Jesus rose from the dead. Now, he’s raising follower counts.
A new class of hip, young Catholic content creators is making a viral splash on social media, eagerly spreading the good news in an age of uncertainty, and making Catholicism cooler than ever — just in time for Easter.
From poking fun at the idiosyncrasies of age-old customs (just how many times do Catholics have to kneel during Mass?) to sharing passionate takes on religious texts and teachings, these young, virtual evangelists have made it their mission to take the Church further into the 21st century — with many simultaneously urging followers to return to more “traditional” values.
There’s actor David Henrie, 36, who regularly posts about his Catholic faith for his 2.9 million Instagram followers, and chats with other big names like Bishop Robert Barron from Minnesota, who has 654K followers on Instagram himself. On TikTok, there’s Gen Zer Emily Dinneny, creator of @catholic.converts — a lively channel with nearly 100K followers, where she shares her journey as a converted Catholic.
Even young priests, like Instagram standout Father David Michael Moses (1.1 million followers), are part of the trend, posting videos with grabby titles that range from “A Weekend As a Catholic Priest” to “The Gospel According to Shrek.”
New Yorker Anthony Gross is among the growing chorus of young voices, hoping to help Gen Z make sense of the world they’re living in — the 22-year-old regularly posts Catholic-centric content alongside shirtless fitness vids for his 125K avid Instagram followers.
Gross said he’s been sensing a craving for something more from life, among his peers — telling The Post that he’s seeing an increasing number of them “turning back to God.”
“A couple of years ago, faith had a more negative connotation — like, ‘Young people prioritize other things, young people prioritize X,Y, Z,’” Gross, who was raised Catholic, told The Post.
“But the pendulum has swung, and now people are turning back. It’s more vocalized through the media and social media… Like, ‘Oh, there’s a lot of people doing this. This is social proof, this is acceptable. This person I really respect is going back to Mass and all their friends are, maybe I should start doing it, too,’” he said.
Gross prides himself on practicing what he preaches in regard to both content creation and his faith — perhaps in some unorthodox ways.
While he’s been a content creator since October 2023, his account started picking up steam when he posted a series of reels ranking the top Catholic churches in the Big Apple shortly after his move to NYC this past summer.
He attributes the burst of online notoriety to a phenomenon top-tier creator MrBeast calls the “purple elephant” — aka, something viewers have never seen before.
“Ranking Catholic churches sounds a little bit edgy — like really, you’re going to rank churches?” said Gross.
“But I think people don’t associate New York City with faith. I also think my angle of Gen Z coming back to church was interesting, and that’s why it caught people’s attention. A lot of young people in New York are looking for a strong sense of community, and this way they could see what churches had good communities for young adults,” he explained.
Recently, Gross and his friend/fellow content creator Kate DePetro had the idea to take their faith beyond the grid. After an impromptu meetup to grab a pre-Mass slice of pizza, DePetro suggested making the casual hang a community event.
A week later, the influencers sent out a Partiful invite, urging friends and followers to join them for a “pizza social” at a popular Greenwich Village pizzeria, where they would break bread before attending service at nearby St. Joseph’s — with an hour to spare, so as not to break the Eucharistic fast.
Nearly 100 young people, ages 22 to 30, showed up. Gross and DePetro now plan to host the event on a regular basis.
“I think Gen Z feels really lost, and some of that is a lack of purpose and direction,” Gross said. “The best antidotes to finding those are number one, God, and number two, connection… (Here), you’re surrounded by people with similar values and who are here for the same purpose. We can connect over something we have in common, and then all go to Mass together.”
Gross’ experience matches a recent NY Times report, which stated that new converts are flocking to the Church at highs not seen in a decade, in some cases — many of whom will be officially received as Catholics for the first time during the Easter Vigil Mass, which takes place the night before Easter Sunday on April 5.
“In our age of uncertainty, and in our age of great anxiety, is a thirst and hunger for God and stability that faith brings to people’s lives,” Archbishop Mitchell Thomas Rozanski of St. Louis, Mo., told the Gray Lady.
Rozanski and other clergy believe that a variety of factors, like the election of Pope Leo XIV in 2025 (the first American pontiff) and a general desire for community during “an age of uncertainty,” are bringing more people back to the faith — specifically, those in the 18 to 35 age range.
John French, a 22-year-old Catholic influencer whose Instagram account boasts 180K followers, feels this inundation of new Church members is coming from a place of seeking direction and higher guidance.
“These days, people are very unsure of themselves and what to trust,” French told The Post. “I think the Church can be an anchor to this because of the values she upholds… It offers hope to young people who would otherwise despair in a culture of fluidity.”
Though French, who holds a BA in theology from the University of Notre Dame Australia, harbors serious ideas about Catholic apologetics — the theological practice of explaining and defending Church doctrines — his own media content has a more light-hearted, approachable feel.
Featuring text overlay with a pop art-esque font, French’s recent Instagram reel topics range from “The Top Three Catholic Intrusive Thoughts” (“What if I randomly confess to murder for no reason?” ranks number two) to imagining how the Catholic saints might act on a livestream today (playing St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, he proudly shows off a chicken).
“I try to communicate the faith through a sense of humor, because everyone wants to have a laugh,” said French. “I think it’s important to uphold a certain light-heartedness, so that not all Catholic content out there is focused on serious matters.”
He even likens the ethos of his content creation to that of J.R.R. Tolkien, devout Catholic and famed author of “The Hobbit” and “The Lord of the Rings” — though he was quick to note that those who tell him he’s doing great missionary work “maybe give me too much credit.”
“Tolkien didn’t like allegory, or work that is overtly evangelizing in nature,” noted French, who considers himself a content creator first, evangelist second. “My work has more of an entertainment focus, but if it’s properly ordered toward the goodness, truth and beauty of God, then it will naturally draw people toward that.”
While Dr. Michael E. Heyes, chair of the religion department at Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., told The Post he’s worried that when it comes to the recent deluge of religious content creators, the bad may outweigh any good they’re doing.
“My concern is that (religious influencers) are doing the same kind of thing that normal social media does to people, which is to make them feel inadequate in some way,” Heyes explained. “It might give them a depiction of life that they can’t possibly live up to — a kind of carefully curated spirituality or living condition that drives a sense of inadequacy in the population.”
Heyes also worries about popular religious influencers who’ve introduced politics into their feeds — which could end up “driving division.”
“I don’t think that combining religion and politics is necessarily always a bad thing, but I think the people who get the most clicks tend to be those whose views tick off the most people,” said Heyes.
“Oftentimes, our motivation for consuming religious content is to revel in our sense of justifying rightness in a community we belong to… Social media generates engagement through controversy, anxiety and through a sense of building communities that exclude — not by encouraging everybody to come to the table and learn,” he said.
But Eliza Monts, a 27-year-old Catholic influencer and Substack author based in Charleston, SC, with 82.6K followers on Instagram, said that she wants her content to help cultivate an inclusive, faith-based sense of community.
Even if many of her posts take on a more serious, intellectual tone, with politics on the table for discussion, she’s really online to “share what’s on her heart,” she said — and that she just happens to be Catholic.
“People like talking about what they’re interested in,” Monts told The Post. “Sourdough accounts come from people who love making sourdough, and fashion accounts come from people who really love fashion… For some Catholics, that’s just their Catholic faith.”
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