PITTSBURGH — 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.