Pulp-It Fiction And The Convert Surge

The Road To Emmaus (C. 1880) by Gustave Doré

According to a variety of sources secular and churchy, converts are aplenty.

1. NYT Roman Catholic Churches See a Surge of New Converts
2. KGAN Rise in Catholic converts tied to search for connection in digital age, expert says
3. NEWS NATION Catholic parishes see surge in new converts: Report
4. NCREG https://www.ncregister.com/news/catholic-converts-surge-us
5. DAILYWIRE The Catholic Convert Boom Is Real But A Troubling Pattern Is Emerging
6. CATHOLIC REGISTER https://www.catholicregister.org/item/3686-easter-boom-a-catholic-revival
7. FOX NEWS Catholic conversions rise as young adults 'hungry for truth' turn to faith and reject secularism, bishop says
8. OSV https://www.osvnews.com/house-of-david-star-opens-up-about-catholic-conversion-as-new-season-premieres/
9. EWTN Adult conversions soar in dioceses across U.S.
10. ZENIT https://zenit.org/2026/03/30/whats-driving-the-rise-in-catholic-conversions-across-the-us/

Will new converts find substance once they are received into the Church, or will they despair that too many parishes are saddled with sappy preaching, clappy-dappy liturgy, etcetera, and thus plan their escape? Will they gravitate to more traditional shores - FSSP? the Ordinariate? SSPX?

Speaking of substance: truth, goodness and beauty.

It’s no secret that some well-known teachers, though reputedly Catholic, offer something less than the full Apostolic Tradition. Spy Wednesday reminds us that the faithful must be ever vigilant, for there are always wolves in our midst. The story of Judas is a clear cautionary tale, and while we can’t always prevent the spread of misguided teachings like those of Father James Martin, we can steer clear of sin and betrayal by staying close to Jesus through the sacraments and trusting His promise to protect the Catholic Church.

Alas, poor Father Martin. On many a public tide hath he ventured his very soul, yet sheweth no abatement of his heterodox inclinations.

Let us turn to those souls nigh unto their embrace of Holy Mother Church.

It has been said that Catholicism has one pope while Protestants have millions. Those converting from Protestant denominations, which ground their teachings in the heresy of sola scriptura, are well aware of their former communities’ gradual drift from Apostolic Christianity. By having access to historical records online, potential converts can shift away from the temptation to silo themselves and drift into abstract spiritualities, or even cults, and can avoid the temptation to join a schismatic national religious community such as an Eastern Rite non-Catholic Church. A lure of the "Orthodox" Churches is the claim that their liturgies, like their teachings, are unchanging, which is not accurate. Revisions in their respective liturgies have occurred with regularity to address specific needs. That, and throughout history the eastern national churches have produced more than their fair share of heretics, many of them patriarchs. In many cases, they looked to Rome to settle disputes. Sadly, most of the national churches of the East are in schism from one another.

• atreasuretobeshared.blogspot.com/2026/02/friction.html

Some news reports relay bishops' bewilderment over the influx of many converts. Could it be they - the seekers - are being called by God and they, having access to the internet, are able to listen, identify and respond to that call? The same reports identify converts' interests in pursuing God's invitation to communion as a response to truth, goodness and beauty, the transcendentals that provide real food to the hungry. Clergy would know this if they were listening in the here-and-now rather than clinging to fishy ideas dreamed up in the 1970s.

Will bishops and priests, i.e., progressive types, convert to the Holy Spirit and embrace what God is doing among those approaching the altar of grace? That is, will they abandon trite programs that are barely different from worldly self-help junk spiritualities? Will clergy stop living in the wayward decades of progressive religion and embrace the new evangelization that has at its heart the transcendentals of God? If they do, they will provide that which is being sought.

Meaningful Living

People need meaning in their lives. Real and lasting meaning, not some day-drug that provides a fleeting high. People need and are wanting meaning that only Jesus can provide. The meaning they discover - often in spite of well-intended diocesan activities, i.e., cotton candy liturgy, social justice programs, trendy college-and-careers groups - has been identified by them through their independent searches and by finding liturgies through which they find the Lord Who is speaking to their hearts and minds. They seek the faith of the Apostles and the confidence shared by great thinkers, gifted artists, and real people we call saints. They aren’t looking for an easy religion; converts long to be holy.

