I’ve never felt more hopeful for the future of Western civilization than I did mere days ago, standing shoulder to shoulder with over one million Gen Zers from every corner of the globe sandwiched together in the heart of Rome. Over cheers, laughter, and euphoric singing and dancing, I witnessed a sea of young, vibrant souls in Saint Peter’s Square poised to change the world. This wasn’t just another rally—it was the Jubilee of Youth, a weeklong spiritual pilgrimage hosted by the Vatican drawing more than one million teenagers and young adults from some 146 nations.
As Pope Leo XIV celebrated the closing Mass, he shared, “You are the sign that a different world is possible,” urging them to live according to Jesus’s example, resolved in solidarity, holiness, and dialogue—not merely conforming to the relative morality of our increasingly secular culture. That spectacle was more than grandeur; it was a declaration: Generation Z is embracing Catholicism with a fervor unlike anything I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.
From small town U.S.A. chapels to urban parishes in London, the statistical upsurge is undeniable. In the United States, dioceses like Fort Worth reported a 72% increase in young adult conversions between 2023 and 2024, contributing to the 6% national increase in the number of young Americans identifying as Catholic observed in that single year. Across the pond, young Britons aged 18–24 have more than tripled their belief in God over just a few years—surging church attendance from about 4% to 16% weekly, making Catholicism more popular than Anglicanism in this age group. Across the Western world, we’re watching a grassroots revival of faith crisscrossing class and creed largely for people under the age of 35.
Why is this happening now? Why would Gen Z, raised on relativistic ethics, Instagram dopamine, and the superficiality of digital life, turn to traditional Christianity? The reasons are rich and multi-layered.
First: simplicity and structure. Daily moral chaos, ever-shifting “truths,” and the collapse of authority leave many young people longing for certainty to build a solid foundation upon. The ancient, unchanging moral framework of Catholicism—with its liturgies, sacraments, and clear ethical compass—offers refuge and clarity.
Second: transcendence and beauty. In a world full of pixels and highly-edited Instagram feeds characterized by AI-generated images and videos, the Catholic liturgy, especially the Latin Mass, has become countercultural—even rebellious. As one Redditor put it: it offers “transcendence, sense of meaning, and sense of community,” a quality they rarely find online. Unlike our social media feeds, the mass offers a chance to engage in something not about ourselves, but to focus entirely on God in something tangible and real. This yearning for awe and wonder drives pilgrimages, retreats, and event-driven encounters like the Jubilee of Youth itself.
Third: community and belonging. Gen Zers are facing unprecedented loneliness, fractured families, and a lack of meaningful connection in the digital age. Catholicism fills that void. It is an inherently relational faith, not transactional. It anchors people to something bigger than themselves, whether that be your local campus ministry group or local parish, or the global community of 1.2 billion Catholics reading the same passages of Scripture at Mass every day.
Fourth: a longing for truth. In environments dominated by identity politics and changing moral relativism based on the outrage of the day, many young Catholics are drawn to absolute truth claims. The Church’s strong teachings on ethics, human dignity, and purpose feel radically reliable in a time when fanatical relativism is the norm. In the words of another Reddit commentator: “most men … converted because they truly believed Catholicism to profess the absolute Truth.”
Finally, digital influence can’t be forgotten. Catholic converts—apologists, influencers, authors—have embraced platforms like YouTube and TikTok to offer apologetics, catechesis, and testimonies in real, accessible ways. Just before the kickoff to the 2025 Jubilee of Youth, I had the privilege of participating in the Church’s first-ever event for content creators–the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers. For years, there has been an organic movement led by thousands of lay Catholics, priests, and nuns all over the world taking to social media to proclaim the gospel, but now, the Vatican itself is deeply aware of the need for digital missionary work and the role of technology in strong evangelization and catechesis. Just as the apostles were sent to “go and make disciples of all nations,” it seems the call for missionaries today is to “go and make disciples of all platforms!”
At the Jubilee of Youth, amid heat waves, chapels in fields, and a million praying voices, Gen Z made their pilgrimage. Waving flags from nearly 150 countries, we witnessed a generation poised to embrace their vocation and proudly stand in faith. For us, this was not a festival; it was a moment of encounter—sacred, communal, purposeful.
Gen Z’s growing embrace of Catholicism across the West is not merely a blip but the gathering of a tide. Across Western civilization, the next generation is coming home to the faith in significant numbers, drawn not by nostalgia but by authenticity: ritual, beauty, community, truth. In a fractured, secular age, they seek what cannot be commodified or reduced to ideology.
The Jubilee of Youth has signaled something important: A generation is waking up, not to political mobilization or manufactured outrage, but profound spiritual purpose. We are ready to prove that the pursuit of holiness can change the world. Because these young pilgrims don’t just want to belong to pop culture—we are ready to encounter the Divine.
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