the Youth Jubilee will be celebrated, the most anticipated and attended Jubilee event of the Holy Year 2025 Photo: Regnum Christi

Ireland: adult baptisms on the rise, a hopeful sign of a renewing church

Two decades ago, Dublin was a city of 1.1 million, with 90 percent identifying as Catholic. Today, its population has swelled to 1.6 million, but only 66 percent still claim the Catholic label. The intervening years were marked by public disillusionment, catalyzed by clerical abuse reports, government-backed social reforms such as abortion and same-sex marriage legalization, and a broader cultural shift away from institutional religion.