Church in the World

Adult baptisms continue to rise

France

Adult baptisms in France continue their gradual rise, with 2,708 due to enter the Church at the Easter Vigil this year compared with 2,650 in 2006. The total has risen about 15 per cent since 2001, the National Service for Catechism and Catechumenate (SNCC) said.

 "The challenge now", said Bishop Christophe Dufour, head of the commission for catechism and catechumenate, "is to welcome them and put them, like yeast, at the heart of the life of the Church."

SNCC statistics showed that women made up 71 per cent of the newcomers and 59 per cent of the total was between 25 and 40 years old. The number of new Catholics over 40 has risen from 16 to 21 per cent over the past five years, while the total of those between 18 and 24 has dropped from 25 to 20 per cent.

Only 49 per cent of the newcomers were switching from another Christian church. Some 36 per cent had no religious background, 5 per cent were originally Muslims, 4 per cent followers of Oriental religions and 1 per cent Jewish. A new group among them was a small number of Chinese students seeking baptism.

More than one third of the total came from the Paris region alone.

"The catechumenate has renewed our pastoral work, especially towards parents accompanying the baptism of their children and during preparation for marriage," Bishop Dufour told the Catholic daily La Croix.

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