We grew up in a time when the transcendental was relegated to the margins of society — something far removed from everyday experience.
In a fractured, polarized time, the Church has a unique appeal for younger generations. Let them in.
I n addition to the difficult conversations, doubts, and demons that converts to Catholicism have always had to surmount to come to the faith, today many also face questions about their sincerity. The narrative, in non-Catholic and Catholic circles alike, tends to assume that most young converts — especially those with a conservative inclination — are principally reactionaries, motivated more by the Church’s medieval trappings than its practical teachings, not to mention the fruit of its sacraments. In other words, as Steve Larkin writes, young converts are mostly in it for the “vibe.” No one, it seems, believes that young people today could actually have an authentic conversion to Catholicism.
Naturally, the suspicion about new converts is not entirely unfounded. Much like the “Dimes Square” crowd in New York that Julia Yost, a senior editor at First Things, highlighted in a recent article for the Times, Washington, D.C. — where I was confirmed on Easter — hosts its own crew of eccentric Gen Z Catholics who harbor “integralist” and “post-liberal” sympathies and are drawn to the Church because of its countercultural appeal. The same is likely true of other big, progressive, coastal cities.
But fixating on the sincerity of these young converts is misguided. Not so much because, as Yost argues, “authentic internal conversion” is a Protestant rather than a Catholic demand — the place of sincerity in conversion is a contentious issue that Catholics can have reasonable disagreements about — but because the performative ritualists of “Dimes Square” are not representative of the vast majority of young converts today. Although their eccentricity may elicit a strong response, concentrating so much attention on them paints an incomplete and distorted picture of Gen Z converts, one that is at risk of suggesting that authentic internal conversion is not merely unnecessary, but unlikely or even impossible.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and lost in the flurry of articles responding to Yost’s piece is a far more interesting and important trend: Thousands of young people, seeking practical wisdom and a spiritual framework for navigating modern life, are turning to Catholicism for answers. In fact, young people today are increasingly asking questions of life that the Catholic Church is particularly well-suited to answer.
Thus, although it would be wrong-headed to demand authentic internal conversion, it also should not surprise us. Young people everywhere — even (and perhaps especially) in Manhattan — have plenty of reasons to leave modern culture behind and cleave to the fullness of the Church. The former’s deficiencies, in fact, point directly to the latter.
For some, this may ring especially true in the realm of avant-garde aesthetics, but for many young people, Catholicism’s appeal is located in a more simple and more profound place: the Eucharist. Indeed, in every age the Eucharist has drawn humanity toward itself, but it has a special appeal for Generation Z.
We grew up in a time when the transcendental was relegated to the margins of society — something far removed from everyday experience. The Eucharist reintroduced God to the mundane rhythms of our daily lives. “Deliver us, Lord, we pray, from every evil, graciously grant peace in our days.”
We were raised by technology that was designed to disembody us. The real physical presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist, though, grounded us in material reality and required us to be embodied souls. “Free me by this, your most holy Body and Blood, from all my sins and from every evil.”
In the communities that nurtured us, divorce was almost as common as marriage, teaching us that even the most sacred bonds could be broken. In communion, we found true unity as members of the body of Christ, and we can now strive to love our enemies more than some of our parents loved each other. “Look not on our sins, but on the faith of your Church, and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will.”
Likewise, the politics of our adolescence were defined by polarization and broken promises. Often, the people who called for compromise were the same ones causing our divisions. But, in the sacrament of the Eucharist, we found the perfect unity of speech and action. “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”
In sum, like so many other accounts of the personal lives of our elites, the “Dimes Square” story is as interesting as it is alien to the experience of everyday Americans. While such a reactionary and symbolic embrace of the faith may excite the secular Left and the counterrevolutionary Right — both of which caricature young converts as culture warriors first and disciples second — it is an exception that proves the norm. With that in mind, Catholics should stop expending energy debating the virtues of “Dimes Square” and urgently refocus on a far more important reality: the Eucharist’s unique appeal to Generation Z.