Catholicism spreads amongst young Britons longing for 'something deeper'

Reuters ^ | May 7th, 2025 | Muvija M and Sarah Young

[Cronos]

Twenty-three-year-old Joshua Steel found a "great sense of peace" that he couldn't find anywhere else when he started attending Catholic Mass in Britain.

Twenty-six-year-old Dan Williamson was driven to convert to the faith by an "ache" he had for something "deeper and ancient and more rich".

Both are among a growing number of men aged 18-34 who are going to church in Britain compared with before the COVID pandemic, upending the long-held tenet that Christianity was in generational decline in Western nations like Britain.

..."I was looking for meaning in life," Steel said after Mass ended at St. Elizabeth of Portugal church in southwest London on Sunday, as the smell of incense hung in the air.

An Australian who moved to Britain in 2023, Steel was born into a Catholic family but never went to church, until he started trying to fill the "hole" he felt in his life.

"I found Christ," he said. "I found a great sense of peace that I can't find anywhere else."

..The rising church attendance in England and Wales by younger people was illustrated in a Bible Society and YouGov report called the Quiet Revival in April, which surveyed 13,146 adults in November 2024.

It found that Christians who go to church at least once a month make up 12% of the total population, up from 8% in 2018. For people aged 18-24, the proportion had risen to 16% from just 4% in 2018, making this age group the second most likely to go to church regularly after those aged 65 and over. The increase has been particularly pronounced among younger men, 21% of whom say they are regular churchgoers versus 12% of women aged 18-24.

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TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Ecumenism
KEYWORDS:

[Cronos]

...According to the census the number of people in Britain describing themselves as Christian dropped to 46% of the population in England and Wales, from 59% in 2011. But academics said the smaller number that remained were more committed to their faith, and attending church.

[chopperk]

It won’t be long and the muslims will outlaw Catholics since they have the vote......

[Old Yeller]

Some people like legalism, rituals and traditions. The Bible speaks against it, often.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

The ancient forms of Christianity, Catholicism and Orthodoxy, give people theology that is both rational and spiritual and that has endured the test of time, a framework for living the Christian life, and reverent worship. Those who dismiss the formality as empty ritualism are looking at it from the outside. It has to be lived to be understood. I converted from Methodism to Orthodoxy thirty-six years ago, and it was the best decision of my life. Everything I have experienced confirms that I have gone where God led me. I often attend Liturgy at the Byzantine Rite Catholic parish in my town, which has a fine young priest who is a great theologian, biblical scholar, preacher and pastor. I learn something new every time I go; I, who have been in church pretty much every Sunday for over sixty years.

Christ is risen!

[pgyanke]

Some people like legalism, rituals and traditions. The Bible speaks against it, often.

Until Martin Luther, all of Christendom worshiped God in the Catholic way. Then, Protestants threw the baby out with the bathwater. Did the Church not exist for 1,500 years after the Resurrection or could there be something you're missing?

Legalism: The Council of Jerusalem settled that gentiles didn't have to be circumcised and follow the Law of Moses (Acts 15).

Rituals: The Eucharist brought by Paul to the gentiles--even though he wasn't present at the Last Supper (1 Cor 10 & 11).

Traditions: Rejecting the Tradition of the Catholic Church (2 Thess 2:15), Protestants follow their own traditions that separate each from the other. You are Calvinist, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Evangelicals, ad nauseam... each with a twist on tradition... as long as they reject Catholicism.

[blackpacific]

I spent over 10 years at a Byzantine liturgy, when the latin mass was pretty much stamped out in Southern California. We had a beautiful priest who used the Latin Rite Catholics to rebuild his church. We also had a Russian Orthodox priest friend who became Orthodox because the Jesuits abandoned him after his seminary training. He dreamed of having the theology of Thomas Aquinas taught to the Orthodox.

But for the last 20 years we have attended the latin mass offered by priests in full union with Rome. That liturgy has been a wonderful gift to us.

[Southside_Chicago_Republican]

The Byzantine Church here was close to being closed down, but the new priest has revived it, drawing a lot of Latin Rite Catholics as well. When I converted to Orthodoxy, I was attending a parish of the Carpatho-Russian diocese, which is of the same ethnic stock and liturgical and musical traditions as the Byzantines here, so I felt right at home the first time I visited the Byzantines.