Growing adult baptism does not lift Church from ‘minority’ in France

‘There is not a return of religion in a statistical sense. There is rather a greater visibility of religion because it is experienced as a minority,’ said sociologist Yann Raison du Cleuziou.

Adult baptisms have seen a notable rise in France but the overall downward trend in believers continues, according to a new survey.

The increase in Easter baptisms in recent years, especially among young adults, has prompted French bishops to study what is behind this trend. A series in the Catholic daily La Croix about the “new believers” gives an outline. 

The findings of the IFOP survey on which the series is based seem to tally with a recent authoritative Pew study in the United States. The phenomenon witnessed at Easter is notable, but not enough to reverse wider trends.

Secularisation is still the predominant trend in the Church, the IFOP study says. Regular practitioners – Catholics attending Sunday Mass at least once a month – now make up only 5.5 per cent of the population. Cultural Catholics, who admit the label but rarely attend Mass, are 6.5 per cent.

“The number of adult catechumens does not at all compensate for the drop in infant baptisms,” sociologist Yann Raison du Cleuziou told La Croix. “There is not a return of religion in a statistical sense. There is rather a greater visibility of religion because it is experienced as a minority.”

In 2023, the last year for official Church statistics, there were 4,198 more baptisms of people over 7 years old than in 2022, but 9,303 fewer infant baptisms. Since 2000, overall baptisms have dropped from 400,327 to 194,223 while baptisms over 7 years old have inched up from 20,234 to 23,933.

Church figures for 2024 in the Netherlands show a slightly better picture, with the 575 increase in adult baptisms in 2024 above the increase for infants of 475. But the bigger picture is also negative. “The number of Catholics has been declining by approximately two per cent per year since 2020,” said a recent report.

Raison de Cleuziou said he saw two groups of Catholics in the French survey. Those over 60 grew up with a Catholic majority in France, while young adult Catholics today make up only 15 percent of their age group. Another 13 per cent are Muslim while 39 percent are “without religion” altogether.

“Becoming a minority and reassembling around more practising believers, Catholicism becomes more divisive and more visible, more ‘strange’ but also more attractive,” he said, explaining that this was “one of the keys to explain the boom” in adult baptisms.

In Germany, a theologian who works on the pastoral care of men for the German bishops’ conference, voiced concern about changing gender patterns in churchgoing. Mass attendance in Germany has been in decline since the pandemic, but women are more likely to leave the church formally. 

Andreas Heek told katholisch.de that unchanged all-male leadership structures are no longer acceptable for young women in particular. He acknowledged the findings of a US study that said more men than women now attend church. 

Specifically, “young, conservative men tend to find a haven of security for their traditional male role in the Catholic Church,” Heek said. “This is not the majority of men who turn to the Christian faith, but this phenomenon does exist.” 

He spoke of a “strong re-traditionalisation of men’s roles” on social media which does not relate to the message of Jesus but rather to patriarchal traditions based on ancient models of masculinity that came into the Church. 

“This acts as an amplifier in certain circles,” he said, but insisted that even if traditionalist movements draw in “young people”, churches should not foster them as they often propagate forms of dominance that conceal inner insecurity. 

“‘Catholic’ means that different currents exist side by side,” Heek said. “We really must remain Catholic, [meaning] people-friendly, diversity-friendly and avoid[ing] stereotypes.”

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