In the last few months, we read a surprising piece of news in the papers: the number of Catholics is increasing in secularized England. They are young and mostly men. The news brought us joy and confirmed something that we had already been seeing happen even in our parish of St. Swithun Wells, located north of Southampton.
This year, in fact, the number of adults who asked us to be prepared for the sacraments increased. During the Easter vigil, we baptized, confirmed and welcomed into the Catholic church eleven people. It is the highest number that we have seen since we arrived in England seven years ago.
But what most surprised us was the reason that brought these people to us. One of them told us that he had been very far from the Catholic Church. He had done some research and discovered that it went back to the time of Jesus. What had fascinated him was the sense of stability, tradition, the coherence of the teaching and the clarity on what is right and what is wrong. It did not surprise me in today’s world, where everything is fluid and unstable, that Jesus Christ and His Church would still be capable of fascinating, as they are firm like a rock whose aspect never changes.
Chris, who arrived to the Catholic Church after a thirty-year journey, said that the Virgin Mary was important in his decision to convert: “Before, in the Anglican community I attended,” he confessed, “we talked a lot about Jesus, but as a character who came from nowhere. Mary was never mentioned. It is only in the Catholic Church that Mary is given her rightful place as the mother of our Savior.” The Virgin Mary fascinated him. The fact that the risen Lord was physically born of a girl named Mary means that Jesus is truly human, that the Lord is present in the normal circumstances of our lives.
These people are proof that Jesus Christ is alive, that he still knows how to captivate hearts
Joseph was fascinated by the sense of direction he saw in Christianity. This is another phrase I have heard many times over the years from people who have become Catholic. Jesus Christ attracts because He gives direction, purpose, meaning to life, a clear goal. We can only make a real journey if we know where we are going.
Joseph also said that what brought him to us was the fact that he felt that God had chosen him long before: it is as if at a certain point we stop resisting him and say yes. This is baptism.
Anne was the only person in her family who was not Catholic. One day she read a sentence that said, “A family that prays together stays together.” At that moment, she decided to convert. She wanted the unity and sense of belonging that Jesus Christ is capable of creating.
These people are proof that Jesus Christ is alive, that He still captivates hearts. And not only Jesus, but also His body, the Catholic Church, with its thousand-year history, its tradition, its truths, and its saints. It will now be up to our community to accompany these eleven people on their new journey.
Some might think that this is just a coincidence. There is always a year when more people approach the Church. However, after the Easter Vigil, others came to the parish. A young girl, still a minor, came to us and asked to become Catholic. She could not clearly articulate the reason for this desire, but her eyes were bright and alive. Another 22-year-old girl came with the same request and asked me for books on Christian truth. The newspapers have called this phenomenon a “Quiet Revival.” To me, it seems something deeper and more ancient, something that began 2,000 years ago on the day of Pentecost.
