After a 10-year break, I’ve become a sponsor in the Becoming Catholic/OCIA/RCIA process. There have been some welcome improvements in the program, among them some interesting videos featuring various Catholic apologist luminaries like Brant Pitre. Catholics have become much better at answering arguments from both atheists and Protestants, in part because so many erudite theologians have converted. This is part of the Protestant elite problem.
I am also seeing both a quantitative and qualitative difference from the participants. In terms of numbers, this is at least double what we had in 2016, and that was considered a large ‘class.’ The upward trend has very much continued.
The qualitative difference is just as significant. I don’t mean that the current inquirers are “better,” merely that they are different. Back in 2016, a significant amount of them were from Catholic families who wish to complete their sacraments, or whose fallen-away parents never got them baptized. They are new to the Church, but very much cultural Catholics.
People wishing to marry a Catholic were also a significant component, and as I’ved noted before, both of these imperatives seem to have faded as the cultural (or ethnic) Catholicism has faded.
Disillusioned Protestants made up a smaller proportion, and this seems to have increased significantly. One of my close friends is converting in the aftermath of his denomination’s collapse.
But there is an even more interesting and unique group: people who felt a clear spiritual call to enter the Church. Back in 2016, Catholic mysticism – the reality of spiritual warfare, fallen angels and the like – was very much downplayed. Now it is front and center, and young people nod along with testimonials about hearing voices and otherworldly sensations. I think that the Church’s public retreat from the reality of the Unseen was a significant factor in its demographic decline. Without that, it’s just another option on the Christian menu, and why not just push the easy button?
The fact is that only Catholics and Orthodox have a proper understanding of the spiritual world and the reality of spiritual warfare is much more effective in explaining (and predicting) behavior these days than “scientific” alternatives like psychology. I think this is why the number of young adults seeking the Church continues to grow exponentially. The early adopter have taking what they have learned and shared it with their peers, causing even more people to seek the truth about life.
As one of the candidates remarked last week, Non-denominational Christianity offered a nice concert series, but offered little in explaining the world we live in.
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