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COZ156: Young Australians are returning to faith at rates the Church didn’t see coming, and Archbishop Peter A. Comensoli has been watching it happen on two continents.

He joins Lindsay Sant, Caroline Knight, and Lino Saubolle to trace the shift. A Corpus Christi procession drew more than 5,000 people through Melbourne’s streets. Over 600 people were baptized or received into the Church in the Archdiocese at Easter, the majority under 40. Catholic school students are asking teachers for lunchtime rosaries, Bible studies, and candle-lighting spaces. Something changed post-COVID, and the Archbishop has a few theories about why.

Earlier this year, he traveled to Marseille, Lyon, and Paris to see it firsthand in France, where the numbers are larger still. He spoke with bishops, priests, and RCIA teams in each city. One pattern kept coming up: young people from Muslim backgrounds, drawn by the clarity and embodied practice they see in their Christian friends, starting to ask questions about the faith.

Back in Melbourne, the Cathedral sits at the center of something much larger. Archbishop Comensoli explains “Light into the City,” a $190M, three-stage renewal of St Patrick’s Cathedral and the full city block surrounding it, projected over roughly 10 years. The cathedral itself is expected to close for a major roof and spire restoration around late 2026. A small chapel will maintain a Blessed Sacrament presence throughout. The vision is a place of prayer, culture, mission, and refuge that works as a spiritual heart for Melbourne.

Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo XIV’s first encyclical, gets a full discussion. Archbishop Comensoli pushes back on the media’s “AI encyclical” label. The document is about human dignity. AI is the occasion for a larger question: does technology serve or supplant our humanity? The encyclical’s central image, Tower of Babel against the walls of Jerusalem, runs throughout.

The conversation also covers Pope Leo XIV’s character and likely priorities, Sherry Weddell’s upcoming visit for Proclaim 26, the statistic that bishops and priests put only 2 to 5 percent of parishioners in the category of truly intentional disciples, and the slow work of parish renewal.

Archbishop Comensoli closes with a blessing.

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This episode of The Catholics of Oz was edited by Patrick McCaffrey of Moon Shadow Studios. To have your own audio professionally edited by Moon Shadow Studios visit them at their web site MoonShadowStudios.biz.