Young Catholics in Manhattan are building faith-filled lives around adoration, community, and the occasional drink. 

Speaking at the annual retreat for Archdiocese of New York pastors in Spring Lake, N.J., Frs. Jonah Teller, O.P., of St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village; Daniel Ray of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral; and Peter Martyr Yungwirth, O.P., of St. Vincent Ferrer/St. Catherine of Siena in Midtown, were quick to credit God for the surge in younger adults attending Mass and enrolling in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA). 

“This is a God thing. This is not something that we and the Archdiocese of New York came up with,” Fr. Ray said. “God just works. He will soften their hearts and draw them to Him,” Fr. Teller said. All three also credited the National Eucharistic Revival, including the National Eucharistic Congress and National Eucharistic Pilgrimage, which passed through the Archdiocese of New York on Memorial Day weekend in 2024.

Adoration and daily confession 

Beyond the work of the Holy Spirit, regular access to certain practices and sacraments is key. Fr. Teller credited his predecessor at St. Joseph’s, Fr. Boniface Endorf, with taking the lead. “He built a [Eucharistic] adoration chapel in 2023, and things just really grew from that,” Fr. Teller said. Along with extended or even perpetual adoration, “having daily confessions” gives younger Catholics the prayer and healing that so many appear to be seeking. 

Fr. Ray credited the “spiritual entrepreneurship” behind many parish activities. At Old St. Patrick’s, which holds Sunday evening Masses at 5 and 7 p.m., about seven parishioners started going out for a drink after Mass. “That became 15. And then it was 40. When they could no longer fit into the bar they were going to, that’s when they came back to the church and asked us to host it,” he said. For these young professionals, the Church has come to represent “truth and meaning,” he said, whereas “social media offers only emptiness.” “They are looking for something older and more lasting than an Instagram reel,” Fr. Teller said. 

All three emphasized that their parishioners take their faith seriously and want to practice it among like-minded peers of a similar age. “You need to have community before you have communion,” Fr. Ray said. He also named a pitfall for churches following a similar path. “Are we just having a bunch of parties, and is it superficial?” he asked. Ultimately, community should be built around the Church, not for its own sake. 

Priests need deep prayer lives 

The pastors also pointed to areas that have required special attention. A deep personal prayer life is essential for priests, in part to answer the pointed questions from many, including professed atheists who later sought to join the Church. “We can’t give what we don’t have,” Fr. Teller said. 

“People expect us to be smart, with a high level of professionalism,” he said. Because so many of his parishioners are young professionals, they want the Church and their faith held to a standard similar to their work and the rest of their lives. “The Church is really smart. This is a serious thing that serious people can do,” Fr. Teller said.