Number of New French Catholics Has Caught Church by Surprise

Why? If they still believed in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16–20), it would come naturally as the result of their preaching.

From Aleteia

By I. Media

As Pope Leo XIV prepares to visit France this September, the heavily secularized nation is experiencing a surprising and unprecedented surge in adult baptisms.

For several years, France has experienced a singular phenomenon: the number of catechumens — adults and adolescents asking for baptism — has continued to rise. This unexpected dynamic in a profoundly secularized country will receive Pope Leo XIV's up close attention during his visit to France from September 25 to 28. Here we offer you a closer look at the figures behind this trend.

Until 2022, the number of people aged 12 and older asking for baptism in France generally hovered between 5,000 and 6,000 each year. Since then, the growth has accelerated sharply. Between 2021 and 2026, the number of catechumens more than quadrupled.

“This phenomenon was absolutely unexpected and unique,” notes Antoine Pasquier, author of Enquête sur ces jeunes qui veulent devenir chrétiens (Investigation Into These Young People Who Want to Become Christians).

Cyriac Zeller/I.Media

Finding new paths to the Church

The causes of this sudden growth remain difficult to pinpoint. The Church herself seems to have been taken aback by the influx. When he was elected head of the French Bishops' Conference in April 2025, Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline acknowledged that these catechumens had arrived via “other paths” than those typically laid out by the Church.

“Understanding the origin of this phenomenon is a great challenge,” adds Pasquier, who is also editor-in-chief of the magazine Famille Chrétienne. “There’s a particularly striking paradox noted by various sociologists: the more secularized a society becomes, the more there’s a form of spiritual searching among its youngest members.”

The journalist notes that the decline of Catholicism seems to have reduced “negative prejudices” about the Church among young people. “When you ask these newly baptized individuals, they answer simply that the Church can help them in their lives. They’re generally looking for a place to find consolation, but also for a framework,” Pasquier explains.

Adapting to the influx

This sudden arrival of young people seeking baptism has required significant adaptation from the Church. In April 2025, Cardinal Aveline admitted that the Church had fallen behind in preparing sponsors and companions for these future Catholics. Since then, new initiatives have emerged to meet these needs.

The dioceses within the ecclesiastical province of Paris decided to convene a Provincial Ecclesial Assembly to examine how they welcome catechumens. This process involves three phases: consulting the faithful and catechumens (completed earlier this summer), a deliberation period featuring three gatherings of bishop-appointed representatives scheduled through May 2027, and a final phase to implement decisions in parishes starting in late 2027.

This kind of initiative is “unique” within the Catholic Church, Pasquier points out. However, the arrival of numerous catechumens is beginning to appear in other countries. He specifically cites the United States—where “Generation Z is increasingly going to Mass”—as well as Belgium, Spain, Sweden, and Norway. Nevertheless, the numbers recorded in those nations remain more modest than in France.

Pope Leo XIV's interest

During his September 26 visit to the Catholic Institute of Paris, Pope Leo XIV will meet with members of this assembly and deliver a speech. Since the beginning of his pontificate, the Holy Father has repeatedly expressed interest in France's unexplained influx of catechumens. In July 2025, he hosted a private audience for a delegation of several hundred French-speaking catechumens during the Jubilee of Youth.

Furthermore, in an interview published in Elise Ann Allen's 2025 biography Léon XIV, pape missionnaire d'une Église mondialisée (Leo XIV, Missionary Pope of a Globalized Church), the Pontiff called the boom “very interesting” for a nation “that was considered for some time to be one of the most secularized countries there is.”

Despite this emerging dynamic, Catholicism in France continues to decline overall. The evolution of numbers of infant baptisms illustrates this starkly. In 2024, 175,674 children were baptized in France, compared to more than 300,000 in 2010—a drop of over 40% in less than 15 years.

While the number of catechumens is increasing sharply, this growth falls far short of compensating for the drop in infant baptisms. Thus, the boom in the catechumenate is not enough to numerically halt the country's progressive dechristianization, but it undeniably testifies to a new vitality within the French Church.

Cyriac Zeller/I.Media