A Catholic revival is taking hold at exclusive Stanford University as a growing share of Gen Z students embrace the the 2,000-year-old faith.
The campus best known for churning out high-achieving tech execs has seen a three-fold increase in Catholic converts — with 46 adults entering the church at Easter this year, up from 14 the year before, according to Father Bart Hutcherson, pastor of the Catholic Community at Stanford.
It’s an astonishing turnaround at a campus that averaged just four adult baptisms annually for about 30 years, the Dominican priest said.
“There is, not just at Stanford, a sense of recovery of tradition and what beauty teaches us about God,” Hutcherson told The California Post. “It’s very, very exciting.”
—
Hutcherson said he’s sought to make Stanford’s ministries more welcoming to students after he was appointed pastor roughly three years ago. The Catholic-curious students are drawn to traditional forms of worship, he said — complete with .
Contrary to the “pay, pray and obey” tropes about Catholicism, the priest said brainy and motivated Stanford students are often first attracted to Catholicism on an intellectual basis, educating themselves on church’s history and centuries-old philosophical traditions before taking the plunge.
That was true of Obi Nnorom, a sixth-year PhD student in electrical engineering who converted this year.
After growing up Protestant, Nnorom spent a year immersing himself in the writings of Church fathers, early martyrs, catechism and Catholic philosophers like St. Thomas Aquinas. He read books and watched YouTube videos, eventually finding himself “astounded” by the more than 10,000 saints and early martyrs who formed the early church.
“That, ultimately, definitely had a major impact on my conversion,” said Nnorom, 27. “The intellectual tradition of Catholicism shocked me beyond belief.”
“It was humbling to see how much work had been done for 2,000 years. And to me, it made so much sense that our Lord had left us a church,” he added.
Stanford isn’t alone in a trend of college co-eds enchanted by Catholic teachings.
According to data released by the prayer app Hallow, participation in the Order of the Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) on college campuses surged by 115% on average from the 2024-25 school year to 2025-26.
That included both campuses in red states, such as Kansas State University and Texas A&M, and more liberal-leaning campuses such as University of Southern California, Harvard, and Columbia University.
“All of this has happened at USC with zero marketing. Nothing,” said Deacon Paul Pesqueira of University of Southern California in a statement. “Always word of mouth.”
Stanford beat the curve, tripling the number of initiations since last year.
Quinn Healy, a Stanford student-athlete who plays water polo, described her conversion to Catholicism in in Valley Catholic, a magazine for the Diocese of San Jose.
“I felt like I had found something lasting, not another accomplishment to chase, but a relationship with Christ that brought a deeper sense of peace, purpose, and fulfillment into my life,” she said.
Some young Gen Z converts have cited Catholic social media influencers and YouTube channels as their entree into the Church of Rome in a quest to understand their role in the world.
Hutcherson said much of the trend boils down to a search for beauty.
“In Catholic tradition, beauty is a transcendental experience. Young people, they seem more willing to say: That’s beautiful, and I can see God in that.”
From The California Post
We should set up a pool for when the first negative comment(s) about this will be submitted. Some people seem allergic to any good news about the Church. Their reactions seem to indicate some type of inflammation.
How many grumpy Catholics does it take to replace a lightbulb? None. One practical Catholic changes the lightbulb and turns the light back on, while several grumpy ones didn’t lift a finger but wonder how long it’ll last.
Time will tell. Remember the parable of the sower. Even Jesus knew and taught that not all conversions endure. There is a narrow gate and few find it. Few build their lives on the rock.
My nose is firmly on the ground in parish and diocesan ministry, and I can tell you truthfully that things in my diocese are falling apart institutionally despite our experience of a surge of converts that is consistent with what is happening all over the country.
Cafeteria Catholicism and ignorance are alive and well among those Boomer Catholics who still bother to attend Mass, but the vast majority of Gen X and the Millennials have decided that even the Catholic cafeteria isn’t worth eating at anymore.
And let’s have perspective. The uptick in conversions is relatively small in absolute terms. It just seems large in comparison to how bad things have been for decades.
Furthermore, the Mormons (who are not Christians) are experiencing a similar surge in conversions — the highest growth in their history — so this generational phenomenon has nothing to do with Catholicism specifically but a more general search for meaning and stability in “religion” among a generation that has been raised in a cultural wasteland of meaninglessness and instability.
One of the musical directors for the Beatification Mass of Blessed Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in St. Louis, was doctoral music student, Lewis McAdow. He is a recent Catholic convert, and is the Director of Music at an FSSP parish in Joliet, Illinois. He led the Mens’ Schola in singing the traditional Introit and Communion Antiphon, as well as well as St. Thomas Aquinas’ “Adoro Te Devote.” The musical directors at the Beatification Mass included some of Blessed Sheen’s favorite sacred musical pieces. Several more church musicians and others who helped organize and lead the Beatification Mass were also Catholic converts.
I think the pastoral team at the Stanford Catholic Community is much better and more orthodox than it used to be. I know they had some liberal heretics on staff before, like for decades. The former music director quit recently and now has started a brand-new “LGBTQ all are welcome ministry” at nearby St. Simon parish in Los Altos. Figures.
I’d be interested to know the size of St. Simon’s OCIA class this year. If it’s as large as Stanford’s then these conversions eveywhere need to be analyzed more thoroughly for what’s really going on because it seems peeps are just picking any Catholic church that’s close to them and there’s not much evaluation of program or parish quality. “Catholic” doesn’t always mean Catholic, even among the clergy, as we all know so well, but newbies don’t realize that. Material for a sociology doctoral thesis, I believe.
The US Coast Guard has recruited its largest class in 40 years. It has beat recruiting goals for the past three years in a row. Wow, the Holy Spirit is at work!
That’s indeed good news. And, God may have called some young men and women to join the Coasties. Yet, what is your point? Do you think that people entering the Church is not a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit? (Are you a Catholic?)
I think the joke is that peeps are way too quick to ascribe something they favor or like to the work of the Spirit. I know peeps who think the acceptance of gay unions and blessings in the church is the work of the Spirit.
Fr. Timothy Radcliffe, a gay heretic, who wants gay unions to be normalized theologically, is going to be the headline speaker at next year’s Los Angeles Religious Education Congress in Anaheim. Is that the work of the Spirit? Some would say yes.
Peeps, as I asked “the Coast Guard,” do you think that people entering the Church is not a sign of the work of the Holy Spirit?
Do you not “favor or like” people entering the Church?
It truly is a sign of the working of the Holy Spirit when people respond to grace and are baptized and receive the Sacraments, entering into the fulness of life in Christ in His Church.
That’s also why I asked him, and now ask you, are you Catholic?
Comparing young people entering the Church to a gay heretic is ridiculous and uncharitable. Heresy and immorality are never inspired by the Holy Spirit. They may be inspired by a spirit, but not the Holy Spirit. (St. Ignatius’s Rules for discernment of spirits would help you see that.)
This story has nothing to do with the REC.
I for one am so grateful for this very very good news. I am retired from education (Pasadena City College Math) and am so delighted to see that Catholicism is attracting students in especially secular schools like Stanford and USC. My faith grew and developed at a secular campus due to the animus toward Christianity by many students and faculty. I was Protestant then and Catholic later but I think I understand the desire for God in students tired of empty secularism. God bless the Dominicans for their work at Stanford. I hope and pray students at Occidental College are seeing a turn to Catholicism, as the Dominicans ( I believe) minister to those students.