The number of baptisms sharply increasing in France: how to explain this increase ?

According to the Conference of Bishops of France, the number of adult baptisms is increasing. Easter in 2024 will be up 31% compared to last year. 2023.

This is a trend that has been observed since 2021: the number of baptisms is increasing in France. According to the Conference of Bishops of France, 7,135 adults should be baptized at this time. Easter, an increase of 31% compared to last year. 2023. The body, which brings together representatives of the Catholic Church, also announces that this increase particularly affects young people from 18 to 25 years old. They now represent 36% of the total population. baptized adults. They were 23% before the Covid-19 pandemic. Among adolescents aged 11 to 17, the number of baptisms is increasing by 50% in France this year. e. In certain dioceses, the increase in requests for baptism, all ages combined, is even greater. For that of Saint-Claude, locatedé in the Jura, it is 200% more compared to the rest of the country. 2023. 

Religion is a "less taboo” subject

"There is an underlying trend in societyé French, in the younger generations who approach the question of religious experience in a more complex manner and the quest for meaning, analyzes Father Daniel Blaj, head of the adult catheterization in Alsace, interviewed by by BFMTV. According to him, the model of transmission of faith has evolved. : "we transmitted the faith à inside a family tradition (…) automatically. We now move on to & another model where the experience corresponds to a questioning". According to Catherine Chevalier, director of the National Service of Catechesis and the Catéchénat of the French Catholic Church' Comfortably, the subject of religion is "less taboo, perhaps than in previous generations".& ;nbsp;

The survey of the Conference of Bishops of France also reports that the number of people "from families without religion" increases significantly: this represents a quarter of adult catenes. 

However, the Catholic Church remains in decline. 200,000 people were baptized in 2019, compared to 400,000 in 2000. The number of baptized people from families of Christian tradition is also decreasing : 61% in 2024, against 69% in 2023.