Ep 203 - Good News Friday: The Church Is Growing and Nobody Is Talking About It

James Caldwell: This is the Manly Catholic, the podcast that calls you out of the shadows and into the fight. Here we forge men into warriors for Christ, husbands, fathers and leaders who refuse to kneel to the modern world's lies. No more passivity, no more excuses, no more lukewarm faith. This is your battle cry, your call to arms. The time for weakness is over. It's time to fight. Welcome to the Manly Catholic. Let's get to work. Well, welcome back to another episode of Manly Catholic. This is James, your host, and it's Friday, which is not our normal day that we release an episode. I'm starting a new segment. If you guys want me to keep it up, please let me know in the comments. Make sure you hit that subscribe button. Support us at buy me a coffee. Manly Catholic get a lot of cool merchandise, some coffee, rosary. That's not the important thing. The important thing is this segment. We're talking about good news. Good news that actually is happening in the church. We're so used to all the negativity, all the kind of the click bait things that are going on. So I want to actually bring you guys some good news from the church. This is the week of May 9th, 2026. I'm releasing this on May 15th. So basically the early part of May in here is your good news. I'm going to bring you guys five stories from the Catholic church. Might be in media in general. Like right now, the Anaheim Ducks. It's just Friday. I'm a huge Anaheim Ducks fan. Hopefully they beat the Vegas Golden Knights last night and they moved on. I don't know. Anyways, five stories, five reasons to be encouraged. Here we go. Say no to the bad news and here's the good news. Story number one, Catholic conversions are hitting decade highs across America. We're gonna start with the big picture guys, because this is awesome and stunning. The Catholic Church in America is growing. And we're talking about modest numbers here, according to data compiled by the prayer app. Hello, drawn from more than 140 of the 175 U S diocese. The average American diocese saw a 38 % increase in people entering the church through OCI a this year compared to last year. Pretty cool. And when you start looking at individual diocese, the numbers get even more dramatic. The national Catholic register contacted 175 Latin right diocese in the U S and found that of the 71 who responded 66 of them. Or about 93 % are expecting increases in converts this year. Boston is up 55 % Providence 76, the Diocese of Norwich, Norwick, Connecticut. Right in the heart of secular New England is recording a 112 % spike. Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota grew by 145%. Is that where Father Mike Schmitz is? think he's over there. LA. LA, California, my old stomping grounds, the largest diocese in the country. Welcome more than 8,500 people and grew. 139 % last year. That's according to National Catholic Register. Man, the Bishop of Newark put it perfectly when he was asked what he thinks is driving us. He said simply the Holy Spirit. What a beautiful, profound, simple statement from the bishop. That's the answer right there. And I think he's right. The Holy Spirit is moving, especially in America, more from America later. Story number two, 900 adults enter the church in one diocese alone, many of them young. This is from Richmond Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. 900 people enter the church at the Easter Vigil this year. A single diocese, one night, 900 sold. How incredible is that? And here's what makes it even more shocking and remarkable that most of them are young. I'm men and women in their 20s, teenagers who came to their faith on their own accord, not because their parents dragged them there. but because they sought it out themselves. The 2026 conversion data is shattering what we thought we knew about who's entering the church. Typical new Catholic this year is highly educated in the 20s or 30s and entering out of theological conviction, not family obligation. The largest group of converts previously had no religious affiliation at all. Former atheists, former agnostics, you the nuns. I know Bishop Barron talked about that a lot, preaching and reaching out to the nuns in the world. So she amongst young people will now that tide is starting to turn. Some of these young people showed up to OCA already readings St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine of Hippo. Pretty cool. Huh? And on college campuses, the numbers are even crazier at the university of Notre Dame. 163 Catacombs and candidates are expected this coming Easter, the largest class in at least 25 years at Arizona States Newman center. 52 students joined the church this past semester, shattering the previous record of 39. in 2019. Texas A ⁓ of 400 students are in OCA right now. Boston's Archbishop Richard Henning said it plainly, there may not be a revival across the country, but there are revivals. And at what point do all these pockets of revival add up to a whole country revival? Man, I think we're living in that moment. And the next generation is not lost. Not even close. As Father Dom says, it is a great time to be Catholic, man. Story number three, the Pope tells the church stop playing defense and go on offense. Remember the gates of hell will never prevail against the church and gates as you guys know is a defensive structure. saying this past week, Pope Leo the 14th on the first anniversary of his papacy says something that I think all of us need to hear and can resonate with. He was speaking to clergy and religious in the cathedral of Naples on May 8th. He challenged the church in plain terms. He called on all of us to listen to one another. and walk together. And then he said, move from a pastoral approach, focus