FOX News ran a June 19 article spotlighting that Generation Z men are “leading the revival” of Catholicism among their age group.
In the article, which featured an interview with an all-boys Catholic school headmaster in New Jersey, the secular news outlet zeroed in on this religious trend and possible contributing factors.
FOX associate editor Taylor Penley wrote that Gen Zers face challenges such as loneliness and questions about the meaning of life in an acute way, and Catholicism has a unique capacity to address such issues – which is drawing an increasing number of young men to the faith. Harvard University conducted a study that found between 2022 and 2023 there was a 6% increase of Gen Zers who identified they were Catholic, according to FOX.
Father Michael Tidd, who oversees the Benedictine Delbarton School in New Jersey for grades 7-12, told FOX a number of non-Catholic students have entered the Church in recent years because of their encounter with the Faith at the school.
At Delbarton, its answer to the question of “what it means to be a man in our society… really resonates with our students,” Fr. Tidd said.
Many young men struggle with this question, he said, continuing, “I think our school and the Catholic Church more broadly and the Catholic faith more broadly provide a compelling answer to that.”
FOX also highlighted that a Gallup poll recently suggested that young men in the United States suffer alarming rates of loneliness.
Fr. Tidd said that he encourages lonely men to seek out others similar to them and work together in their search for meaning. He noted that forming tight bonds helps people to “begin asking those deep questions.”
Father Mike Schmitz, who is the host of the “Bible in a Year” podcast and the director of youth and young adult ministry in the Diocese of Duluth, Minnesota, also recently weighed in on this trend and why men are the ones who are leading it.
Speaking to CatholicVote’s LOOPcast in an interview in late May, Fr. Schmitz remarked that in his ministry, he has observed a strong desire for brotherhood.
He posited that young men are more prepared to develop these friendships.
Young women also long for community but they often suffer from wounds — such as gossip, reputation slander, friend betrayal — that have made them slower to trust others, he said.
Another factor could be that “there is a more robust Christianity that is being proclaimed and offered,” he said.
He noted that his ministry has slightly more young men than women who participate.
“It’s not as if we have any kind of corner on any kind of masculine market,” Fr. Schmitz said. “I think it’s just the sense of you have normal men pursuing Jesus with their whole heart, and that’s something that’s very, very attractive.”
