By JP Misheff, December 22, 2025
We’d like to round out the year with some very good news: Gen Z is hungry for something more. The numbers don’t lie: huge droves of them are returning, or coming home for the first time, to Christ.
In fall 2025, U.S. college campuses saw a remarkable increase in students entering the Catholic Church through baptisms, confirmations, and full initiations. At Arizona State University, a record 52 students were received into the faith this past fall, with projections for another 50 in spring 2026 — driven in large part by stellar outreach work from the campus Newman Center with strong accompaniment by FOCUS missionaries.
Similar growth has been reported at universities like Michigan, Nebraska, and Illinois, reflecting Gen Z’s search for certainty amid increasing cultural uncertainty. The National Catholic Register called it a “Golden Age of Ministry.”
Young adults — many students and professionals — are leading the surge on a global level. France recorded over 10,384 adult baptisms in 2025, a 45% rise, with 42% aged 18-25.
And this is not limited to Catholicism. Evangelical groups report thousands of college students making faith commitments since 2023, with large-scale baptisms and worship events , while Eastern Orthodox churches are seeing overflowing pews filled with young converts seeking tradition and rigor.
As many of you know, Pray Tell is run and operated out of Collegeville, MN, the site of Saint John’s Abbey and Saint John’s University, as well as SJU’s School of Theology and Seminary. Campus minsters Margaret Nuzzolese (SJU) and Cindy Gonzalez (at SJU’s sister school, the College of St Benedict’s in St Joseph) confirmed that the last few years have seen a spike in their programming attendance all across the board.
From Nuzzolese: “Saint John’s Campus Ministry this semester witnessed remarkable growth in participation in Mass and record interest in OCIA. Since 2023 and in partnership with Saint Ben’s Campus Ministry, we saw our combined attendance at the first three Masses of the semester grow by over 47%.” She went on to say that “OCIA participation more than doubled at both campus ministry communities, which had also doubled the previous year!”
Gonzalez told us, “we are seeing young people who are curious, seeking stability, and encountering the vitality of ritual during a time in our history where much is the opposite. Campus Ministry offers intentionality, community, and hospitality to all. Numbers are increasing not just in the pews and not just in OCIA but in every aspect of our programming. It is inspiring to be able to journey with this generation of students.”
There certainly are myriad reasons to be concerned that God’s healing light is not breaking through the layers of brokenness impacting our world right now. But we know that things are much more than meets the eye. We can be confident in His restoration project.
Young people are turning to their faith precisely because faulty, human reasoning has and will always let us down. They sense it. And in the process, they are discovering their birthright — that they are children of the light. This is the same, original light God created before all else. And it is the foundation and essence of everything. Young people are realizing that God’s merciful light is the only Hope left.
They’re right.
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