Harvard chaplain discusses ‘record-breaking’ number of conversions at the university

Paralleling trends elsewhere, at Harvard University more young people than ever are joining the Catholic Church.

This past spring, a record 85 people became Catholic at St. Paul’s Catholic Church across the street from Harvard University, and 45 of those were Harvard students or faculty.

This year, 65 have registered so far, which is keeping apace with last year’s “dramatic increase” in conversions, Father Nathaniel Sanders, the undergraduate chaplain at Harvard, told EWTN News.

Last year’s group, which came from both the Harvard Catholic Center and St. Paul’s, was the “largest class of people becoming Catholic in our history … So, there is something really exciting happening here,” Sanders also noted in a recent episode of “The Great American Road Trip,” a cultural and tourism initiative created to celebrate the countryʼs 250th anniversary.

In the episode, the family of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy travels to Boston while their daughter, Paloma, is considering various college options, including Harvard. The young womanʼs parents arrived with reservations about the possibility of their daughter studying there, as they fear it threatens to undermine the Christian upbringing she received at home.

However, a meeting with Sanders ultimately gives them a different perspective.

A growing Catholic community

In the video, the chaplain speaks not only about those preparing to join the Church but he also highlights the increase in student participation in Catholic life at Harvard.

“Student attendance at Mass is very good right now. It has definitely increased by 10% to 20% in recent years,” he notes.

According to a report published in December 2025 by The Wall Street Journal, Sunday Mass at St. Paul’s currently draws an average of about 300 students, up from around 200 a few years ago.

Sanders says one of the characteristics of this community is the profile of the participants.

“We have very intelligent, high-achieving students. We can give talks on a range of issues, and the students ask great questions,” he explains in the video. “I am really grateful for what God is doing here.”

The Holy Spirit is behind the increase in conversions

Regarding the growth, Sanders told EWTN News that “there’s nothing particular about Harvard” that explains it. “There’s a wider trend going on among young people, and I attribute that to the Holy Spirit. I think there are real cultural factors at play leading students to want to discover more about the faith.”

He said a lot of the conversions on campus are driven through Bible study groups on campus. “We run about 30 different Bible studies, with the help of the FOCUS missionaries,” who “do a lot of outreach, get people involved.”

He credited many conversions to a study being led by “a dynamic student on a sports team who will run a Bible study with the help of the missionaries. A lot of converts have come through that.”

The two main groups of students he sees becoming Catholic at Harvard are unchurched youth who grew up in culturally Catholic homes but never received the sacraments and former evangelical Protestants.

“Fewer children are being baptized these days, so those who were never churched, who were raised culturally Catholic, in some sense, are coming in showing interest in the faith,” he told EWTN News.

The second group, former “megachurch Protestants, begin to read” about the Catholic faith, he said, “and then that’s sort of the end of it” — they convert.

Students speak out

John Phillips, a former president of the Harvard Catholic Center, told The Wall Street Journal last year that he had nearly turned down his admission to Harvard because he had previously attended only Catholic schools and feared he would not be able to grow in his faith within such a secular environment.

However, upon arriving on campus in 2022, he found students who, while taking their academic studies seriously, were equally committed to Catholicism.

“I saw a community I could be a part of,” Phillips explained.

Adaolisa Mba, now a senior and the Harvard Catholic Center’s formation chair, shared a similar experience with The Wall Street Journal: “It’s really impressive to be in a Catholic community with a lot of people my age. We motivate each other to be closer to God.”

‘I donʼt think thereʼs anything nefarious going on’

After visiting Boston College and heading on to Harvard, Paloma’s mother, Rachel Campos Duffy, remarked in the episode: “We have a saying in our house, and I say it all the time to the kids: My job isn’t to get you into Harvard, it’s to get you into heaven. So it’s kind of ironic that we’re now going to tour Harvard.”

The family had a chance to meet with Sanders during their visit, and Paloma’s father expressed to him his fear that the school might undermine the faith he had taught his children and weaken their convictions.

Addressing this concern, Sanders said: “I think it depends on the kids, whether or not they’re sort of coming with the virtues necessary to live out that life well. But I don’t think there is anything nefarious going on.”

“You come here because it’s the best opportunity. And if someone has a sense of themselves and a sense of God before coming, I think that will only flower,” he added.

The issue is not about preventing a young Catholic from having their beliefs challenged, Sanders said, but rather ensuring they have a sufficiently deep-rooted faith.

“If they are confident enough in their faith that they won’t have an existential crisis the first time it’s challenged in class, and they have the social skills,” he said, young Catholics can “thrive at Harvard.”

“Visiting Harvard seems to ease my parents’ concerns and the assumptions they had about the school, and I think they were pleasantly surprised to see how strong the Catholic community there is,” Paloma observed.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.