you hear really bad things about Catholics – terrible things,” he said.
Instead, from a distance, he spent months online, scrolling and researching. He tried to steer clear, but each search seemed to lead him to more Catholic doctrine. He found “hidden” gems he had not been exposed to: St. Peter was the first pope and the Eucharist is the Body of Christ.
“The more I researched, the more I tried to disprove Catholicism, but I couldn’t. And that is what led me to go to St. Andrew,” Shelton said.
At St. Andrew, the little church he had avoided looking at during his childhood school bus rides, he found answers.
At his first Mass, “When Father Anthony held up the Host, that was a bit of a moment for me, because right when they did, I was told that that was when heaven and earth hugged. That changed everything for me,” he said. “It was a new revelation, and I knew I was stepping into a new part of my life.”
Noah Galloway, 20, Western Carolina Campus Ministry
Noah Galloway, a member of the Western Carolina University marching band, is marching to the tune of a different drum – Catholicism.
Joining the Church was not a decision he took lightly. He was in discernment for more than a year before joining the OCIA group led by campus minister Deacon Matthew Newsome.
He was baptized in Indiana at 9 and raised Baptist, but after moving to Clover, he felt his faith go stagnant.
“I felt weak and unknowledgeable about faith in general,” he remembers.
Although his devoted family attended Wednesday night and Sunday services regularly, he felt something was still missing.
“They were very strong in their faith and very godly people,” he said. “But, when I came to Western, I stopped going to church altogether.”
That all changed with a friend’s invitation to a campus ministry meeting. He went intrigued to learn more about Catholicism and never left.
“I didn’t know about other religions. Overall, I never really heard anything about Catholicism in general,” Galloway recalled. “Because I noticed I was growing weaker in my faith, I really wanted to explore the other denominations to see what their beliefs were. So, when I had an ‘in’ to the Catholic Church, I went for it, and I never left, because I knew I found the truth.”
For him, the beauty of the real presence of the Lord in the Eucharist was the turning point.
“To witness that, it is so exciting. It almost calls to you every time it is there, and it is so close to being within reach,” he said.
Deacon Newsome said many catechumens and candidates came to the faith through fellow students.
“It is usual for us that a non-Catholic student will begin to participate in our ministry activities and attend liturgies with a friend,” Deacon Newsome said. Over the course of a semester or two, they might become open to becoming Catholic, as was the case with Noah,” said Deacon Newsome.
The WCU Catholic Campus Ministry brought three new Catholics, including Noah, into the Church this Easter season.
“Our small little campus ministry is getting full pretty quickly. Last year, it was sort of full, but at the start of this year, we’ve had to start pulling out extra fold-out chairs to fit people in,” Galloway said. “And now the pews each Sunday are full.”
Nicole Neuse, 18, St. Matthew Church in Charlotte
Nicole Neuse is still processing the Easter Vigil Mass, during which she received three sacraments, gaining full communion into the Church.
She grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa, where she attended a Christian primary school, learning Bible stories and about God.
In 2017, her family moved to the Matthews area to escape civil unrest, high unemployment rates and increasing safety concerns.
As the COVID-19 pandemic lingered through her early teens, she had “zero interest” in religion.
Everything changed her junior year.
“I started having life questions. ‘Why are we here? Where did we come from? What is going on?’" she asked. “At 16, it was a good age to start thinking about these things.”
She began church-shopping at popular mega-churches in the Ballantyne area. There were some clear contenders with strong youth faith communities, motivational preaching style and concert-like worship music.
“The small groups were awesome. I absolutely loved the community,” Neuse said. “But I was still a baby Christian trying to connect the dots.”
Meanwhile, while shopping at Stonecrest, her mother heard church bells. That sound lured her to St. Matthew Church, where she started attending Bible studies and eventually OCIA.
“When I heard about it, I had a lot of objections but reluctantly went to Mass with her,” Neuse remembered. “Literally, at my first Mass, I was like, ‘I don’t like this. I don’t like the statues. I don’t like the kneelers.’ But I remember praying, ‘I don’t like this. I hate this, but if this is where You want me to go, here I am not going to let my own pride get in the way of this.’”
Her mother became more steadfast in her faith and began challenging her daughter with theological questions Neuse was too curious to ignore.
The real presence of God in the Eucharist was something her mother gave her to ponder, and, just like the Gen Z member she is, she googled it.
“For me to believe something, I want to hear the evidence for it,” Neuse said. “What really got me was the early Church fathers and how strongly they believed in the real presence of the Eucharist,” she said. “And then it took a lot of time going through each teaching and slowly finding the justifications.”
In September, she enrolled in OCIT, a program for teens who plan to enter the Church.
The sense of community she found with OCIT and Life Teen helped her grow into the faith, and after taking her last objections to Father Nicholas Kramer, she decided to take the next step.
Now, she and her mother attend daily Mass, listen to reflections, meditate, and pray together on the Hallow app.
“Ever since the Easter Vigil I have been thinking, ‘what now?’” she said, excited about her future in the faith.
John Hanson, 28, St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte
Like many new initiates, John Hanson relocated to Charlotte but began his faith journey somewhere else.
