by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Known as a country where 50% of the population say they do not believe in God, France saw a record 12,135 baptisms this Easter, America Magazine reports. The French Bishops Conference said in a new report that 7,135 adults and more than 5,000 children aged 11-17 were baptized during Easter services this year.
According to the Bishops Conference, this year saw an increase of 31% in the number of people baptized; the number of baptisms among those aged 18-25 years old, rose from 23% to 36% in the last year.
“In today’s French society, 80% of young people have not received any religious education,” Father Vincent Breynaert, director of the National Youth and Vocations Service, said in the report. “They have very few preconceived ideas about the Church.”
“What those asking for baptism have in common is that they had a spiritual experience and a personal encounter with Christ,” Breynaert added.
The Conference report noted in particular that around 5% of newly baptized Christians came from Islamic backgrounds, America Magazine said.
“It is very surprising to see the often totally unexpected path taken by those who ask to be baptized,” Bishop Olivier Leborgne of Arras, president of the Council for Catechesis and the Catechumenate, said in a statement.
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