American dioceses welcomed significantly more converts this Easter, with the average diocese reporting a 38 per cent increase in new Catholics compared with 2025, according to an analysis by the prayer app Hallow.
Of 71 dioceses surveyed by the National Catholic Register before Easter, only five expected a decline. The figures suggest that conversion numbers are now approaching pre-pandemic levels after several years of suppressed activity during and after Covid-19.
The Archdiocese of Los Angeles led the largest metropolitan sees with a dramatic 139 per cent increase, receiving 8,598 people into the Church — 2,452 catechumens and 6,146 candidates. The archdiocese had already been on an upward trajectory, rising from 3,462 new Catholics in 2023 to 3,596 in 2024 and 5,587 in 2025. Officials said individuals had stated "it was God himself who brought them to their conversions", though the archdiocese acknowledged there was no single explanation for the scale of the increase.
Chicago reported a 52 per cent increase, New York 36 per cent and Phoenix 23 per cent.
The Diocese of Duluth in Minnesota recorded the fastest growth of any surveyed diocese at 145 per cent, with 186 combined catechumens and candidates compared with 76 the previous year.
The Archdiocese of Detroit received 1,428 people into the Church at the Cathedral of the Most Blessed Sacrament on April 4, presided over by Archbishop Edward Weisenburger. It was the archdiocese's largest class since 2005, when 584 catechumens and 905 candidates were received. Detroit's numbers had risen steadily from 793 in 2024 to 977 in 2025.
Pittsburgh's numbers grew by 108 per cent — a notable increase given that the diocese had announced the permanent closure of seven parishes, effective March 12. The Diocese of Helena, Montana, reported a 60 per cent increase and believes it received its largest initiate class since the Second Vatican Council restored the Rite of Election.
Other significant rises included Rapid City, South Dakota (96 per cent), Pensacola-Tallahassee, Florida (85 per cent), Fairbanks, Alaska (40 per cent) and Honolulu (37 per cent). The Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama, which had reported its largest group in a decade in 2024, surpassed that record again with a 36 per cent increase over 2025.
The Diocese of Boise, still compiling final figures, confirmed a "meaningful increase" and noted that growth was "especially evident among young people, many of whom are drawn to the transcendent beauty, clarity, and orthodoxy of the Catholic faith". A spokesman said: "The Holy Spirit is at work, and the Church in the Diocese of Boise is experiencing a renewed vitality through those responding to the call to discipleship."
Growth was not universal. The Diocese of Shreveport, Louisiana, reported 257 combined candidates and catechumens, down from 329 in 2025 — though still well above the 89 received in 2021. Paterson, New Jersey, and Little Rock, Arkansas, also reported slight decreases.
Catechumens are unbaptised people preparing for full initiation into the Church, while candidates are already-baptised individuals entering into full communion through Confirmation.
