by Thomas Colsy, Catholic Hearld April 14, 2023
There was significant rise in the number of baptisms at this year’s Easter vigil in France, according to figures published before the Easter Triduum by the French National Service for Catechesis and Catechumenate.
This year at the Easter vigil, 5,463 adults received the sacrament of baptism across France, a 21 per cent rise on the year before. In 16 dioceses, the number of converts doubled.
The rise has been both steady and consistent. The figures revealed there were 3639 adult baptisms in 2021, meaning 2023 represented a 50 per cent increase on two years ago. Meanwhile, in the past twenty years, according to Le Figaro, “adult baptism requests have doubled”.
The increasing number of Catholics finding the Faith in France are from disparate backgrounds. Of those confirmed at the Easter Vigil this year, a third of those baptised were in the in the 18-25 age bracket– a proportional increase from 24 per cent two years ago. According to trends, the Church is receiving marginally more women than men into her fold.
Three per cent of converts were Muslim, which is less than in 2021 when it was reported by Mission Ismérie (a charity aimed at evangelisation to non-Christian religions) that over 10 per cent of converts that year came from Islam.
There is a noticeably more pronounced growth in rural areas than urban areas. This year, of the 16 dioceses where adult baptisms doubled, 15 were rural. Additionally, there was only a 17 per cent increase in Paris (compared to 33 per cent nationally).
Significantly, fewer than 55 per cent of those baptised were raised in Christian families, practicing and non-practising.
“The parents wanted to leave them free as children, and then in adulthood they took this step,” explained Cécile Eon, head of the National Catechesis and Catechumenate Service.
Simultaneously, on Good Friday 2023, it was reported by the Times that crucifixes were rising across France in a message that “this is a Christian country”.
A fast-growing charity named SOS Calvaires has been repairing, restoring and erecting crucifixes across the French countryside. In 2022, the charity helped raise over 200 Calvary scenes. For a long time a small local organisation after its founding in 1987, it has recently expanded rapidly and has more than 50 branches across France.
Crucifixes are not an uncommon scene in rural France. Many are historical and were built with the help of missionaries (such as St Louis Grignon de Montfort) in the 18th and 19th centuries. Large metal crosses, exemplified by the one found atop the Pic Saint-Loup in Occitania, are often found at the summit of mountains.
link to rest of the story:https://catholicherald.co.uk/number-of-adult-baptisms-in-france-rises-again-this-year-as-crucifixes-are-erected-across-countryside/