As a child in San Diego, he and his mother explored different churches – never staying long but continuing to search for God.
By 16, he was done.
“What kind of good God would not give him a dad, and make him and his mother struggle in poverty with no family?” he questioned, as he became agnostic.
When he started college, he started seeking God again, searching for reverence and piety.
Yet, in California, Hanson had difficulty finding tradition.
“There are a lot of Catholics by name, but they are not necessarily going to Mass. They can’t list the sacraments, but they say they believe in God,” Hanson said. “But, I didn’t really see it.”
He felt a pull to Islam and became committed to it. He repeated the prayers, read the Koran, and was devout but still did not feel the presence of God.
The catalyst came after Ramadan. At the end of the Islamic holy month’s 30-day fast, he didn’t feel renewed. He felt physically hungry and spiritually starved.
He prayed, “Listen, God, I am trying to find You. I am trying to find where You are. If this is the right thing, I will do this, but I need direction.”
The next day, his YouTube and Instagram feeds were very different – suddenly filled with Catholic apologetics. He saw it as divine intervention. After months of research, he relocated to Charlotte, ready to become Catholic.
“I was highly determined to become a Catholic by the time I first went to Mass,” Hanson recalled. “By that time, I was already a non-denominational Christian, agnostic, and then Muslim. I wanted to be 99% sure going forward into the next step. I was so sure because I couldn’t find any contradictions.”
The Mass and OCIA classes, combined with the vibrant community at St. Patrick Cathedral and the leadership of Father Peter Ascik as pastor, confirmed what he already knew: he found his true home.
“Father Ascik said during OCIA, ‘Faith is a gift from God, and God gives it to everybody at least once,’” Hanson recalled. “When I heard that, it made sense. Maybe I received that grace. Maybe God saw that I was really trying and I was sorting through all these avenues, and He just gave me grace.”
Cressida Shelton, 19, St. Andrew Church in Mars Hill
For some newcomers to the faith, like Cressida Shelton, Catholicism followed a dramatic change. When she became an adult, she fled the place where she was, which she described as “the cult.”
“I ran away from the cult on my 18th birthday,” she said. “At 12:01, I went out the door in the middle of the night and took off walking.”
She didn’t know or care where she was going, as long as it was far away from there. Maybe the new place would let her wear makeup and jewelry and paint her nails, she thought, and perhaps even wear leggings.
Escaping her situation was something she had only dreamed about since she was 13. After weeks of watching different camera angles, checking doors and monitoring sleeping habits, she finally got the courage to slip away in the night, feeling closer to freedom with each step.
“It was definitely a well-thought-out process,” she said. “I prayed God would send down a hand and save me from it all.”
She found out who that hand belonged to when she met Michael Shelton one April.
“It was love at first sight. Our eyes met, and that was pretty much it,” she said. “We got married that June.”
Michael invited her to Mass at the St. Andrew Catholic Church down the block.
“I looked at him like he was absolutely crazy,” she said. “I grew up hearing a bunch of terrible things about the Catholic Church, and I thought, ‘He cannot be serious right now.’”
She would go for moral support, but after all she went through, organized religion was not something she wanted to be involved with.
“I went to Mass as numb as I could be. I was going for Michael and Michael alone,” she remembered. “But, during Mass, I felt undeniable comfort and peace…It felt like home.”
She left sobbing and begging Michael to go back the following Sunday.
“I did not expect to feel like that, especially since I was so turned off from ever wanting to go to church again,” she said. “But, I went once, and I have not quit since.”
Looking back, she can see God working that whole time.
“This has been a wild journey. It was definitely a wild childhood. And, definitely a wild twist to become Catholic within a year,” she laughed. “I feel like this is where God wants me to be.”
Cressida now volunteers at St. Andrew's food pantry and plans on becoming an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion and lector.
Michael and Cressida are being remarried at St. Andrew Church on April 18.
Jeordyn Metzler, 30, St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte
Jeordyn Metzler, who was drawn to the Church after a journey punctuated by grief, was baptized by Bishop Michael T. Martin at the Cathedral of St. Patrick in Charlotte on Easter Vigil.
“I wasn’t raised religious,” she recalled of growing up with her mom. “She raised my brothers and me to just be kind. The only time I really went to church was when I slept over at a friend's house.”
Being a preteen in a godless world was pretty scary, she said.
“The world is so odd and daunting,” she said. “The fact that I was aimlessly on a track that I have no control over is a feeling of a hundred weighted blankets. Even on good days there is such a heaviness.”
At 22, she met a coworker whose faith changed everything.
“Cody was Christian and very devout,” she reminisced. “I never met someone so unapologetically himself in every way and form.”
In her past, Metzler, had encountered people who were not as “righteous” as they proclaimed. That gave her a distaste for Christianity, but her new friend was the real deal. He did not just talk about God, he acted out his faith through love for others.
“Unfortunately, last February, he passed away in Rock Hill in a motorcycle accident,” Metzler said. “After that happened, I got really somber and filled with grief. I was captivated with the idea of finding something…there is just something within me that I felt like I was missing out on. I truly needed something.”