Recently we've witnessed a flood of reports, too, about the Ordinariate charism. That is, the character of the the Faith as found in the communities established by the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus. These same communities have been attracting cradle Catholics and the non-churched. The recent DDF's report that identified "Characteristics of the Anglican Heritage as Lived in the Ordinariates" may also be useful in helping dioceses and parishes reorient their actions to prioritize that to which God is calling people to embrace.

• www.catholicworldreport.com/2026/04/08/in-gratitude-for-the-ordinariate/#comment-544114

Some time ago, a website connected to the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of the Southern Cross published a list of characteristics of the Anglican heritage that have been refined and preserved in the Ordinariates. Those characteristics are summarized as follows:

1. Call to community faith and devotion
2. Evangelical charity
3. Sacral English
4. Reverence and beauty in worship
5. Music and congregational hymn singing
6. Gospel preaching
7. English theological tradition

The preceding attributes of the Ordinariate Patrimony strongly evoke the transcendentals; compare them to the DDF list.

1. [1] A Distinctive “Ecclesial Ethos”. The broad participation of both clergy and laity in the life and governance of the Church. This culture, grounded in relationships that shape the ecclesial life of each Ordinariate, is inherently consultative and collaborative.
2. [3;4;5] Evangelization Through Beauty. The importance of beauty—yet not as an end in itself, but insofar as it has the power to lead us to God; it thus has an inherent evangelizing power. Therefore, divine worship, sacred music, and sacred art are understood both as means of bringing us into communion with God and as instruments of mission. The beauty they convey is meant to draw individuals and communities into full participation, body and soul, in the work of the Savior, who is the “image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15) and the “refulgence of [the Father’s] glory” (Heb. 1:3).
3. [2] Direct Outreach to the Poor. Outreach to the poor is a defining element of the patrimony. In the Ordinariates, beauty in worship and holiness of life are brought to bear in the concrete realities of the neighborhood. This reflects a deeply incarnational theology: to go out from divine worship to seek Jesus among the poor and those in want (cf. Mt. 25:40).
4. [1] Pastoral Culture. The Ordinariates promote a pastoral culture in which divine worship and daily life are profoundly interconnected.
5. [1] The Family and the Domestic Church. The Shrine of Walsingham is often called “England’s Nazareth.” Just as Nazareth, in the words of Pope Saint Paul VI, is “the school of the Gospel, where we learn to observe, listen, meditate, and grasp the mystery of the Son of God within the Holy Family, so also the home is understood as the first place where the faith is learned and lived. Central to this is the appreciation of the Sacrament of Matrimony and the role of parents as the primary educators of their children in the faith.
6. [6;7] Scripture and Preaching. Here the theme of beauty reappears: encountering Christ in the splendor of the liturgy and in the proclamation of the Word are not understood as separate realities, but as two dimensions of the same encounter. In the Ordinariate communities, this is lived out with a strong foundation in the Tradition (especially the Fathers of the Church) and with an appreciation for the role of reason in harmony with and in service of faith.
7. [2] Spiritual Direction and the Sacrament of Penance. The care of souls that prioritizes giving each person time and accompanying them as they encounter Christ the Good Shepherd (cf. Jn. 10:11-16; Lk. 15:4-7).

The New Evangelization is alive and well among those who are using the internet, in particular social media, for good not ill. People are finding the Catholic Faith through the work of faithful disciples articulating the Faith in ways that are immediately accessible. We are seeing the fruit of skilled lay and ordained evangelists who have mastered technologies and placed them in service of God and Church.

• https://www.tfp.org/doctrinal-clarity-and-liturgical-beauty-are-behind-britains-catholic-revival/
• https://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2026/04/record-easter-converts-credit-catholic.html

The list of effective evangelists is too long for this post, but you will find several featured in the left column of this blog.