A record number of adults in France are expected to have received baptism across the country on Easter, primarily driven by young people joining the Catholic Church.
Some 10,384 adults in France are scheduled to be baptized between Saturday evening and Easter Sunday, according to the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF). This comes on top of an additional 7,404 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 expected to receive baptism this week.
The CEF stated that the record numbers were driven in large part by people under the age of 25, with a 45 per cent increase among adults compared to last year, and a 33 per cent rise among adolescents. This can partially be explained by the fact that fewer babies are being baptized by their parents, and thus, there are more teens and young adults who can request the sacrament.
However, others have also suggested that a cultural shift is underway in the country. Commenting on the surge in popularity of the Catholic Church with young people, the former bishop of Fréjus-Toulon, Monsignor Rey, surmised that many are experiencing a lack of meaning in modern society.
“In this era where both individualism and consumerism are rampant, where woke culture deconstructs while promising absolute freedom of one’s body, where anthropological benchmarks are atomized, in this dead end, man then measures the empty and cannot ignore the question of God even more than in the past,” he told Valeurs Actuelles.
Political scientist Jérôme Fourquet suggested that there were multiple factors in the resurgence of the Catholic Church over the past decade in France, which many had turned away from following the sexual abuse scandals.
Fourquet argued that the 2013 law allowing for same sex marriage in France had fundamentally disrupted the “civilizational framework” and sparked a strong mobilisation of Catholics against the modern trends on sexuality. He also said that the spate of Islamist terror attacks starting in 2015 in France had caused many to view their country as a Christian land under attack.
Finally, the political scientist surmised that the 2019 fire at the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral in Paris was taken as an omen from God to return to the church.
Pauline, a 26-year-old woman who was raised in an atheist household, told the publication that she intends on being baptised within the next two years, saying: “I am attracted by the beauty of Christian morality, that which advocates charity, humility, love, mercy… Just as this culture has shaped our civilisation for millennia. My approach is both spiritual and cultural.”
Despite France being one of the most secular societies in the world, with a 2021 survey finding that over half of the population does not believe in God, a poll this week found that 77 per cent still see France as being culturally and traditionally a Catholic country.
