Record Numbers of Adult Baptisms: Surprising Data from the Church in France

On the occasion of the Easter Vigil, ten adults and teenagers were baptized in the church of the Sacred Heart of Limoges. In recent years, the number of baptisms of adults has risen sharply in the hexagon.

While the baptisms of adults and adolescents are breaking records, the Catholic Church is putting on the fervor of these new converts in this year of "the Jubilee of Hope".

Amid Moral Confusion, the Church Offers Resurrection and Belonging

Like bells ringing and echoing through the streets, the same echo can be heard from city to city across Europe: the number of baptisms set to be celebrated on Easter night in 2025 is expected to reach record levels. This is unprecedented in the spiritual desert of our old continent, which for so many years seemed to have succumbed to consumerist materialism and the abandonment of hope.France, which once adorned itself with the glorious title of …

In the Lot, the demands for baptisms of adults are on the rise, "an impulse driven by a quest for meaning", stressed Bishop Laurent Camiade, Bishop of Cahors.

Driven by the quest for meaning, the influence of social networks and the need for belonging, the number of baptisms explodes in France. A generation rediscovers the Christian faith... and pushes the Church out of its reserve.

Record Numbers of Adult Baptisms: Surprising Data from the Church in France

It is not modern media campaigns or spectacular pastoral initiatives that are drawing people to the Church along the Seine today. Rather, it is the crucified Christ who is becoming the deepest magnet for those who are searching, says Bishop Matthieu Rougé, ordinary of the Diocese of Nanterre. Writing in the French daily La Croix, the bishop describes a quiet yet radical spiritual shift in France: a sharp rise in adult baptisms, packed Ash Wednes…