LEICESTER, United Kingdom – As religious belief drops in Britain, the number of self-described Catholics attending Mass at universities is seriously declining.
A new survey released by the Pew Research Center says 26 percent of people raised as Christians in the United Kingdom later left their denomination – of those most leave Christianity altogether. Often this decision was made when the person was a teenager or a young adult.
Father Mark Wharton is the Catholic Chaplain at the University of Kent, located in the Archdiocese of Southwark.
When he arrived, the number of students engaged was minimal. Mass attendance was around five people, at best.
It was one of Wharton’s first assignments after his ordination in 2022,
“I had no idea what to do. I was praying about it quite intensely,” the priest said.
“I said to an older priest, a wise priest, what am I supposed to do,” Wharton explained, “and he said, ‘you need to do what priests do. You need to celebrate Mass, hear confessions and have adoration.’”
Although this method might have seemed old-fashioned, it is what the new priest decided to do.
Each day during the university term, the Chaplaincy has Eucharistic adoration, during which confessions were heard, and daily Mass took place.
Wharton said the impact was extraordinary, with Sunday Mass now having 50 to 60 attendees, and the daily Mass and Adoration averages 20 students.
The impact has been extraordinary. When there were 5 people at Mass on Sunday, now there are 50 to 60. Weekday Mass and adoration numbers vary, but it’s typically around 20 students every day.
“I have always been grateful to that priest [who suggested Adoration], but I am doubly grateful to him now,” Wharton said, saying it has put “Christ at the center.”
“Once we put Him at the center, it’s Him who directs it,” he explained, adding that means any barriers to evangelization in a secular environment “are all taken away.”
Andrew Mensah, 20, is a student at Kent, and said he had experienced trouble with his faith in the past.
“I bumped into Father Mark and the Chaplaincy and I haven’t been able to leave since,” he said.
He added he “didn’t really know what Adoration was at all.”
“I learned all about it here… and it’s been the most life changing aspect” of his time at university,” he said, adding, “I love it, to be honest.”
Mensah lives in a Britain where less than half of the population of men under 25 knows about Jesus Christ, but around 80 percent have watched videos made by the podcaster Andrew Tate.
The popular figure advocates a hedonist lifestyle based on sex, parties, and money. Tate has been accused of rape and human trafficking in Romania but denies all of the charges.
RELATED: Catholic parents should keep an eye on the popularity of Andrew Tate
“I personally had a lot of friends who looked up to Andrew Tate, so showing them the light of Christ was important,” Mensah told Crux.
“Biblical masculinity trumps worldly masculinity. Young men look up to Tate because he’s rich and have things they desire. Ultimately, spending time with Jesus changes our hearts & desires, hence we look to Him for completion rather than worldly figures like Tate,” the student said.
He said Wharton has “changed the game” for young people.
“He’s led us to Christ and helped us understand what true masculinity is by his example and the example of the saints. We need more young priests, who can serve as role models to our young people,” Mensah said. “Ultimately we end up having a liking for worldly figures, because we spend more time consumed in their videos, than we do with Christ!”
The priest said in the world today people often hear talk of “love languages, such as words of affirmation and gift giving,” adding the love language of Jesus “is quality time,” noting that in Adoration “we look at Him and He looks at us.”
“Every time you read in the Scriptures about the Lord’s encounter with somebody, His desire is to be with them,” Wharton said, explaining Jesus “fulfils the desire of His heart to be with us and us with Him.”
His students agree.
“In adoration, we are looking at Christ,” Mensah told Crux.
“When Moses spent time with God, his face shone. Blessed Carlo Acutis also said that in adoration we become ‘saints.’ he silence of Adoration allows for many questions to rise and put to God, when we leave, we see Him move in such a clear way,” the student said.
Carlo Acutis is a British-born Italian website designer who documented Eucharistic miracles and approved Marian apparitions, and died in 2006. He was beatified in 2020 by Pope Francis, and is scheduled to be canonized on April 27.
“We start to realize that we cannot love creation, more than our Creator,” Mensah said.
“God speaks! Hearing His voice consume the silence of Adoration, changes our desires and outlook. But this is made whole with community, hence, I’m trying to build a community of Catholic young people and one especially for men, to show that you can be a saint, and be truly successful,” the student told Crux.
Follow Charles Collins on X: @CharlesinRome
