Long Island's new Catholics: Why the number of converts is highest in nearly 40 years

Danny Ramirez had been searching for years for a religion to make his own when he walked into a Mass at a Roman Catholic church in Brentwood one night last year.

The experience transfixed him, he said. He felt goose bumps. His eyes filled with tears.

“I never went to a church that made me want to cry, in a joyous way of course,” Ramirez, 33, of Brentwood, said. “It was just an amazing feeling. It was an instant connection.”

Ramirez will be formally brought into the Catholic Church during an Easter Vigil Mass on Saturday night at St. Anne’s parish in Brentwood. He is among 404 converts in the Diocese of Rockville Centre this year, the highest number in the diocese in nearly four decades, church officials said.

A national trend

The Long Island numbers mirror a nationwide trend with many dioceses seeing high and even record numbers of converts. The converts go through a process that can last a year or more before becoming officially Catholic. 

The new high on Long Island comes nearly a year after the church elected its first American pontiff, Pope Leo XIV. While church officials said that may be a small factor for the growth, there are probably many others, including simply the mystery of faith.

“More than any program or initiative of ours, God does the calling and God allows the growth,” said the Rev. Eric Fasano, a spokesman for the Diocese of Rockville Centre.

The 404 new members will receive the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and Holy Eucharist at Easter Vigil Masses on Saturday night throughout the diocese.

It is the highest number since 1988, the last year for which the diocese has readily available records, Fasano said. The second-highest number of conversions was last year, with 320 new Catholics.

The number has nearly doubled in the last seven years, rising from 208 in 2020, according to diocesan data.

While the converts include many Latinos — the fastest growing group of Catholics in the United States and on Long Island — there are also other ethnicities coming into the religion, though there was no demographic breakdown, Fasano said.

The upswing in converts is nationwide, according to the National Catholic Register, a prominent traditional Catholic news organization that surveyed all 175 Latin-rite dioceses. Of the 71 that responded, just five are seeing decreases, most of them slight, while the rest are reporting increases, often substantial ones.

Pope Leo’s election “may be a contributing factor” to the growth of converts on Long Island, “but even the recent trends began before him,” said the Rev. Michael Duffy, rector of St. Agnes Cathedral in Rockville Centre.

“What we are seeing right now is a broader spiritual renewal that is touching both men and women, but it is especially noticeable among young men,” Duffy said. “At its core, this moment reflects a deep hunger for truth and meaning.”

Finding a deeper meaning 

The Rev. Patrick Flanagan, chair of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at St. John’s University, said he believes the uptick on Long Island is due partly to Bishop John Barres’ evangelization efforts, which he has made a priority.

The pandemic also gave people time to “pause” and think about the deeper meaning of life, while the Catholic Church has made good use of social media, YouTube and podcasts to attract more people, Flanagan said.

The late Pope Francis’ outreach to the “peripheries” helped attract many first-generation Hispanic families, who “have found a home in the Church and have invited others to discover the same,” Flanagan said. “Many parishes across Long Island are extremely welcoming and offer language-based ministries and sacramental celebrations.”

Converts who were not raised Catholic but become one as an adult, make up about 8% of the 32 million Catholics in the United States, according to a June 2025 Pew Research Center report. In total, 1.5% of all U.S. adults are converts to Catholicism, the report said.

Perhaps the most well-known convert is Vice President JD Vance, who joined the Catholic Church in 2019 at the age of 35.

The new Catholics go through a process called the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (formerly the Rite of Christian Initiation, or RCIA). There is no set amount of time for completion of the program.

Long Island is home to 1.2 million baptized Catholics, according to the diocese. Barres called the 404 converts a “gift.”

“Pope St. John Paul II once said that our Catholic faith only deepens when we daily share it with others,” he said in a statement. “Clearly, Catholics in the Diocese of Rockville Centre and around the country are living that powerful wisdom.”

Ramirez said it was a combination of personal and societal factors, including divisions in the United States, that brought him to the church

“With everything going on in the world, I just feel like I needed more of a connection with God,” he said. “With religion and prayer, I feel like we can all unite.”

“This is my new beginning,” he added. “This is my second chance, at least in a spiritual way.”