After years in which decline, diminish, decrease, dwindle and demoralised have featured in the secular media about Easter celebrations, the 2026 Catholic Word of the Year is Dynamism.
Across Australia, both in capital cities and in regional centres, dioceses are reporting a vigorous uptick in the number of people who are being baptised or received into the fullness of the Catholic Church from other Christian denominations.
Over the past couple of weeks The Catholic Weekly has surveyed all of the dioceses in NSW and in all capital cities.
In some dioceses, the number of people entering the Church as catechumens or candidates has almost doubled or more than doubled since last Easter.
In others, such as Perth and Hobart, growth is more modest. But nearly everywhere there are green shoots of revitalised faith.
In the three Sydney dioceses – Sydney, Broken Bay, and Parramatta – about 800 people in total will enter the church at the Easter Vigil. And throughout NSW, that figure is about 1500.
Growth in the Sydney Archdiocese is extraordinary. Unsurprisingly, receptions into the church through the RCIA program plummeted during the COVID pandemic. In 2021, there were only 107. But since then, year after year, there has been steady growth. In 2022, there were 167 and in 2023, 179. Thereafter, it accelerated. In 2024, there were 267; in 2025, 384; and this year, there should be about 460.
“I believe the numbers are simply a consequence of the spiritual accompaniment that is being given to converts by the clergy, RCIA coordinators, team members, godparents and sponsors,” says Simon Yeak, the RCIA coordinator at the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation for the Archdiocese of Sydney. “When each person coming to faith feels they are heard and seen, they are able to move towards being Christ-centred and desire to enter the One Body of Christ.”
In the Parramatta diocese, the numbers entering the church at Easter have risen from 124 to just over 200; in the Wollongong diocese, from 52 to 96.
In Melbourne, the figure for the Rite of Election this year was the largest ever seen, about 550. This is a 57 per cent increase from last year – which was a 40 per cent increase over 2024.
In percentage terms other capital cities have reported even greater growth.
In the Canberra-Goulburn archdiocese 25 people were received into the church in 2025 and about 110 will come this year. In Adelaide the number has about doubled, from 50 to about 100. In Brisbane, the number more than doubled, rising from 241 to 454.
The Maronite Eparchy is also experiencing impressive growth. Last year 44 entered the church at Easter in Sydney; this year the figure is 76.
“The Maronite Catholic Church has taken a very intentional and active approach to evangelisation, faithfully proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ and warmly inviting people to consider entering the life of the church,” Subdeacon Charbel Marouni told The Catholic Weekly. “We are now beginning to see the fruits of that work.”
Even in the Military Ordinariate, the number of people who entered the Catholic Church rose from two in 2021 to 25 last year.
Figures like these run counter to the bleak narrative that often surfaces in the media. It is true that the data on how Australians practice their faith, as collected by the Vatican’s Statistical Yearbook of the Church, show a steady decline in baptisms, first communions, confirmations and marriages. In 1991, for instance, there were 78,914 baptisms (mostly infants, of course); in 2021, there were only 42,210.
But these obviously don’t show the full picture, as 2021 is the last year for which those official statistics are available – and that was in the dismal depths of COVID. Since then, has an invisible catalyst been at work?
It seems so.
This Easter, roughly 1500 people will be baptised or confirmed as Catholics in NSW. That’s an increase of about 33 per cent over 2025, according to the data collected by The Catholic Weekly. And the total in the capital cities is about 2700, an increase of about 30 per cent.
What’s going on?
According to Jude Hennessy, the director of the Office of Renewal and Evangelisation in the Wollongong diocese, “there’s a new openness to faith and a growing boldness amongst the faithful.
“So many people, especially under-35s, are rejecting the counterfeits of secularism and materialism. They’ve come up short, and they are embracing a growing realisation, that lasting happiness is not to truly be found down these roads.
“Also, I am seeing and hearing an increasing boldness and confidence in the way people are sharing their faith.
“While you can get lost in all of the rubbish that is online, amazing Catholic podcasts, YouTube channels, prayer apps, tools like Alpha, and shows like The Chosen are definitely changing the climate of openness and confidence with which people share faith and access solid Catholic answers to life’s big questions.”
The Catholic Weekly’s attempt to aggregate the data suggests that much more research is needed to quantify the surprising news of a Catholic revival. Even though they are a useful litmus test, adult baptisms are only one index of the spiritual life of Australia. Furthermore, while for some dioceses statistics back to 1991 were available, for others records were very patchy or difficult to retrieve.
Size matters, too. In metropolitan Sydney, the challenge is collecting statistics on 5.5 million people. In a rural diocese like Darwin, which is spread over an area as big as France, Germany and Italy combined, things are far less centralised. In some dioceses, most catechumens and candidates enter the church through an RCIA programme at Easter; in others, they enter throughout the year.
The Catholic Church is not a corporation; it is not run by bean counters. But statistics do give some insight into the vitality of Catholic life. “Counting matters,” says Hennessy. “Jesus counted – loaves, fish, leftover portions and baskets, talents. We should too.”
