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CV NEWS FEED // The Google search “how to become a Catholic” rose by 373% April 20–26, the days marking Pope Francis’ final public appearance and death.
Zenit reported May 13 that Magdalena Petrusic, a senior travel analyst at Vatican Tickets & Tours, the company that tracked the data, said the surge was unlike anything she had seen before.
“We’re used to seeing spikes in tourism or event inquiries when a major religious figure passes,” she said. “But this was different. People weren’t planning trips — they were seeking conversion.”
She noted that it was remarkable how closely the spike in searches corresponded to Pope Francis’ death April 21.
“It was as though the world paused, watched, and then responded — not with apathy or distraction, but with a hunger to understand what moved this man,” she said.
Zenit added that the spike in searches also points to broader religious engagement among Gen Z and young millennials.
CatholicVote previously reported that in France and several US dioceses and record numbers of new Catholics joined the Church during the 2025 Easter Vigil.
“In a world where headlines are increasingly fleeting, the Catholic Church is once again commanding global attention,” Zenit’s article concludes, “not with scandal or spectacle, but with a quiet question reverberating through millions of minds: What does it mean to belong to something greater than oneself?”
