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Order Jamie Glazov’s new book, ‘United in Hate: The Left’s Romance with Tyranny, Terror, and Hamas’: HERE.
Last September, Pastor Jason Howard of the Sanctuary Church in Pittsburgh saw a surge of young people flocking to his Christian congregation, the week after Charlie Kirk was murdered.
Howard knew that something had shifted. Yes, their congregation had always been predominantly youth-driven, but this was different. Lines began to form for their services. Public transportation was dropping off children by the busload from campuses across the city, and he knew that he had an obligation to expand. Howard teamed up with local college students at the University of Pittsburgh, and a revival called Pitt Purposes was held on campus, attracting about 600 students and led by members of the university’s football team.
But the youth movement didn’t pause. In fact, it grew, leading to last week’s revival at the University of Pittsburgh’s Peterson Center that attracted thousands and included hundreds of baptisms, most in pickup trucks.
Howard said that after Pitt for Jesus happened in the fall, they really wanted to do a follow-up. “Our hope was that we could do something big like at the Petersen Event Center,” he said.
Jake Overman, the captain of the Pitt football team, reached out to Unite Us, a ministry that has partnered with university students to organize big arena events at college campuses. Overman, who might get drafted or picked up as a free agent in next month’s draft in Pittsburgh, led the Pitt for Jesus movement last fall.
There is one catch: Unite Us almost exclusively does events below the Mason-Dixon line. Nonetheless, they secured the Petersen Event Center, located in the middle of the Oakland Campus, and Overman and an army of students began canvassing the local campuses here for turnout.
There are several universities and colleges in the Pittsburgh area: Carnegie Mellon, Duquesne, Robert Morris, LaRoche, Point Park, Carlow, Chatham and Allegheny Community College.
By the time the event happened last week, over 5,000 young people were in attendance, with several hundred of them choosing to be baptized that evening.
They are not alone. For the first time in decades, faith in this country is growing, not retreating — particularly among our young people, something that I’ve been reporting for the past year. In my rural parish, a Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Greensburg, our attendance has nearly doubled since last fall. Unless you get to Mass at least 15 minutes before services begin, you are left standing for the entire service — and that is with added folding chairs in the back, along the side, and with the choir pews above us filled.
This week alone, across the Diocese of Greensburg, over 200 people, young and not so young, will be welcomed and fully initiated into our Catholic community. Eighty-three of those individuals will be baptized, confirmed, and receive the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist. One hundred seventeen candidates who are already baptized in either the Catholic Church or another Christian denomination will be confirmed and receive the Holy Eucharist for the first time.
On Sunday, the Mother of Sorrows parish, which is also part of the Diocese of Greensburg, also had standing-room-only services on Palm Sunday. This has become the norm every Sunday. All three parking lots were packed, with cars straddling the grass leading down to the highway. Nearby Dick’s Diner was also filled with parishioners.
The surge in Roman Catholic Church converts is being felt across the United States. Dioceses in the Rust Belt, Midwest and Bible Belt are seeing record numbers of people received into the Catholic Church. Last fall, The New York Times reported that the Archdioceses of Detroit, Galveston-Houston and Des Moines are also seeing significant increases.
Ryan Burge, the research director of My Faith Counts, a nonprofit nondenominational organization comprised of faith communities from across the country, noted that new data show that the share of Americans who are nonreligious has dropped for the third year in a row, with atheists and agnostics down to 5% each. Burge cited data that was collected in October 2025.
Pastor Howard said that he and other leaders at Sanctuary have been praying for years for the college students in our city to have a true encounter with God.
“What we’re witnessing right now is an answer to many years of prayers,” he said. “Seeing this many college students turn to Jesus, and not just in a casual way but in a passionate way; willing to follow him wholeheartedly.”
Sophia Schweiger was one of those students. The 23-year-old is in a master’s program in dietetics and is studying to become a dietitian. She said that growing up in a Catholic family, faith has always been part of her upbringing. But she lost her way a few years ago when she was in high school. “I had four extremely rough years, then I fell into alcohol, gossip and clique-y friend groups, boys, etc. I never really felt like I fit in anywhere in high school,” she said before adding that it was a feeling of emptiness.
Schweiger said that she meandered for a while in college. First, she attended Penn State, then Pittsburgh. It was here that she found herself missing the closeness with God, which she began pursuing again this year, and which became so profound that she found herself helping others find their way.
“When I was baptizing people that night, so many of them had stories of how God rescued them from depression, addiction, mental health issues and a lack of purpose,” she said. “It was remarkable how many of them said that God had saved them from these things, and that’s why they were going public with their faith through baptism.”
Howard said that this movement isn’t hard to understand once you understand what faith in God does for people and what purpose it brings to their lives.
“I think overall young people are really looking for something real, and I think that this generation has really gotten to the point where the world seems out of control, and the world seems to be so subjective,” Howard said.
He added that people are desperately looking for something absolute to anchor their lives in. “And, of course, God is the absolute that can anchor our lives.”
