National Catholic Register@NCRegister
Many U.S. dioceses are expecting heavy increases in people joining the Catholic Church at Easter 2026, including some with record highs, a survey by the Register found.
“Something’s happening,” said John Helsey, director of communications for the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, which is expecting a 57% increase in unbaptized people becoming Catholics at Easter — from 635 in 2025 to nearly 1,000 in 2026.
In most places, this year’s increases aren’t a one-off but follow significant increases in recent years.
One example is the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, which had record highs attending liturgies several weeks ago that were meant to welcome would-be converts who have been preparing to enter the Church in recent months and to formalize their status.
Newark is expecting a 30% jump in converts in 2026 (at 1,701) over 2025 (at 1,305). The 2026 figure is 60% higher than the 1,064 converts in 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Last year, we had no idea where all the people came from then; 2025 eclipsed every year we had had up to then. We thought it might be an anomaly,” said Father Armand Mantia, director of the archdiocese’s OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults) program that prepares converts to become Catholics. “And then, all of a sudden, we had our rituals for 2026, and 2026 blew away 2025, which we didn’t think was possible.”
Read the full story at ncregister.com