As students return to college campuses this fall, new data gathered by Hallow suggests Catholic campus ministries are seeing more than a seasonal bump.
Across nearly 60 colleges and universities, the Catholic prayer app found that participation in Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) programs rose sharply from the 2024-25 school year to 2025-26. OCIA is the official process used by the Catholic Church to welcome converts into the faith.
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Among schools reporting data to Hallow, average OCIA participation more than doubled, increasing by 115%. The numbers were especially striking at some public and non-Catholic universities, including Arizona State University, the University of Illinois, the University of Oklahoma, Kansas State University, the University of Nebraska, the University of Wisconsin and Harvard University.
At the University of Southern California, Deacon Paul Pesqueira said OCIA participation climbed from 25 students to 44 heading into the 2025-26 school year. That’s a 76% increase.
“All of this has happened at USC with zero marketing. Nothing,” he told Hallow. “Always word of mouth.”
A search for meaning
Grant Kaplan, a professor of theology at Saint Louis University, told Straight Arrow the numbers fit a broader pattern he has observed: young adults looking for community, stability and meaning after years marked by social disruption, the pandemic and anxiety about technology.
“Young people felt like they were really sort of robbed of communal life for these crucial years during COVID, and then they’re looking for spaces that provide it,” Kaplan said. He described the renewed interest as “a rediscovery of community and life together.”
Kaplan also pointed to destabilizing concerns about artificial intelligence, distrust in politics and the weakening of older sources of American identity and upward mobility.
“It just seems like people are looking for meaning,” he said. “There’s something that gives meaning. It’s very important.”
That search for meaning may help explain why some students are approaching Catholicism not as inherited authority, but as something countercultural. Kaplan said the old story of secularization as a straight downward line has given way to a more uneven pattern.
“The notion of just downhill forever — most people who study secularism admit that’s wrong now,” Kaplan said. “It’s more like the stock market than just a free fall.”
For students raised with little or no religious formation, Catholic practice can feel less like conformity and more like rebellion against the assumptions of their parents’ generation, Kaplan said. In that context, traditional gestures like the Latin chant, chapel veils, reverent liturgy or a more demanding communal life may hold appeal precisely because they stand apart from the dominant culture.
Hallow’s data also highlights the strength of Catholic ministry at large secular institutions. Kaplan said that is not entirely new. For decades, some Catholic students have found stronger formation at Newman Centers and university chaplaincies than they might have expected at Catholic colleges, especially when those campus ministries are led by visible, serious and well-supported Catholic communities.
He pointed to Texas A&M, Harvard, Cornell and other major universities as examples of places where Catholic networks, chaplaincies and institutes have become important sources of formation.
“You could have a better experience of Catholicism if you go to a big SEC school or Mizzou and do the Newman Center there,” Kaplan said.
The Hallow report also comes amid broader national data showing that converts remain a small but distinct portion of U.S. Catholics. Pew Research Center reported in 2025 that 92% of U.S. Catholics grew up in a Catholic home, while 8% are converts; overall, converts make up about 1.5% of U.S. adults.
Pew found converts most commonly cite marriage or a Catholic spouse as the reason they entered the Church, but others point to alignment with Catholic teaching, spiritual fulfillment or the influence of relatives and friends.
Sophia Carranza, a Texas Christian University student who went through OCIA and now serves as a ministry leader, told Hallow that many students are weary of digital pressures and are beginning to ask deeper questions.
“At some point, one realizes that isn’t enough,” she said, “so, they start asking questions and searching for answers, for meaning.”
That language closely echoes Kaplan’s interpretation. He said many young adults no longer trust politics or the promise that each generation will reliably surpass the last through education, homeownership and economic advancement.
“Nobody believes in the American story anymore,” he said. “Where’s the meaning coming from? … Religion’s kind of coming back.”
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