SMH… what a shame !!
This just shows how stupid people are in America… attending a satanic catholic fake church…
Of course… the majority of atheists and agnostics were once satanic catholic fake church cult members at one time…
So… these kids are being reared up to worship the fake god allah of satanic islam…
And you are proud of that !!?!?!?
Is any of you gonna tell them? Or… are you Ok with worshiping false, fake gods?
A fake god who has no sons for Salvation… Christ Jesus is NOT part of the satanic catholic fake church…
And the Eucharist is satanic… cannibalism…
Thank God they aren’t showing up at your excuse for a church, a rooster shack, with you up on the pulpit ranting and raving about satanic this and that.
When I say that no one is listening to you, because you are one of the most miserable hateful insane individuals I have ever run across, I mean it.
How about you simply shut the hell up. You’ve been pushing your sick f**k version of Christianity forever. How’s it coming along.
Not only does the 10 Commandments tell us to Keep the Sabbath…
It also tells us… as #1… not to have other gods.
Have you ever heard of the 10 Commandments?
Do you know what happened to King Solomon for worshiping other gods?
Do you actually believe it’s hateful for telling people about the 10 Commandments? And telling them NOT to worship the fake god allah?
I believe you are one of the most hateful ignorant fools to “grace these pages”
You ask stupid questions in order to aggrandize yourself. The only person endlessly using the phrase “fake god allah” is you. No one cares about your collection of childish questions and of fake gods, but you certainly have a lot of them. None of them are worth responding to because you are not worth responding to. You couldn’t carry on a coherent conversation is you tried.
Most of the time reading your warble is like talking to a spoiled 5 year old. Who isn’t getting his way.
Hi, Intrepid, I’m going to start calling sumsrent “MAYTAG” because he’s such an agitator.
Tell us Intrepid…
Is allah a god or not?
Is the fake god allah your god? Your homosexual approved satanic ELCA fake church says it is…
Tell us… is allah a god or not?
Keep asking those 5th grade questions and I’ll keep laughing.
“Do you actually believe it’s hateful for telling people about the 10 Commandments?”
It may not be hateful, but it’s not helpful. Why? For one thing it’s not the gospel of the grace of God:
Acts 20:24 “…the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.”
For another thing, not even the saved person can keep the commandments, never mind the the unsaved person. How are you doing with just the ten?
The purpose of the commandments, the Law, was to show men and women, that they can’t possibly earn salvation based on their “good works” and performance. You know, Sumsrent, James says if one offends the law in one point, they are guilty of all of it. They’re a lawbreaker, earning condemnation.
So, the Lord Jesus Christ kept the Law perfectly for everyone and then the Innocent gave Himself for the guilty.
Galatians 5:4 “Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”
Matt…
Both Christ Jesus and Paul said… “Keep the Commandments”… Paul said this AFTER the Crucifixion…
Matt 5:17… “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.”
Today… do not worship false gods stands as much as it did 2000 years ago…
Christ Jesus said…
Paul said…
What we see here is… we are to Keep the Commandments…
Christ Jesus fulfilled the Law by ending the ceremonial sacrifices for righteousness… <<< Think on that.
The return of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation, Christians persecuting and killing each other over heresy and blasphemy, how wonderful.
And they say that Christianity is a religion of peace.
You’re confusing what satanic islam says…
At least speak the Truth…
Two religious clowns arguing with each other. I love it.
The catholic church is a religion like the other 4,300 religions of the world. They teach a salvation by works…if you do the sacraments…if you take communion….if you do this and if you do that. Yes, they preach Jesus, but Jesus is not enough….you need all the other ‘ catholic doctrines’ to be saved.
They do not teach what Jesus taught, and He was very clear, so clear a child can understand…He said… “Unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God’. The RC church does not teach that you must be born again, that you must accept the free gift of salvation through Christ’s shed blood, repent of your sins realizing that they are what put Jesus on that cross, and that He went there willingly in our place. They don’t teach that you have to read the Bible, the whole Bible, searching the Scriptures to learn more about the God that saved them and what He expects from them. They don’t teach that you should interpret Scripture literally, that God said what He meant and meant what He said. They don’t teach the rapture of believers or the imminent Millennial reign, or the Great White Throne Judgment or the coming antichrist. Yes, they talk about Jesus and then they ignore Scripture and pray to the dead. They have made Mary a Co-Redemptress, equal to Jesus, which is blasphemy. They peach a non-exixtent, unbiblical place called purgatory to make sure everyone catholic will get to Heaven. Well, there ain’t no purgatory to be found anywhere in Scripture, like so many of the things that they have ‘made up’. Run, don’t walk, from the RC church.
I am an ex-catholic for 33 years who read the Bible, the WHOLE Bible, got saved and indwelt by the Holy Spirit who has been my guide and teacher for the past 50 years. And He is coming again, very soon, just as He said He would !
Rev. Dr. Roy Trepanier
Founder/Executive Director
Ezra Canada