Thinking there might not be anything after death left her feeling hopeless. “It made me scared to be alive, not like I didn’t want to be,” she said. “I felt lost and confused.”
She had all the worldly things. She had a great job and loved where she lived. She loved her friends and was on a women’s rugby team in Charlotte. Yet grief left a void she could not seem to fill. She thought about going to church and landed at St. Patrick Cathedral.
“I started with Catholicism first. I just remembered one of my earliest memories. My mother took me to a church for a wedding, and one of the sisters was there,” she said. “I was a child, but I felt her presence and didn’t want to leave her side.”
When she went to her first Mass at St. Patrick, she wept silently in the pew – tears not of despair, but of hope and joy.
“In that moment. I felt the weight literally being pulled from me,” she said. “I could breathe.”
She signed up for OCIA and started attending Mass. She couldn’t wait for both, feeling the beauty of the faith again and again.
"Having this overwhelming love is something that I really don’t think I ever had, and I missed out on for years,” she said.
For Metzler, it was a domino effect of blessings that she never realized she needed until something tragic happened.
“This really gave me closure to help me discover what I needed to shape me as a person,” she said. “I feel so weightless, and it is such a freeing feeling and a great way to go through life.”
Katy Papay, 36, St. Andrew Church in Mars Hill
Katy Papay was raised without any religious ties. For her, science took priority.
All those Bible stories can’t be true, she thought, writing off faith and living her life.
When she met her husband, Matthew, in her late 20s, they moved fast, getting engaged within a year, and pregnant quickly thereafter. They had their first child, lost Matthew’s grandmother, who was a devout Catholic, and then Hurricane Helene hit in 2024.
“Our closest cities are Hot Springs, Marshall, and Erwin, Tennessee, and all three of those places were decimated by the hurricane,” she recalled.
Matthew was with the swift water rescue team of Buncombe County and deployed after the storm, witnessing the storm’s horrific aftermath on the Swannanoa River and in Black Mountain.
“It was a tough year, and then he had a dream that there was a Catholic church out in the mountain holler,” she said.
After researching, he found the Chapel of the Little Flower in Sodom, just like the one in his dream. They visited, finding a church that has been run by a Jesuit priest from the 1930s through the 1970s and was being renovated into a homestead.
For Matthew, this tiny pioneer church in the hills was a divine sign. He needed to get back to Church. He shared his desire for the Mass with Katy.
“He was raised Catholic, but I did not realize he ever wanted it to be a part of his life again,” she said. “I was very turned off. This was not part of our deal. Religion was not my cup of tea.”
That changed when they walked into St. Andrew Church.
“I really can’t put it all into words, but it felt right,” she said. “It felt very reverent and peaceful.”
All the trauma of Helene, the social media doom scrolling, and thoughts of the traumatic birth she recently experienced, seemed to dissipate in the moment, she said.
“This was something I’ve been craving for so long but didn’t really know how to find,” she said.
Subsequently, they started attending regularly and she joined OCIA.
“Everything I learned was just fascinating,” she said. “After receiving news I was pregnant again, I wanted to lean into my new faith with God.”
The birth was a quick delivery with no problems. The post-partem anxiety she had with her daughter did not return with this second child.
“It was the first time I saw faith firsthand,” she said. “I told my priest, I give all my thanks to God.”
Katy and Matthew will be remarried at St. Andrew Church in Mars Hill on April 18, continuing their journey with God.
Olivia Owen, 26, St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte
Olivia Owen is originally from Nashville, raised in a devout Baptist family who attended Bible studies and worship services multiple times a week.
As an adult, she moved away from her faith, relocated to Charlotte and met her future fiancé. He invited her to St. Patrick Cathedral, where she fell in love twice, once with him and a second time with the Catholic church.
Though she was always attracted to the beauty of Catholicism and curious about Catholic teachings, she had never experienced it.
“Growing up in Nashville, the Catholic Church was a bit of an enigma to me. I didn’t have any Catholic friends growing up,” she said.
They started attending every Sunday, and she felt herself captured by the reverence of the Mass and the tradition. Eventually, she took the next step and joined OCIA.
“The community at St. Patrick, and the fact that Catholicism is so accessible right now with podcasts and the internet, it makes it all so much more approachable,” she noted.
In their spare time, Owen and her fiancé listen to Father Mike Schmitz podcasts.
“Father Schmitz is accessible but also thorough and engaging,” she said.
Those same factors contributed to her fiancé’s conversion just a few years before. .
“It was great having an example of the conversion process walking with me, and being able to have him guide me,” she said.
OCIA’s classroom-style approach was welcoming, and she felt a strong sense of community. The other students were not just people attending a class with her, but her new brothers and sisters in Christ.
“My faith definitely grew through the OCIA process, and the classes specifically,” she said. “There is a great community there at St. Patrick. It is filled with lots of young professionals. It is a welcoming environment for anyone at any walk of life.”
Owen was baptized by the bishop on Easter Vigil, an experience she will never forget. She has received four sacraments thus far and is saving the fifth for August, when she and her fiancé will join God at the altar for the sacrament of Holy Matrimony.