Originally published at The Crux
Read more...
Ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France in late September, an expert in the history of French Catholicism has said a recent increase in adult and adolescent baptisms in the country is a modestly positive sign that doesn’t “compensate for the collapse in infant baptisms.”
Leo is set to visit France from Sept. 25-28. In the European country, this year there were 21,386 adults and teenagers aged between 11 to 17 baptized during the Easter Vigil, an increase from 17,788 in 2025.
At the same time, this August, France enacted a law allowing establishing a right to “aid in dying” after a protracted process in France’s parliament.
Speaking to Crux Now, Guillaume Cuchet, a professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and an expert in the history of Catholicism, was cautious about the idea that France was experiencing a significant revival of the faith.
While acknowledging the “significant increase in the number of baptisms of young people and adults”, he said other “indicators of religious sociology—Sunday Mass attendance, religious weddings, infant baptisms, attendance at catechism classes, etc.—continue to decline.”
“In any event, the increase in adult baptisms does not statistically compensate for the collapse
