From OSV News:
The Archdiocese of Paris is launching a major churchwide council in response to a surge in adult and youth conversions across France.
The initiative begins Jan. 25, the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul, with a four-month consultation involving all parishes and nine bishops. Church leaders say the timing reflects the unprecedented growth in catechumens, especially among young people.
“The date was not chosen at random,” Father Maximilien de La Martinière explained, as St. Paul “was an adult who, after his conversion, became a catechumen and then a zealous neophyte.”
Father de La Martinière, a priest of the Diocese of Versailles, was appointed secretary general and is responsible for overseeing the organization of the council. He works with teams established locally in each diocese.
The increase in the number of young people and adults requesting baptism has been noticeable across France for the past five years. But at the beginning of 2025, those numbers rose significantly again. This prompted Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris to propose the council, announced in April.
Only in the Archdiocese of Paris, 2,652 adults were baptized on Easter 2025, and nationwide, the number of adult baptisms skyrocketed to 17,800 catechumens baptized during the Easter Vigil on April 19, 2025, including 10,384 adults and more than 7,400 young people ages 11 to 17, according to an annual survey by the National Service for Catechumens of the French bishops’ conference.
“The subject is extremely joyful and motivating,” Father de La Martinière told OSV News. “In my parish, we have baptized about 15 young people or young adults in recent years, during each Easter Vigil. But last year, there were 23, and we now have 50 catechumens out of 800 people who come to Mass on Sundays,” he said, highlighting that “this transforms the parish. Many parishes are experiencing similar situations.” The scale of the movement is “beginning to have a real impact on the lives of Catholics in France,” he told OSV News.