on preservation to a missionary one capable of engaging with people's real lives. That's what we'd like to do on the Manly Catholic podcast here, reaching all men across the globe, challenging them to become saints and to be the men God created them to be. But Pope went on further and said, everyone is an active participant in the church's pastoral ministry and life, not merely a collaborator so that each person's commitment and witness May foster a community that is present and attentive capable of acting as Levin in the dough. Levin in the dough men, that is you. That's where you're supposed to be in your marriage, your neighborhood, your gym and your parish. And this wasn't a one-off line. This has been the drumbeat of his entire papacy. In his inaugural homily back in May of last year, he said, this is the missionary spirit that must animate us, not closing ourselves off in small groups, nor feeling superior to the world. We are called to offer God's love to everyone and he closed with brothers and sisters. This is the hour for love. So number four, our American Catholicism is leading a global movement. Also something that was surprising this week, a writer named a Samuel Terzulcik. Sorry if I mispronounced your last name, Samuel. He published a piece in the Catholic thing and he lives, he's from Slovakia and here's what he observed. He said, where there is life, where there are vibrant engaged groups of young Catholics, They are as a rule plugged into contemporary American Catholicism. Pretty interesting. He's seen everywhere across Europe, young people whose faith were ignited by Bishop Baron engaged couples preparing for marriage by reading Christopher West and Jason Everett manuscript student, excess 90 for the third or fourth year in a row, Catholic policy workers in Brussels who trained at American programs and everywhere subscribers to the Hallow app. And it goes even beyond that France historically known as the eldest daughter of the church is experiencing what they are calling. a quiet revival, is just beautiful. France needs to become Catholic again. Baptisms among 18 to 25 year olds in France have more than quadrupled in the last four years. This past Easter saw a record 17,800 adult baptisms up 45 % from the prior year. Belgium has nearly tripled teenage and adult baptisms over the past decade. London's Archdiocese of Westminster just had its highest number of adult baptisms since 2000. in 18. The writer from Slovakia concludes that 2026 is the American moment in the history of the Catholic Church, and he specifically pointed to the upcoming beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, another major milestone on the American Catholic calendar this year. Man, as you know, we are not fighting a losing war. The new evangelization has an American accent. The content you're consuming, the conversations you're having, the faith you're living is rippling across the world. Again, everything that we do matters, man. Don't forget that. And finally, the Pope's first anniversary, a man on his knees before our lady. This past Thursday, May 8th marked exactly one year since Pope Leo was elected the first American Pope in the history of the church. And here's how he chose to mark the occasion. Didn't hold a press conference, didn't host a gala, but he made a pilgrimage. And where did he go? He flew by helicopter from Rome to the shrine of our lady of the Rosary in Pompeii, Italy. He went inside, greeted the sick and the disabled, and then he went outside and celebrated mass for an estimated 20,000 faithful in the piazza on the feast day of the supplication to Our Lady of Pompeii. In his homily, he said exactly one year ago when the ministry of successor Peter was entrusted to me, it was precisely the day of the supplication to the Virgin. I therefore had to come here to place my service under the protection of the Holy Virgin. He preached on the rosary calling the Hail Mary an invitation to joy. He said that generations of believers have been shaped and safeguarded by this prayer. Simple and popular, yet at this same time, capable of mystical heights. Later that afternoon, he traveled to Naples, where the streets filled with an estimated 50,000 faithful who came just to see him. He stopped at the Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary, knelt before the Blessed Sacrament, kissed the relic of St. Gennarius, whose blood had miraculously liquefied just eight earlier on May 3rd. Story for another time. And then he challenged the church to go out and be a missionary. One year in an American Pope on his knees before our lady and 50,000 people in the streets of Naples. That is the image I want you to carry into your weekend, man. That is your good news for the week of May 9th, 2026. The church is alive and she is growing. Souls are flooding in. Young people are seeking truth and finding it. And of course the Pope is calling us to be missionaries and American Catholics, you men are helping lead a global revival that none of us. saw coming. So again, if you guys enjoy this segment, let me know. Share some good news that you guys have heard as well in the church or around the world and the culture. We want to start sharing some good news instead of just start and stop consuming nothing but negativity all throughout our world because we all as we all know, the Lord is always working and we want to make sure we share those stories as well. Thank you all so much for tuning in until next time. Go out there and be a saint. Brothers, thank you so much for listening to this episode. If the shows add value to your life, I'm going to ask you to do three things. Share with a brother who needs it, leave us a review, and finally support the show so we can keep fighting. Links are in the show notes. We'll see you next week.