Harvard chaplain discusses ‘record-breaking’ number of conversions at the university

This past spring, a record 85 people became Catholic at St. Paul’s Catholic Church across the street from Harvard University, and 45 of those were Harvard students or faculty.

This year, 65 have registered so far, which is keeping apace with last year’s “dramatic increase” in conversions, Father Nathaniel Sanders, the undergraduate chaplain at Harvard, told EWTN News.

Last year’s group, which came from both the Harvard Catholic Center and St. Paul’s, was the “largest class of people becoming Catholic in our history … So, there is something really exciting happening here," Sanders also noted in a recent episode of " The Great American Road Trip ," a cultural and tourism initiative created to celebrate the countryʼs 250th anniversary.

In the episode, the family of U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy travels to Boston while their daughter, Paloma, is considering various college options, including Harvard. The young womanʼs parents arrived with reservations about the possibility of their daughter studying there, as they fear it threatens to undermine the Christian upbringing she received at home.

However, a meeting with Sanders ultimately gives them a different…