by John Stegeman

Based on the Combined Rite of Election and Calling to Continuing Conversion this year, 1,096 people intend to proceed to the Sacraments of Initiation. It will mark the highest number of people joining the local Church in more than 15 years.

Of the total, 556 are catechumens (people who have not been baptized) and 540 are candidates (baptized Christians who will enter full communion with the Catholic Church). The total represents a 28.5 percent increase over last year’s 853. In fact, the increase has become a trend, with numbers rising each year since 2021, when 301 candidates and catechumens joined.

What’s behind this increase?

“There are general reasons that seem to always apply,” said Nicholas Hardesty, Associate Director of Adult Evangelization and OCIA for the Center for the New Evangelization. “God places on our hearts a desire for truth and goodness and beauty, and the counterfeits in the world just seem to make those desires more acute. People see in Catholicism something that they can’t find anywhere else… But beyond that, it’s really hard to speculate because the reasons why people become Catholic ultimately are as varied as the people themselves.”

While reasons may be hard to pin down, the trend isn’t limited to the Archdiocese of Cincinnati. Neighboring dioceses like Covington, Kentucky, and Indianapolis, Indiana, also reported increases: Covington saw a 57.3 percent bump from 2025, and Indianapolis reported increases in candidates and catechumens each year since 2022.

Jeremy Helmes, Director of the Center for Parish Vitality for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, agreed with Hardesty that people become Catholic for many reasons, but he added that exciting moments in Church life, such as a new archbishop’s installation and a pope’s election, can make an impact. He said the annually increasing numbers reflect the return to a sense of normalcy after the COVID-19 pandemic.

While these numbers are promising, the archdiocese isn’t resting on its laurels. The Center for Parish Vitality sent a survey to each parish for their candidates and catechumens, to learn their motivations.

“The survey’s going to attempt to get at some of that,” Helmes said. “We’re asking the same question about increased Mass attendance, too. We’re up 4.5 percent in terms of Mass attendance year-over-year. We’re past where our decline trend was pre-COVID. … So, we’re starting to ask the question about why is it that people are more engaged in Sunday Mass? I think a lot of those same things apply.”

This increase in people joining the Church in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati was seen starkly at the two English-language celebrations of the Rite of Election and Calling to Continuing Conversion, celebrated simultaneously on Feb. 22 at 2:00 p.m. at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception Church in Dayton and the Cathedral Basilica of St. Peter in Chains in downtown Cincinnati. Both large churches were filled to capacity with the candidates and catechumens and their sponsors, catechists families, and friends. In addition, the archdiocese has for two years also hosted a Spanish-language Rite of Election, this year at St. Susanna Church in Mason. The number of Spanish-speaking candidates and catechumens in the archdiocese rose from 68 in 2025 to 96 this year.

“It really blew me away,” said Hardesty, who attended the rite in Cincinnati. “We had human beings in every nook and cranny and crevice of that cathedral. I mean, they were seated in every single spot. We even had people seated in the [seating around the altar usually reserved for concelebrating priests].” Recalling the scene and experience, Hardesty said, “It was spectacular. It really blew me away.”

This article appeared in the April 2026 edition of The Catholic Telegraph Magazine. For your complimentary subscription, click here.