More Stanford University students are turning to God, with Catholic conversions more than tripling and hundreds gathering for worship on the California campus.
Forty-six adults entered the Catholic Church at Easter this year, up from 14 the previous year, the Rev. Bart Hutcherson, pastor of Stanford’s Catholic Community, told the California Post, according to Breitbart.
Hutcherson said Stanford averaged about four adult baptisms annually for roughly three decades, making the recent increase a significant change.
Attendance is growing, too. About 600 students attended a recent Saturday afternoon Mass of the Holy Spirit, hundreds more than Hutcherson would have expected a few years ago.
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Among those who converted is Obi Nnorom, a 27-year-old doctoral student in electrical engineering who grew up Protestant.
Nnorom said studying church history and reading works by early Christian leaders and Thomas Aquinas helped lead him to Catholicism. YouTube videos also influenced his decision.
“The intellectual tradition of Catholicism shocked me beyond belief,” he told the California Post.
His experience challenges the idea that education makes faith irrelevant. For Nnorom, asking questions and studying Christianity helped strengthen his belief.
Hutcherson said students are also drawn to traditional worship, including hymns, pipe organ music and Latin prayers. Since becoming a pastor about three years ago, he has worked to make the campus ministry more welcoming.
“There is, not just at Stanford, a sense of recovery of tradition and what beauty teaches us about God,” he told the California Post. “It’s very, very exciting.”
Similar growth is being reported at Texas A&M, Kansas State, USC, Harvard and Columbia.
At USC, Deacon Paul Pesqueira said students are spreading the word themselves.
“All of this has happened at USC with zero marketing. Nothing,” he told the California Post. “Always word of mouth.”
The growth offers an encouraging picture for Christians: Students are seeking God, sharing their faith and bringing others into worship, even on campuses known for their secular influence.
James Lasher, a seasoned writer and editor at Charisma Media, combines faith and storytelling with a journalism background from Otterbein University and ministry experience in Guatemala and at the LA Dream Center. A Marine Corps and Air Force veteran, he is the author of The Revelation of Jesus: A Common Man’s Commentary and a contributor to Charisma magazine. For interviews and media inquiries, please contact [email protected].
