A university which President Donald Trump has described as “anti-Semitic, anti-Christian, and anti-America” seems an unlikely place for a new springtime for Catholicism. But it appears that this is happening at Harvard University, the oldest and most prestigious in the United States.
Nearly half of the students who will graduate at the end of this academic year declared that they were atheist or agnostic when they began their studies.
The president of the Harvard Chaplains group, which represents a range of faith traditions, is an outspoken atheist. One Christian critic sourly described Harvard as “a bureaucratic-laden playground of anti-Western Culture elitists”.
It might not seem fertile ground for conversions. But according to the chaplain for undergraduates at Harvard, Fr Nathaniel Sanders, 85 people joined the Catholic Church earlier this year through the local parish and the Catholic chaplaincy, including 45 students, faculty members and university staff.
It was the largest number of conversions and receptions into the church ever for Harvard’s Catholic community.
“We have very intelligent, high-achieving students. We can give talks on a range of issues, and the students ask great questions,” Fr Sanders explained in a video.
“There’s a wider trend going on among young people, and I attribute that to the Holy Spirit. I think there are real cultural factors at play leading students to want to discover more about the faith.”
Two groups of people are attracted to the Church – “cultural Catholics” who were raised in non-practicing Catholic homes and evangelical megachurch Protestants who were curious about what Catholics believe.
“I have definitely seen a growing interest in the Catholic faith among undergraduates. Plenty of students are converting or being confirmed during college,” Elizabeth Choi, a final year student who is the president of the Harvard Catholic Center, told The Catholic Weekly in an email.
“The election of an American pope has also generated a great deal of excitement among my Catholic peers.
Although Harvard might initially seem intimidating to students coming from more religious communities, I have found that many non-religious students here are genuinely interested in discussing faith and theological questions,” she said.
“I am hopeful about the future of the church as it continues to grow around the world and attract younger converts.”
