‘Community Before Communion’: Pastors of Growing Parishes Share Lessons on Reaching Young Adults

Three Manhattan priests shared their experiences with growing numbers of young adults during the annual retreat for Archdiocese of New York pastors in Spring Lake, N.J.

Fr. Jonah Teller, O.P., of St. Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village; Fr. Daniel Ray of Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral; and Fr. Peter Martyr Yungwirth, O.P., of St. Vincent Ferrer/St. Catherine of Siena in Midtown, attributed the increase in Mass attendance and enrollment in the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults to God. Fr. Ray stated that the growth was not a product of the Archdiocese or the clergy, while Fr. Teller said God softens hearts to draw people to Him.

The priests also credited the National Eucharistic Revival, including the National Eucharistic Congress and the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage that traveled through the Archdiocese in May 2024, for the trend. Fr. Teller noted that the construction of a Eucharistic adoration chapel at St. Joseph’s in 2023 by his predecessor, Fr. Boniface Endorf, helped drive growth at that parish.