WOF 537: How to Keep the Momentum in the Surge of New Conversions
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Brandon Vogt
4.9 • 5.8K Ratings
🗓️ 8 June 2026
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrusek, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us. A wave of fresh converts has entered the Catholic Church in the United States, Australia, and parts of Europe. The evidence for this surge is far from anecdotal; even secular media outlets that are historically inclined to downplay positive stories about Catholicism widely reported packed sanctuaries this past Easter, the day those who have been preparing to enter the Catholic Church typically receive their first sacraments. This is welcome news for a Church that has grown accustomed to a half-century narrative of religious disaffiliation and cultural decline. So what's behind this uptick in conversions? What factors are leading young people—and young men in particular—to buck the trend of secularization and become Catholic? What is happening both in the world and within the Church that is making the faith become so attractive? Perhaps most importantly, what can and should Catholics, clergy and laity alike, do to both continue the momentum and help new converts to stick with faith? Here to offer his insights on what's driving this new growth and why, now more than ever, we should double our efforts to proclaim Christ in the culture is Bishop Robert Barron.
Topics Covered
00:00 | Introduction
01:34 | Bishop Barron's recent confirmation season
04:34 | Recent growth in Catholicism
06:13 | What cultural factors are contributing to these numbers?
19:11 | How the liturgy and a renewed interest in the Mass attract members
23:08 | Mysticism and attraction to the Church
24:27 | Is "modernizing" the Church necessary for growth?
26:08 | Evangelical efforts to support
30:20 | How we maintain momentum without perpetuating a trend
31:09 | Advice for new converts
32:48 | Listener question: Should I baptize my kids before myself?
34:24 | Join the Word on Fire Institute
Links:
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Word on Fire Institute: https://institute.wordonfire.org/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to Word on Fire show. I'm Matthew Petruc, senior director of the Word on Fire Institute and the host of the Word on Fire show. Thank you for joining us. |
| 0:07.1 | A wave of fresh converts has entered the Catholic Church in the United States, Australia, and parts of Europe. |
| 0:13.3 | The evidence for the surge is far from anecdotal. Even secular media outlets that are inclined to ignore positive stories about Catholicism, |
| 0:21.6 | widely reported pack sanctuaries this past Easter, the day those who have been preparing |
| 0:26.2 | to enter the Catholic Church typically receive their first sacraments. |
| 0:29.5 | This is very welcome news for a church that has grown accustomed to narratives of disaffiliation |
| 0:34.7 | and decline. So what's behind this uptick in conversions? What factors |
| 0:39.7 | are leading young people and young men in particular to buck the trends of secularization |
| 0:44.9 | and become Catholic? What is happening both in the world and within the church that is making |
| 0:50.0 | the faith so attractive? And perhaps most importantly, what should Catholics, clergy, and |
| 0:54.7 | lady alike do to continue the momentum? Here to offer insight on what's driving the growth |
| 1:00.0 | and why, now more than ever, we should double our efforts to proclaim Christ in the culture. |
| 1:04.6 | It's Bishop Robert Barron. Bishop, welcome back to the studio. |
| 1:17.5 | Thanks, man. |
| 1:18.3 | So today we have a happy topic. |
| 1:21.0 | The recent surge of new converts entering the church this past Easter as we're recording. |
| 1:26.8 | This Easter is just a couple |
| 1:28.3 | weeks ago. Yeah. But before we get to that, everybody always wants to know. What have you |
| 1:33.2 | been up to recently? Well, recently, confirmation season is coming to a close. So here we now, |
| 1:38.7 | like the two months after Easter, we do all the confirmations. So I've been going all over |
| 1:44.0 | this diocese, north of south, east to west, a lot of driving. I get a kick out of going all these places, seeing the kids, and often have dinner, you know, with the pair of staff, the people involved with their training. So it's a good chance to really get, you know, plugged into the diocese. But that's coming to a close. It's also a bit of a workout. |
| 2:01.6 | Talk to any bishop. |
... |
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