I don’t usually get contacted by The Free Press.

Especially not asking for images of an Easter Vigil in Greenwich Village.

But that’s exactly what happened when Madeline Kearns was preparing her article, How Catholicism Got Cool. I didn’t know much at the time—just that they needed photos. A few weeks later, the piece went live.

I saw it when a friend of mine, David Kerr, shared it on Facebook. David’s no lightweight—he’s the communications director for the Diocese of Lansing and a seasoned journalist who’s worked for the BBC and CNA. If he thought it was worth sharing, I knew it was worth reading.

And it was.

Kearns captured something real: the growing wave of conversions to Catholicism in America and beyond, especially among Gen Z. Young adults, drawn by beauty, discipline, and transcendence, are finding their way into the Church.

It’s not hype.

It’s happening.

But here’s where I want to build on her work: Catholicism didn’t suddenly become cool. It always was. We just forgot.

Maybe it’s because for years the faith got wrapped in the cheap clothes of the culture. Maybe it was camouflaged in clichés. Whatever the reason, the real thing—the ancient, soul-stirring, Truth-proclaiming Catholic faith—was hidden in plain sight.

No marketing campaign could manufacture what’s happening now. Because what we’re seeing isn’t a trend. It’s a rediscovery.

A rediscovery of the Church that gave us hospitals, universities, cathedrals, and saints who could call down fire. A Church that has stood for 2,000 years not because it chased relevance, but because it stood on the Rock.

Today, in an age of noise, distraction, and deep hunger, people are searching again. They’re looking for meaning. Beauty. Truth. God.

And they’re finding it.

They’re walking into candlelit churches and discovering silence that speaks louder than slogans. They’re hearing sacred music that stirs something ancient in the soul. They’re seeing the Eucharist, Jesus Christ, lifted high—and recognizing what’s Real.

Is Catholicism cool?

Let me put it this way:

It’s so far beyond cool that the world’s substitutes feel like cheap knockoffs. Like dirt beside diamonds.

Because this isn’t about trends. It’s about Truth. It’s about something Eternal that burns bright in every age.

And that Light is catching again.

So yes—Catholicism is cool. But not because it changed to fit the times.

Because it never did.

It’s the original. The one, the only.

Because that doesn’t chase the moment, because it was made for eternity.

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Jeffrey Bruno is an award-winning photojournalist and creative director specializing in the mission and beauty of the Catholic Church around the globe.