Britain’s ‘Quiet Catholic Revival’ Is Lay-Driven, Mostly by Young Men ‘The question now facing the institutional Catholic Church is: Can its hierarchy catch up with what the Holy Spirit is doing?...’

National Catholic Register ^ | 17th April 2025 | Edward Pentin

[Cronos]

Reports of a “quiet revival” within the Catholic Church in Britain have been drawing widespread attention over the past week as parishes up and down the country witness ahead of the Easter celebrations a steady growth in interest and attendance, especially among the young.

At the vigil of the Lord’s Resurrection this Saturday, the London dioceses of Southwark and Westminster will be receiving higher numbers than usual into the Church, with Southwark receiving 450 new candidates and catechumens — a decade high — and Westminster recording 500 new faithful, up by 25% from the previous year.

...About half of those being received in Westminster are catechumens, new converts who want to be baptized. “They are looking for clarity and stability,” Archbishop Mark O’Toole of Cardiff. “They are attracted to the Catholic Church’s strong sense of identity and clarity around the teaching of Jesus.”

The figures come on the heels of a recent survey by the Bible Society, an interdenominational U.K. charity, showing that among Generation Z churchgoers and younger millennials, Catholics now outnumber Anglicans by two to one in the U.K., with young men specially making up the largest increase.

...He said he and others in his men’s group have valued such content as they looked for direction in life following university and sought the stability and “anchor” of the faith in a rapidly changing world. He said the truth and coherence of the Church’s teaching and tradition has been a “massive” help to him and his friends. “There’s something you know that you can inherit from people who’ve come before you, and it’s something that if you conserve and keep safe, you can then pass it on,” he said.

[Cronos]

“If the English want a future that is at all in continuity with its past,” he said, “it will have to reconcile with the Catholic Church and take up once more its coveted title of Mary’s Dowry and, as St. Edmund Campion put it, ‘the island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter.’”

[vladimir998]

It’s starting to happen in France too.

[rarestia]

Men, ESPECIALLY white men, are flocking back to the church. I am part of a weekly men’s bible fellowship, and our numbers are swelling. So many young men who are looking for grounding in something bigger than them, and they are finding it in God’s word. Miracles do happen.

[chajin]

This is an honest question, not meant to stir up anything...

Rome is increasingly heretical, not the least reason of which would be the heretical nature of the present pope, along with the numerous cardinals he has appointed who ensure the heretical nature of the next pope. If I wanted to find Jesus, the church that wants to combine with Islam, that embraces all sinful versions of sex, and bows down to idols (cf. Pachamama), would not be my first choice. Why is it the choice of so many young, not just in Britain but on the continent as well?

[Cronos]

The Catholic Church doesn’t want to combine with Islam, is against the sinful versions of sex and doesn’t bow down to pachamama.

You’re reading the Jack chick nonsense.

At the end of the day, the Church has endured 2000 years in spite of bad Popes, bishops, priests , laity. Why? Because the High Priest at every mass is Jesus. We believe that He us actually present at the mass and it us solely due to God’s grace that the Church, the community He created endures

[Bernard]

Every now and then a John Paul II comes along to offset the current pope type we have now. Over a few thousand years or so, it balances out.

Even more encouraging for this trend of young men finding their church of choice, just think what might happen if they hang around church activities and meet like-minded young women. That in itself would be a huge reversal of current trends.

[frogjerk]

Rome is increasingly heretical,

A similar thing is happening in the US with regards to conservatism and the youth. DC is very corrupt but I wouldn't think of renouncing my American citizenship. In my case, even more with being Catholic.

Just as we have has bad presidents and leaders in the US Political system we have had bad popes with the current one not so hot either.

I believe the US will survive because its ideals on which it was founded resonate throughout the ages.

I believe the Catholic Church will survive because Our Lord promised so.

[9YearLurker]

Believe me, get enough young men into church and the young women will follow.

[frogjerk]

just think what might happen if they (men) hang around church activities and meet like-minded young women.

This is exactly what the Church and the world needs. Wouldn't this be beautiful to behold!

[frogjerk]

Every now and then a John Paul II comes along to offset the current pope type we have now.

Epistle of St Paul to the Romans 5:20

"Now the law entered in, that sin might abound. And where sin abounded, grace did more abound."

[AppyPappy]

The Pope will find some way to drive them off. What younger people lack today is structure. They can find that in the more liturgical church.

[Bigg Red]

Bergoglio won’t be around much longer.

[Campion]

Well, if a person doesn't believe that the Catholic Church is the true Church of Christ, protected from sliding irretrievably into error by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, they probably shouldn't be a Catholic.

FWIW, multiple Catholic prophecies say that a Great Reset is coming ... maybe only a few years away. When it comes, it will blow away the errors of certain senior churchmen like a gale blows away a few dead leaves.