Wow - Catholic Church in France Announces Record Breaking Growth as Over 12,000 People were Baptized at Easter!

The Catholic Church in France Announces over 12,000 new baptized adolescents and adults in 2024 alone.
Four days before Easter, one of the two most important holidays for Catholics alongside Christmas, the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) presented, Wednesday March 27, the 2024 results of its annual survey on “catechumens”, these adults and adolescents baptized each year on Easter Day, after having engaged in the path of initiation into Christian life called “ catechumenate ”.

Results never achieved since the creation of this survey by the CEF more than twenty years ago, a survey that is now a benchmark.
During a press conference at the CEF headquarters, avenue de Breteuil in Paris (75007), Catherine Chevalier, Director of the National Service for Catechesis and Catechumenate ( SNCC), detailed the four major trends observed this year :
More and more catechumens

Like last year, the dioceses of France (104 in total) recorded a sharp increase in catechumens. From +28% in 2023, this growth will cross the threshold of 30% in 2024. In total, 7,135 adults will be baptized at Easter this year, and more than 5,000 adolescents (i.e. middle and high school students only, primary school students not being counted in the survey).

Younger and younger catechumens
The share of young people aged 18 to 25, particularly students, among adult catechumens, continues to increase in 2024, after the very significant increase observed last year. They now represent more than a third of newly baptized adults (36% in 2024, vs. 34% in 2023). Note that they represented only 23% of adult catechumens before COVID.
A notable revival of vitality in rural areas
The trend observed last year in rural areas is confirmed, with 29% of adult catechumens living in rural areas. In 2024, the three ecclesiastical provinces recording the highest increases (+50%) are Besançon, Dijon and Clermont, predominantly rural provinces. The diocese of Saint-Claude (Jura) in particular recorded a record increase this year with more than 200% of catechumens compared to last year (27 in 2024 vs. 8 in 2023).
Catechumens increasingly free from any Christian culture
Although a large majority of adult catechumens come from families of Christian tradition, this number decreases each year (61% in 2024, vs nearly 69% in 2023). Conversely, people declaring themselves “from families without religion” are increasing significantly: they now represent a quarter of adult catechumens.
“To experience that good is better than goods”
During this press conference, Jean-Yves Lépine, “ neophyte ” (ie: baptized last year) of the diocese of Versailles, also gave his testimony: “ What was at the origin, for me, of the “catechumenal path” that I have undertaken, it is clearly the encounters: attentive priests, a joyful and dynamic parish community. Through them, I discovered an open and welcoming Church, and extremely diverse! Faced with a society that appears more and more materialist and seems to promote a form of consumerist individualism, being Christian and "Catholic" (ie. universal, etymologically), is to experience that THE good is to say care, attention, and more broadly Love, is better than goods, that is to say possession, wealth, power or glory .
Zoom 2024: the influence of religious heritage in adult conversions
Each year, the CEF “ Catechumenate ” survey delves deeper into a particular theme, in order to always better understand and apprehend the determining factors of the catechumenal path. In 2024, the theme of the survey focused on the influence of religious heritage in adult conversions, in connection with the States General of Religious Heritage (EGPR) launched in 2023 by the CEF.
Source: https://eglise.catholique.fr/espace-presse/communiques-de-presse/550845-resultats-record-en-2024-du-nombre-de-catechumenes-en-france/