As the French Bishops' Conference announced on Thursday, 10,384 adults and over 7,400 young people between the ages of 11 and 17 will be baptised during the Easter Vigil.
In total, around 17,800 people will be baptised, an increase of 45 per cent compared to the previous year.
The Archbishop of Lyon, Olivier de Germay, sees this as a "sign from heaven". Nevertheless, he now also sees a major challenge in the process of integration. It is not a question of "inventing any recipes" to keep the newly baptised in the church.
Rather, the congregations must consider how they can better integrate the new members into congregational life, said the bishop.
There is also a dynamic in which those who have already been baptised "discover unimagined spaces of faith", while the newly baptised "are introduced step by step to the various dimensions of Christian life".
Increase in confirmation too
However, the French bishops are not only seeing an increase in the number of catechumens, but also in the number of adult confirmands.
According to the bishops' conference, more than 9,000 adults received the sacrament of confirmation at Pentecost in 2024.
Last year, around 12,000 adults were baptised at the Easter Vigil, which was described as a record.
Youth pastor Vincent Breynaert, head of the Office for Youth Pastoral and Vocations of the French Bishops' Conference, emphasised at the time that it was a massive phenomenon that had begun in the last ten years and was growing steadily.