A Eucharistic procession sponsored by the Napa Institute passes by Radio City Music Hall in New York City on Oct. 15, 2024. / Credit: Jeffrey Bruno
CNA Staff, Nov 18, 2025 / 15:35 pm (CNA).
A rising number of New Yorkers are reportedly converting to the Catholic Church, with the spike in converts coming as the U.S. bishops say increasing numbers of men and women are coming into the faith in this country.
The New York Post found that multiple New York City Catholic churches have year-over-year double or even triple the number of adults signing up to become Catholic through the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA).
At one parish, St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village, interest in OCIA tripled since last year, with about 130 people signing up, according to the paper. At St. Vincent Ferrer on the Upper East Side, numbers have doubled to nearly 90 participants.
Sign-ups at the Basilica of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral also doubled to about 100, according to the report.
Many converts reportedly cited the Sept. 10 assassination of Charlie Kirk as a motivator for their conversions. In addition to his political activism, Kirk, an evangelical Protestant, often spoke about the importance of faith in God.
This report follows a trend of rising OCIA numbers throughout the U.S.
The National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, reported in April on rising conversions across dioceses. Many new Catholics cited immigration, evangelization, and the National Eucharistic Revival as reasons they found their way into the Catholic Church last Easter.
The U.S. bishops last week during their annual fall assembly in Baltimore also noted these rising numbers in a discussion about the National Eucharistic Revival as they approved the next National Eucharistic Congress for 2029.
Bishop Andrew Cozzens of Crookston, Minnesota, who spearheaded the most recent congress, said during a session on Nov. 12 that the revival was “a time of great grace for the Church in the United States.”
His diocese, he said, had its largest OCIA class in 20 years.
During the session, the bishops offered a show of hands of those who had large numbers of OCIA participants in their dioceses, with many bishops indicating rising numbers of converts.
“Praise God. Let’s hope that this trend continues,” Cozzens said at the time.
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