More than 8,000 in LA are becoming Catholic for Easter. Here are some of their stories

Angelus News ^ | Mar 26, 2026 | Mike Cisneros

[CondoleezzaProtege]

In 2023, LA welcomed 3,462 catechumens and candidates — both children and adults who had never been baptized, plus those who had been baptized but had never completed the other sacraments — into the Church at Easter. Then in 2024, there were 3,596. In 2025, a significant bump of a combined 5,587 entered.

For Easter 2026, the archdiocese expects an even more staggering increase: 8,598 catechumens and candidates.

So what’s behind the surge in conversions?

Some point to a reawakening born from the personal desolation experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic…Many find it to be a sign of spiritual hunger caused by a confusing and turbulent world.

Malain Houmoeung’s tipping point came while sitting in the hospital ER in 2023 wondering how ill her father was…She was also in a toxic relationship…Something told her to start reading the Bible, which was not the norm for her, considering she was raised Buddhist in a Cambodian family…After trying Protestant churches, she attended a Catholic Mass and it clicked for her.

Cameron Smith will admit that before he began exploring the Catholic faith, he had a pretty negative outlook on the world. Wars. Hypocrisy. The toxicity of social media...But after preparing to enter fully into the Catholic Church, he believes that God gave him a new heart.

Daniel Hernandez had a pretty good reason why he wanted to convert to Catholicism, which his wife already is: he wants a family.

“I want our kids to be Catholic,” said Hernandez, 34, married to his wife, Bryanna. “I want our kids to be able to understand the importance of why we go to Mass. I didn’t want any confusion…”

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TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Ministry/Outreach; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: baptism; catholic; conversions; losangeles; romancatholic

[CondoleezzaProtege]

Follow-up to the NY Times story posted earlier, that covers this remarkable trend nationwide.

🤍⛪️🕊️

[woodbutcher1963]

At my parish in Manchester, NH we have the largest RCIA(brand new Catholics) and adult confirmation(were already baptized into another Christian faith) that I can remember in the time we have been going there.

We are not going to attend the Easter vigil mass because there are going to be about 15 baptisms. The mass will probably be 3 1/2-4 hours long. Fox News did a story recently of the young people(20-35) attending Catholic church in Manhattan. Specifically in the Greenwich Village area of lower Manhattan. The church was standing room only.

[Wallace T.]

The increasing movement of young people, especially young men, from atheism, indifference, or “happy clappy” supposedly evangelical Protestant churches to Catholicism and Orthodoxy should be a wakeup call to evangelical churches that the “seeker sensitive” model of churches, where Biblical admonition and reverence are replaced by Ted talks based on pop culture with a few Bible verses thrown in and 20-25 minutes of songs repeating the same 11 words seven times (7-11 songs) is failing. Most contemporary worship resembles the youth groups of the 1990s and early 2000s. The Gen X and older Millennials who went through this period now largely run the churches and are to a large extent the attendees. Catholicism and particularly Orthodoxy have a liturgical order that these seeker sensitive churches lack. Catholicism has a strong intellectual history matched only by conservative Calvinism and those dispensationalists trained in the Dallas Theological Seminary or similar rigorous study.

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Praise Jesus!

[simpson96]

bookmark

[caddie]

Thanks for posting. This is amazing.

[Honorary Serb]

There is also a huge increase in numbers of Orthodox catechumens—and new Orthodox Christians. Many catechumens will enter the Orthodox Church this Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, and will celebrate Pascha with us!

[daniel1212]

But the sobering reality (not just for RCs) is that:

Catholics Are Rapidly Losing Ground March 4, 2025

A new survey shows that for every 100 new Catholics, more than 800 people leave the Church. As bad as that is, the news is actually worse when we look more closely at the numbers. Last week the Pew Research Center released a new survey on religion in America; their first major study of this type since 2014....

Catholic Mass attendance has dropped from over 50% in the early 1970s to just about 25% in the most recent data.

Only 19% of Americans self-identify as Catholic, down from 24% in 2007. This is a 20% decrease. By comparison, Protestants decreased by 21%, while religious “nones” increased by 81% and Muslims increased by an astounding 200% (although they still make up a small percentage of the overall population—only 1.2%). Even though the Pew Survey headline suggests that the decline in Christianity in this country may have “leveled off,” it’s clear the overall direction is downward.

The numbers get worse for Catholics. Perhaps the most stunning finding in the survey is that for every 100 people who join the Catholic Church, 840 leave. No other religion has nearly as bad of a join/leave ratio. For every 100 people that become Protestant, 180 leave. That’s bad, but it’s not Catholic bad. Conversely, for every 100 people who leave the religious “nones” (i.e., they join a religion), a full 590 become part of that irreligious cohort.

Of all the former Catholics, 56% become religious “nones” and 32% become Protestant. - https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/catholics-are-rapidly-losing-ground

https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/the-catholic-church-is-in-trouble

[daniel1212]

Catholicism Made Me Protestant

[ebb tide]

Satan Made Some Catholics into ex-Catholics

[skr]

I’d rather have seen Christian instead of Catholic in that headline, but, prayerfully, I hope that all of them have accepted Jesus as their Savior, whatever denomination they choose for worshiping in.