A ‘quiet’ Catholic revival? Christchurch says ‘yes’

You might be wondering why someone with the name Helaman Hatcher is in a story about Catholicism. Helaman is a name from the Book of Mormon, a sacred text for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

So, here’s the story:

Hatcher, 21, was born into a Mormon family in the UK. When he was five and moved to Christchurch, his mother left the church and became an atheist. His father kept a soft spot for religion, identifying as agnostic. Essentially, Hatcher was raised without religion.

“Honestly, I don’t think I would have been able to tell you the difference between, like, Catholics or other Christian denominations.”

He came of age during a chaotic period for young men, where some felt vilified by culture shifts such #Metoo, the anti-harassment movement that started in 2017. A few found representation in online influencers like Andrew Tate, who beckoned lost young men into the often misogynistic world of the manosphere, where wealth and ripped bodies are antidotes to a perceived female takeover. But Hatcher found those ideals were lacking. Instead, he gravitated towards media personalities like Michael Knowles, a US conservative commentator who is open about his Catholic faith. What Hatcher admired in Knowles, he also saw in the few Catholic friends he had.

Hatcher craved an anchor for life that he wasn’t finding in secularism or online or anywhere else. After nine months spent pondering faith in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults, the Catholic Church’s pathway for adult converts, he decided to formally join the church. At Easter in 2024, he was baptised with a priest pouring water on his head.

“Having converted to Catholicism, I would say there is a bit more intentionality with the way I live rather than a passive get through life level of thinking.”

He also appreciates the contemplative silence during mass, another remedy to the bombardment of the online world that is native to Gen Z.​

Hatcher’s 2024 confirmation into the Catholic Church came at the beginning of what some are calling a “quiet revival” in Christchurch, growth that isn’t reflected in New Zealand’s population-wide data. The growth that local church leaders say is happening reflects a global trend of Western young people re-examining Christianity, especially the Catholic Church, which experienced years of decline following the sexual abuse scandal that rocked the institution from 2002 onwards and the new atheist movement of the same decade.

Year on year in Christchurch, it was typical to see only a handful of new converts, if any, according to Phil Bell, a senior leader in Christchurch’s Catholic Cathedral Parish. Mostly women with greying hair filled the pews on Sundays. However, last year, there were about 70 new converts, who skewed mostly young and mostly male. This Easter, Bell anticipates about 100 new converts, with another substantial group already on track for confirmation next Easter.

“We’ve been praying for this for a long time.”

Josh Duymel is another answer to prayer. The 26-year-old software designer will be confirmed this Easter after a 12-month deliberation process.

“It feels like Christmas, because it is very special. It is religious, and I’m getting a treat. I’m getting a present, a gift,” he says of his new-found salvation.

Before he met his lapsed Catholic girlfriend and now wife in 2023, Duymel had no prior Catholic or religious connection. He described himself as a womaniser in pursuit of worldly riches with a seemingly dark spiritual presence following him. He was unsatisfied and looking for role models after his own father left when he was six.

“You know, I don’t want Andrew Tate or a Bugatti [the fast, luxury car preferred by Tate]. I don’t want to be some internet influencer.

“I want to live a good life, and I want to have a lovely family.”

He finally found that mentor in Dean Mischewski, a devoted Catholic in Christchurch, a father of nine and grandfather to four who competes in the New Zealand Masters sport competitions. Pursuing fitness and health has become a bonding element for some young Catholics in Christchurch.

In Mischewski’s family, Duymel saw the intergenerational impact of genuine faith. Now, Duymel’s 15-year-old brother is on his own post-manosphere journey towards a Christian faith, he says.

Michael Grimshaw, an associate professor of sociology who studies culture and religion, has been tracking Gen Z’s return to religion globally and locally. He sees increasing numbers of believers as part of a wider swing back towards a masculine-focused society and traditional gender roles, a shift that has been led by some women as well (think trad wives and mothers replacing careers with family life following Covid).

“There are those who are just looking for something to ground themselves in, that’s got tradition, that’s got ritual,” says Grimshaw, noting that orthodoxy, another ritualistic take on Christianity, is experiencing growth.

But not everyone is a believer in the Catholic revival. Geoff Troughton, associate professor of religion at Victoria University of Wellington, has heard anecdotal stories of more people with no prior religious connections turning to churches. Yet, data from the 2023 census and the 2024-2025 New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, as well as the Catholic Church’s Auckland parish, all point to declining numbers, according to Troughton.

Brendan Malone, a Christchurch Catholic and podcaster who speaks on faith and culture, argues the new convert figures are too fresh to show up in population data.

“…the quiet revival is about people coming to an active participation in the faith, rather than merely having Catholic as an identity of sorts.”

Malone, who is also a travelling speaker, encounters young men all around New Zealand who are on the road to confirmation. It’s something he wasn’t seeing even two years ago. While millennials – including Malone for several years – were more likely to flock to the loud, flashing evangelical churches, Gen Z are curious about tradition and stability, he says.

“People were looking for, ‘Okay, well, where’s the deep tradition? Where’s the source of this thing? If you’re going to go to the real thing, where is it to be found?’

“And so I think they went looking for perhaps those denominations that actually had a very long, like in the case of Catholicism, 2000-year history, [and] Orthodox almost as long.”

And what about that modern Achilles heel of the Catholic Church – the global sexual abuse scandal and institution-wide cover-up? In New Zealand, 14 percent of Catholic clergy who worked under a bishop and eight percent of male congregational members, including priests and brothers, have been accused of abuse since 1950.

It’s something that Hatcher considered as he worked his way towards his 2024 Catholic confirmation. The enormity of the scandal didn’t sink the church, another indication of enduring stability anchored in 2000 years of history. Hatcher found that today’s Catholic Church is “owning” its stained history. The 2024 report from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care in New Zealand was spoken about at mass with priests urging parishioners to read it.​

“They are very much doing what they can to try and make up for what [happened] and avoid that ever happening again.”