Catholicism draws growing numbers of students at Stanford

Students at an elite university in the United States are increasingly converting to Catholicism and getting involved in OCIA.

Stanford University, which has an acceptance rate of 3.61 per cent, saw the number of OCIA participants increase from 14 in 2025 to 46 in 2026, according to data from Hallow, a Catholic prayer app.

Fr Bart Hutcherson, OP, the pastor of the Catholic Community at Stanford, told the California Post that students are largely drawn to more traditional elements of the Catholic faith. This includes prayers in Latin and hymns played on a pipe organ.