The 2026 Catholic Word of the Year is 'Dynamism'. This is because the secular media have used words like 'decline', 'diminish', 'decrease', 'dwindle', and 'demoralised' to talk about Easter celebrations for years.
Dioceses all over Australia, in both capital cities and regional centres, are seeing a strong rise in the number of people who are being baptised or welcomed into the full Catholic Church from other Christian groups.
In the last few weeks, The Catholic Weekly has asked all of the dioceses in New South Wales and all of the capital cities what they think.
Since last Easter, the number of people entering the Church as catechumens or candidates has almost doubled or more than doubled in some dioceses.
In the Military Ordinariate, the number of people who joined the Catholic Church went up from two in 2021 to 25 last year.
'The Catholic Weekly's effort to put together the data shows that more research is needed to figure out how big the surprising news of a Catholic revival really is. Adult baptisms are a good way to test the spiritual state of Australia, but they are not the only way. Also, while some dioceses had statistics going back to 1991, others had records that were hard to find or not very complete.'
The Catholic Church is not a business, and it doesn't have people who count beans. But statistics do give us some idea of how healthy Catholic life is. Hennessy says, "Counting matters." "Jesus counted loaves, fish, leftover portions, baskets, and talents." We should, too.
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