Kasdin Hale, Olivia Hamlett and John Hayes were a few of several students who shared testimonies of becoming Catholic on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 12, at the Columbus St. Thomas More Newman Center near Ohio State University.
The Newman Center welcomed more than 70 individuals into the Church during the 2025-26 school year. The students’ conversions reflect a growing trend in Gen Z (born 1997 to 2012) individuals becoming Catholic.
Recent Ohio State University graduate John Hayes entered the Church last fall. His faith journey began as a child raised Methodist church. During his college years, he began questioning and researching various Christian denominations.
“I started out digging … more into the apologetics side of things,” he said. “To be honest, I didn’t really get the answers that I wanted. I didn’t think they were good.
“Some were better than others, but that led me to question more and more into what all these different groups believe.”
On his quest for answers, Hayes said he encountered the idea that “you can just live and do whatever you want” without consequences.
“I knew there was something wrong with it, and I knew I didn’t want to live like that,” he said.
In the fall of 2024, he began visiting the Newman Center near Ohio State. He regularly spent time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament in the building’s chapel.
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“Slowly, over time, I just started to encounter a peace that I had never felt before, sitting in there,” he recalled. “I knew 100 percent that that is Jesus up there in that tabernacle.”
Hayes began attending Mass, participating in a men’s Bible study at the Newman Center and met with a priest for spiritual direction.
By the end of 2025, he was deemed ready to enter full Communion with the Church through the sacraments of the Eucharist and Confirmation. He also received the sacrament of reconciliation.
“My first (Confession), I had a big old notebook, and I went into probably far greater detail than necessary, and I was up there for almost two hours,” he recalled.
“I walked out afterward and everyone was like, ‘What happened to you? You’re glowing.’”
Hale, a recent college graduate, also became Catholic after an extended church search. He attended Order of Christian Initiation of Adults (OCIA) classes at the Newman Center while playing soccer for Otterbein University in Westerville.
The Mississippi native grew up in the Church of Christ. Heading north to Columbus for college, he sought to find a local church of the denomination.
With fewer Churches of Christ in central Ohio than down south, he began researching other Christian denominations.
“I read what the Church Fathers had to say,” he shared. “I actually picked up my Bible and read what that had to say.
“It wasn’t until I learned John chapter six, when Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper in the Upper Room – it’s something that my previous denomination did not have the reverence for: the Body, Blood and Soul and divinity of Christ.
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“It just all made so much sense about how the Blood and Body are literally transformed. And when we consume that every Sunday, it’s not just us looking for Christ, it’s Christ living in us. That was really the big turning point in my faith.”
In 2025, Hale attended his first Mass. “It was awesome – so, so different – so much more traditional than what I had experienced beforehand,” he said.
Hale and his girlfriend, also an Otterbein University student, began attending OCIA classes at the Ohio State Newman Center on Sunday evenings. The two came into the Church together at Easter.
“I think now building our relationship centered around God has done wonders for us,” he said, noting their desire to receive the sacrament of matrimony and marry in the Church.
Hamlett, an Ohio State student originally from Dayton, was raised Buddhist. Growing up, her family fell away from the practice.
During her sophomore year at Ohio State, she befriended an individual who was Catholic. The young man had strayed from the faith but shared his efforts to return to the sacraments and life in the Church.
“He ended up showing me that he could do it,” she said. “When I saw that, I was like, ‘OK, I want to try it too.’”
Hamlett got involved at the Newman Center. She connected with Saint Paul’s Outreach, an apostolate with missionaries serving on college campuses, and she attended events and retreats.
She began the process of entering the Church last fall, which culminated in receiving the sacraments on Divine Mercy Sunday this year.
“I knew I had to let go of so many things in my life that were really secular but also weighing me down – even stuff that I wanted to do in the future – I knew I had to let it go, so I had to pray about it a lot,” she shared.
“I cried a lot, but I also I worshiped a lot and felt so much love within that time.”