(Radio Iowa) – The Catholic Church is reporting a significant influx in new members, and people returning to the fold, both in Iowa and nationwide. The Diocese of Des Moines reports a 51-percent increase in conversions just in the past year. New converts are officially welcomed during Easter Vigil Mass — the night before Easter Sunday — and University of Iowa religious studies professor Kristy Nabhan-Warren predicts Iowa churches will see record numbers this weekend.
“Holy Week is a really big time traditionally for conversions and reversions, folks going back to the faith,” Nabhan-Warren says. “I think we’ll be able to get a better count after the weekend, after Good Friday, after Easter weekend, and this is across the state, not only in urban areas, but rural areas and micropolitan areas.” It’s been ten months since the election of Pope Leo (the 14th) XIV, the first pope from the United States, which may account for part of the surge in conversions, but Nabhan-Warren suspects there are many more layers to the shift.
“Our country is in the midst of a war. We’re in the midst of perhaps a pre-recession. There’s a lot of things going on that people feel are outside of their control,” Nabhan-Warren says, “and so historically, when humans feel that things are outside of their control, they seek out community.” The Catholic Church offers that needed sense of community, she says, and a reprieve from a world that’s saturated by artificial intelligence. “I think we’re seeing a backlash, widespread backlash to AI-mediated culture. Humans want human community. They want beauty. They want the divine,” she says, “and honestly, I think humans want a sense of mystery. Things are outside of our control and to be in a place with other humans acknowledging that we may not have all the answers, I think is really, really assuring and comforting to people.”
While the professor says she ordinarily wouldn’t make a prediction about church attendance, she says it’s a fairly safe bet the pews will be more full for Good Friday and beyond. “When we see an institution publicizing an upcoming Saturday event right before Easter, I think that we will see record numbers,” Nabhan-Warren says. “I do anticipate that we will see a lot of excitement and a lot of enthusiasm in parishes across our state, as well as the United States.”
A 2020 survey from the Association of Religion Data Archives reported more than 470,000 Catholics in Iowa, though she says the count is certainly many thousands higher now.
