While the religiously unaffiliated are on the rise globally, something curious is also happening: Some dioceses have reported significant upticks in adults preparing to enter the Catholic Church this Easter. Sherry Anne Weddell, the co-founder and executive director of the Catherine of Siena Institute in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and an expert in Catholic evangelization, said that the “high point” of adult Catholics joining the Catholic Church in the U.S. was in 1999, with 172,000 adult baptisms and receptions. “And then there was just a steady sort of decline,” she said. That has since changed. “There was significant growth between 2023 and 2024,” she told OSV News. And while the data for 2025 and 2026 have yet to be published, “the numbers that are being reported are getting bigger and bigger.”
