Record numbers of candidates and catechumens have affirmed their desire to enter the Catholic Church during the Rite of Election ceremonies in the Sydney and Melbourne Archdioceses. Source: Melbourne Catholic and The Catholic Weekly.
In Melbourne, about 550 people are preparing to receive the sacraments of initiation (Baptism, Eucharist, Confirmation) this Easter. It’s the largest number recorded for the Melbourne Archdiocese, and reflects a 57 per cent increase from 2025, which was a 40 per cent increase from 2024.
The catechumens (those preparing to be baptised) and candidates (who are already baptised but yet to receive the sacraments of Holy Communion and Confirmation) were warmly welcomed into St Patrick’s Cathedral on Sunday with Melbourne Archbishop Peter A Comensoli inviting everyone gathered – “all of God’s holy people” — to their “spiritual home … the mother church of Melbourne”.
In Sydney, nearly 460 candidates and catechumens – a 20 per cent increase on last year’s numbers – participated in the Rite of Election at St Mary’s Cathedral.
In his welcome, Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher OP proclaimed: “Your presence is a profound sign and a wonderful vitality of our local Church, and proof that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in our city.”
Archbishop Fisher noted the joyful signs of growth and the boom in numbers entering the faith. “For the last six years in a row, year by year, more and more of you have been saying ‘accept’ at the Rite of Election here in Sydney.”
On the cost and beauty of becoming Christian, Archbishop Fisher said: “Newcomers to the Church know they not only have to learn the Christian faith, they must sometimes go against the grain. It’s costly, but its reward is eternal life.”
Daniel Ang, director of the Sydney Centre for Evangelisation, called the numbers “quietly extraordinary.”
“While this is the greatest number we have seen in the archdiocese, 20 per cent more than last year, this isn’t about numbers. It’s about grace,” he said. “There’s a genuine spiritual hunger in our community, in our culture, and these men and women are responding to it with courage and sincerity. For all of us, it is a moment of deep gratitude and real hope.”
FULL STORY
Surge to Catholicism skyrockets as 460 gather for Rite of Election (By Darren Ally, The Catholic Weekly)
‘A real hunger for God’: record numbers at this year’s Rite of Election (Melbourne Catholic)
