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Catholic conversions surge at top US university

Posted By Patrick Fitzgerald On In | Comments Disabled

An elite university at the heart of Silicon Valley has seen a threefold increase [1] in conversions to the Catholic Church this past year.

The Catholic community at Stanford University had long averaged about 4 adult baptisms a year. This Easter, 46 students and young adults were fully initiated into the Church [2]: 16 were baptised, 10 were received into full communion, and 20 Catholics were confirmed. The total of 46 is up from 14 initiations the year before. It is part of a trend seen in other US universities. The numbers are not big in absolute terms but still amount to further evidence of a ‘quiet revival’.

The Catholic chaplaincy [3] to the university is run by Dominican fathers.

Father Bart Hutcherson OP, says the students are drawn to the beauty of traditional forms of worship — age-old hymns played on a pipe organ, Latin prayers and the ornate Byzantine details at Stanford Memorial Church.

He added that the high-achieving students are often first attracted to Catholicism on an intellectual basis, educating themselves on church’s history and centuries-old philosophical traditions before taking the plunge.

Six hundred Stanford students packed into a recent Saturday afternoon Mass of the Holy Spirit — hundreds more than Hutcherson would have expected just a couple of years ago.