Something is shifting around church doors this Easter season, and it’s not just the usual “springtime bump.”
Misryoum newsroom reported that young men and other young people are increasingly drawn to the Catholic Church as they look for “truth, beauty, discipline and meeting a pretty girl at Mass.” For some, it may be as simple as wanting love or at least a real human connection that doesn’t disappear when the phone buzzes. But there’s another layer—this sense that people want to reconnect with a moral universe, one where right and wrong aren’t treated like options you can swipe past.
And this year, the contrast couldn’t feel sharper. On Truth Social, Trump posted a profane message regarding the war with Iran, writing, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the [expletive] Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.” Meanwhile, in his Easter address, Leo condemned violence and called for peace and dialogue. “On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil,” Leo told the crowd gathered in St. Peter’s Square. Actually, even if you don’t agree with everything the Church stands for, that pairing—calamity language on one side, peace language on the other—lands.
Still, it’s hard to pretend the Church is a perfect place to walk into. The church still opposes abortion and gay marriage. Revelations about clergy sexual abuse have not magically disappeared. According to a recent report released by Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha, priests in that state abused hundreds of children for decades, and not enough has been done to address it. I’ll say it plainly: none of that changes the issues that led many people, myself included, to stay away from Mass for long stretches.
Yet, despite all those reasons to hesitate, a desire to connect spiritually keeps showing up. Misryoum newsroom reported that the Archdiocese of Boston has experienced a surge in non-Christians becoming Catholic during Easter season, according to Terrence Donilon, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese. In 2023, there were 299. Last year, there were 438. This year, there were 680. So what’s driving it? Donilon said, “Probably a combination of factors, including a fundamental need to be closer to God.” Church leaders like Archbishop Richard Henning primarily attribute that urge to “the Spirit of the Lord.” But then comes the question people keep asking—whether there’s also a “Pope Leo effect.”
“Yes,” Donilon said. “It’s not just being the First American Pope; it is that he has captured a sense of community with Catholics across the world and very clearly in the US Catholic Church. The wave had been growing before his election but is now picking up speed and size.” Donilon’s words sound almost simple, but then you notice how many different entry points are showing up at once: families with young children, young people, and those looking for community and spiritual connection rather than just doctrine. A young adult group connected to Gate of Heaven Parish and St. Brigid Parish in South Boston attracts about 200 people every Wednesday night, Donilon said. There’s also the way the big questions are being asked—where do I come from, what’s my purpose, what does all this mean.
The Rev. Eric Cadin, director of vocations with the Archdiocese, put it even more bluntly. “This includes questions such as, where do I come from? What is my purpose? What does all this mean? More importantly, so many who are exposed to division and even cruelty, especially online, as well as in real life, are actively resisting and moving away from that.” And on Easter Sunday, when Trump managed to alienate people of all faiths, the sense of being pushed around politically only looked more exhausting. Nature abhors a vacuum, as Aristotle said—so who fills the moral vacuum under Trump’s leadership? It’s easy to argue the Catholic Church has room to be that force, including for lapsed Catholics. But whether it becomes that, for each person, depends on a thousand small decisions—and maybe on what kind of quiet you hear when the doors open, somewhere between incense and the first hymn that makes you pause and listen.