NEW YORK — Manhattan’s bohemian Greenwich Village neighborhood might seem an unlikely spot for a hotbed of Catholic conversions, but that’s exactly what you’ll find at the Catholic Center at New York University.
The center, which is seeing a record number of converts to the faith, is playing a key role in an apparent revival of Catholicism among young adults in a few parishes in Manhattan.
Occupying the ground floor of an NYU building, the Catholic Center, which the Archdiocese of New York opened in 2013 and is run by the Dominicans, offers students a welcoming space to study and spend time with friends. A recent visit found students in the center’s common room quietly conversing or reading from the comfort of plush velvet sofas arranged around a central fireplace.
But it is more than just an inviting space. For many, it’s a way into (or for some students, a return to) the Catholic Church.
‘This Seems Too Easy’
Dominican Father Cassian Derbes, director of the Catholic Center at New York University, said that talk of a revival in Catholicism among young adults is not wishful thinking. The number of people who come through his door wanting to become Catholic is “extraordinary,” he said.
This Easter, 15 students from the Catholic Center at NYU were received into the Catholic Church or received the sacrament of confirmation.
On average, he told the Register, about two students a week reach out to inquire about becoming Catholic.
“They just kind of knock on the door,” Father Derbes said.
The Dominican priests at the Catholic Center make a point of making themselves available to students. While anyone is welcome, a note on the center’s website suggests that newcomers introduce themselves to the center’s directors.
It’s not uncommon for a student who shows up at the Catholic Center for the first time to ask one of the priests about entering the Church. Father Derbes said that, often, to his surprise, the person will come back later the same day for the center’s 5 p.m. weekday Mass and become a daily Massgoer within six months.
“Where does this come from? This seems too easy,” Father Derbes said.
Lily McKenna is one of the students who traveled that accelerated path.
A 20-year-old NYU junior from Texas, she’s been a regular at the Catholic Center since her return to the Church last year.
McKenna told the Register that she went through a difficult time when she first arrived at school.
Starting college in New York City, she told the Register, was “really rough,” and she found herself “in the deep pits of despair.” When a friend asked her to come to Mass, she readily accepted the invitation.
“Then, the next day, I was in OCIA, and a couple of months later, I was confirmed, and here I am coming here every single day,” she said. McKenna now serves as chapter president of the Thomistic Institute, an apostolate sponsored by the Dominicans that holds lectures on college campuses that take on contemporary questions through the lens of faith and reason.
Faith and Reason
The Catholic Center also does its part to bring in interested students, of course, presenting talks with speakers from the students’ fields of interest, such as banking, finance, the theater and arts.
Several well-attended recent events at the center have explored issues that could impact students’ future professional lives, including a discussion about ethical questions surrounding AI, featuring a speaker from JPMorgan and a professor from NYU’s Stern School of Business. Another event, titled “Is It Ethical to Be Rich?” featured Sally Blount, CEO of Catholic Charities in Chicago, who is a former dean at NYU’s business school.
“We’re trying to engage students in their normal educational environments and show that we can, with a very rational approach, engage these questions in a way that’s interesting,” Father Derbes said.
On Sundays, students go to nearby St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, which witnessed a record number of 88 people being baptized or confirmed as well as standing-room-only Masses every Sunday — thanks in part to the students from the Catholic Center who this year made up a solid contingent of St. Joseph’s Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) program.
Many of the events are organized around the liturgical calendar. On Ash Wednesday, students were busy in the center’s kitchen preparing a Lenten soup to serve their peers. And on Holy Thursday, the Dominican friars led students on a Eucharistic procession through the neighborhood.
A Hunger for More
Father Derbes told the Register that among students who come to him wanting to become Catholic, quite a few weren’t raised with any religion at all, including those who were baptized as infants but never practiced their faith.
For many in this generation of students, he said, going on this spiritual journey is a way of taking responsibility for their own lives now that they are off at college and on their own.
Father Derbes recalled one student, who was baptized “but never shadowed the door of a church after that,” walking into the Catholic Center and asking, “I want to receive the Eucharist: What does it take?”
Others arrive at the Catholic Center through Catholics they met at school. Cameron Salehizadeh, a junior at NYU, was baptized at the Easter vigil this year, after first visiting the center with friends.
“I was fully evangelized by the NYU Catholic Center staff and faculty,” he said, adding that he later decided to become Catholic thanks to the efforts of the priests and FOCUS missionaries at the center as well as the Dominicans at St. Joseph’s.
Dominican Father Vincent Bernhard, who at 30 years of age doesn’t appear much older than the students he serves at the Catholic Center, told the Register that what he thinks is driving this apparent revival is Gen Z’s belief that there must be more to life than chasing success.
“I think a lot of people, the older generations, have fed [the students] a lot of ideas that if they just are super successful all the time, if they do whatever they want, if they curate their own life, if they find as much pleasure in this role as possible, that’s going to make them happy and fulfilled,” he said.
“And they realize they’re not happy and fulfilled. In fact, they’re damaged by it,” he continued. “There’s a lot of anxiety and a lot of hopelessness because of that,” Father Bernhard said. “So I think that they’re finding the one place where we’ve stayed true to what’s true,” he added, “and that’s the Catholic Church.”