Father Bill Quinlivan noticed something at his earliest Easter Sunday Mass this past weekend: a lot of people.

The priest, who is the pastor of the five-church Catholic Family of Parishes of South Buffalo in western New York, said he “kept looking around at every church” during Masses the rest of the day.

His reaction?

“Wow!” he said. “Because sometimes you see a big crowd at one Mass and you think, ‘Well, maybe there won’t be as many’” at the next Mass.

But this past Sunday, he told the Register, “every single celebration” was “quite full.”

“I would say Easter had a resurrection in the Diocese of Buffalo this year because five years after COVID, it really seemed like there was a great positive change,” said Father Quinlivan, author of Divine Mercy In and Out of Season.

While the evidence so far is anecdotal and piecemeal, South Buffalo’s experience seems to be widespread — with numerous reports of large crowds at Easter Masses across the U.S.

 

‘Something Beautiful’

While Easter is always one of the most well-attended Masses of the year, this year’s crowds surpassed expectations in many places.

Father Chris Decker, secretary for communications for the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, told the Register he noticed “a lot more young people” at Masses this past weekend at his parish, St. Mary of False River in New Roads.

“All of the Triduum was full, the Easter vigil was full, and both of my Easter Sundays were standing-room only,” Father Decker told the Register by email.

“Usually, I only have one Easter Sunday with overflow,” he said. “So the Holy Spirit seems to be up to something beautiful.”

At St. Augustine Church in Providence, Rhode Island, Father Christopher Mahar saw a substantial increase not only at all Easter Sunday Masses but also during the sacred Triduum, which consists of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter vigil. 

“We had more people in attendance at all four of our Masses than we did in previous years,” Father Mahar told the Register — “and we've done well in previous years.”

“This Triduum saw a great amount of people coming to Mass,” he said, “and we’re very happy about that.”

The well-attended Easter Sunday Masses saw “a lot of young people, a lot of families,” he said. “We had more children playing, and talking, and crying in the pews than normal, which is always a joy to have at Sunday Mass. And it seemed to be a great spirit.”

 

Converts and Their Families

One factor is the number of converts coming into the Church — which, as the Register reported last week, has increased this year in many places.

The Newman Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln had 72 converts enter the Church at the Easter vigil Mass this past Saturday night, said Dennis Kellogg, director of communications for the Diocese of Lincoln.

“They asked to limit those attending in the church to those entering the Church, their families and students. They provided an overflow area for others to view the Mass,” Kellogg said by email.

He also said that Lincoln Bishop James Conley “thought the Easter vigil Mass at our Cathedral of the Risen Christ was one of the best attended in his memory.”

In the Diocese of Bismarck, North Dakota, the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit “welcomed record attendance at all the Holy Week Masses,” reported the diocesan communications director, Sonia Mullally — including 900 people at 10 a.m. Easter Sunday Mass in a cathedral that normally seats around 525.

In the Diocese of Helena, Montana, attendance at the Cathedral of St. Helena “surpassed that of Christmas attendance,” said Dan Bartleson, the diocese’s communications director.

“This was the case for all Masses, including Easter vigil, 7 a.m., 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. (which I attended) where the 800-or-so capacity was easily surpassed by at least 100 people,” Bartleson told the Register by email.

 

Eucharistic Revival Draws People

Another factor is the National Eucharistic Revival, which last July included the first National Eucharistic Congress in the United States since 1941.

Father Kirby Hlavaty, rector of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Victory in Victoria, Texas, who reported that this year’s attendance was larger than in recent years, cited the Eucharistic Revival, synod listening sessions, and a bounce back from the coronavirus shutdowns of a few years ago.

“From what he told me, the 7:30 a.m. Mass was full, and the 9 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. Masses were standing room only,” said Janet Jones, communications director of the Diocese of Victoria, by email.

In San Antonio, if you didn’t get to the cathedral early on Easter Sunday, you didn’t get in.

At San Fernando Cathedral, which seats 550, “there were counts of between 900 to 950 at each of the 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 12 p.m., and 2 p.m. liturgies, with the front doors remaining open and parishioners standing out into Main Plaza,” said Jordan McMorrough, director of communications for the Archdiocese of San Antonio.

“Where did all these people come from?!” one unnamed pastor in the Archdiocese of New Orleans said, according to Sarah McDonald, the archdiocese’s communications director.

More than 600 people joined the Church at the Easter vigil Mass this past Saturday in the archdiocese — “anecdotally, many young adults and families,” she said by email.

Father Mahar, whose church in Providence saw increases at all its Easter Masses this past weekend, said one factor is the extensive preparation his parishioners went through this past Lent, including a preaching series on Mondays and Eucharistic adoration on Fridays.

Another factor, he said, is more people are turning to the Catholic Church in a troubled time.

“I think that the Lord is working in the world right now. The grace of God is active, and people are tired of the emptiness of the culture,” Father Mahar said. “The culture is not offering anything that’s fulfilling, and people are drawn more and more to faith and to the practice of their faith in a way that God is providing for them what they’re longing for.”