As the French Catholic Church reports record numbers of baptisms over the Easter weekend, Tony Wilson wonders whether the ‘quiet revival’ is also happening outside of the UK
In Catholism, the first mass of Easter is the traditional time for new converts to be baptised. And this year, the Conference of Catholic Bishops in France reported that 17,000 people were welcomed into the Church over the Easter weekend. Widely reported in the secular media as part of the ongoing revival in faith in France, not only is this a relatively large number (the average is just 4,000 per year) but it is also rising year on year.
For example, in the town of Chambéry, in the French Alps, where I celebrated Easter, the numbers have grown from six in 2021, to 19 in 2022, 30 in 2023 and 33 in 2024. This year, they baptised 80 people.
In March, I wrote about the surprising return to faith among the student community of Toulouse. A recent chat with Fr Antoine in the student mission team confirms that they saw 800 people baptised over Easter weekend, with a further 1,000 scheduled for Pentecost!
Among the statistics, each person brings their own unique testimony of being found by God
Interestingly, the balance is shifting from adults seeking confirmation to baptism instead. This is the first generation to be brought up in secular homes with little sense of duty to traditional Christianity with a formation of faith starting with infant baptism. With a weaker attachment to cultural Christianity, the young adults are now discovering the value of what their forebears let slip.
The other significant factor is that, like the recent experience in the UK, the demand is being driven by young adults - with a particularly large uptick among men.
Christ is risen
All these factors played out vividly at the Easter Vigil service in Chambéry on the night of Holy Saturday. As dark settled on the medieval square, a fire burned in the brazier and the Easter candle was lit by the bishop at the start of this ancient liturgy. The crowd was diverse, with a large contingent of young adults who were clearly there of their own accord, rather than dragged along by family. A group dressed in black were the candidates for baptism and they led the crowd of well over 1,000 who gathered to celebrate that Christ est vraiment ressuscité (is truly resurrected).
Many of us, who are used to celebrating Easter on Sunday morning, might find it strange that this happens on a Saturday night. The first Christians inherited their marking of time from their Jewish origins and the Catholic Church never stopped. For Catholics, Sunday starts when the sun sets on Saturday.
Young adults are now discovering the value of what their forebears let slip
The crowd processed into the dark church under candlelight. In the gloom, we sat for an hour listening to the whole of salvation history being read from the Bible, starting with Genesis and running through the prophets. Finally, we stood for the proclamation of the gospel, telling us that Christ is risen; the lights went on and the bells rang out.
The bishop stepped into the baptism pool and welcomed each of the candidates to come forward and be fully immersed. A whole hour later, they retired to dry off and change, returning dressed in white and sent out to re-light the candles of the congregation.
One man’s story
Talking with Marvin Serra, 32 (pictured, left), who was baptised that night, his story is typical of many who are finding their way into the Church. Growing up in a multicultural suburb of Paris with friends of different faiths, he admits that his Catholic school made little impression on him at the time and he chose to be an atheist.
He was quite hostile to religious belief but, in recent years, he realised that his worldview was responsible for the loss of many shared cultural values which were eroding the family and our capacity to love. Marvin came across compelling evidence online for the authenticity for the Turin Shroud and eucharistic miracles, which shook his faith in materialism. When he turned up at his local parish church, the priest quickly discerned that they would need many one-to-one meetings to answer his questions. A year later, Marvin is a born-again Christian.
Among the statistics of large numbers of adults coming to faith, it is easy to lose sight that each person brings their own unique testimony of being found by God. The so-called ‘quiet revival’ reflects that faith is being formed in large numbers over a wide range of denominations and locations, rather than at rallies and missions attached to specific places or churches. Perhaps the age of big-scale evangelistic events is now less relevant to the current generation of enquirers who are turning up with their own specific stories and questions.
This is an epochal change that we need to be ready to welcome. Moving from programmatic approaches to personalised accompaniment is a shift we all need to consider in order to meet this new demand.
