While Pope Leo was in France, the “eldest daughter of the Church,” I was at the Universtiy of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, home of the “mothership” of Catholic Studies. Although separated by an ocean, the events shared a single concern: young people turning to the Church. I cannot recall a more moving sight from a papal trip than Stade de France filled with 80,000 youth holding candles and rosaries, singing the Salve Regina together with a clearly moved Leo XIV. Add to that a triumphant entrance into the restored Notre Dame and 800,000 people crowding the Champs-Élysées and the Place de la Concorde for an outdoor Mass in the very place the revolutionaries executed a Catholic king and queen in 1793. Just what this will mean for the Church in France going forward is beyond our powers to know. What is clear, however, is that Catholicism is presented with another opportunity to draw and welcome spiritual refugees from the desiccation of secularism.
I have treated in a previous Fourth Watch the stirrings of revival in France, and the efforts undertaken by its bishops to respond thoughtfully to this movement of the Spirit. While 58 percent of those between eighteen and fifty-nine years of age with no immigrant background claim no religion at all, a study commissioned by France’s bishops reports that baptisms of teenagers and young adults in 2026 increased ten fold since 2019 and 20 percent since 2025. A good analysis in English can be found here.
Pope Leo addressed this seemingly “paradoxical” occurrence in the “deeply secularized” country at a meeting hosted by the Institut Catholique de Paris. Described as a Provincial Synodal Assembly, it included testimonies from recent converts to the faith. The first speaker was Jaodie, who in his solitary quest for meaning read both the Qu’ran and the New Testament. Convicted of the truth of Christianity by the figure of Jesus presented in the Gospels, he contacted a local parish for baptism. He admitted to some trepidation in going to Mass because of his “North African appearance.” He soon stopped going and returned to his former life of drinking and directionlessness. Only after learning more about Catholicism from the internet was he able to summon the courage to return. Before long, he found a community of young Catholics within the parish who welcomed him as a fellow traveler. You can watch the whole thing here (starting around an hour and twenty-four minutes). It is truly impressive.
In his own remarks, Leo stated that this unexpected surge of interest requires the Church in France to conform itself ever more closely to Christ:
We are called to reach out to our brothers and sisters, rediscovering God’s own way of acting, which is characterized by closeness, compassion and tenderness. With pastoral tenderness and fraternal charity, we must recognize, welcome and protect the small flame that the Holy Spirit has kindled in the darkness of the night, the tiny seed that strives to grow even amid the thorns.
While the revival is a cause for joy, he warned against “complacency” and naïve optimism. Like all gifts, this one can be squandered. Thoughtful and creative pastoral initiatives are necessary to welcome and sustain these new believers beyond their reception of the sacraments of initiation. One of the speakers, a middle-aged woman whose daughter brought her back to the faith, spoke of “post-baptismal emptiness.” My college evangelical friends spoke of this problem in terms of a “mountaintop experience.” Although it is wonderful to dwell with God on the mountain, the true test is when one descends back to the valley of ordinary life.
