France" "
On Easter night and Easter Sunday, 2374 adults will be baptized throughout France. They have all completed a course of catechumenate over the last few years. To mark the occasion the figures referring to the year in course have been published: the national Service of catechumenate headed by the French Bishops’ Conference says that they confirm “a constant flow of applicants demonstrating the vitality of the Christian faith”. According to the latest figures, there are 9200 French adults currently enrolled in the courses of the catechumenate (there were 9205 in the previous year and 8945 in 2001). Two thirds of these are women and 80% are in the 20-40 age group. They are characterized by great geographical, cultural, religious, social and professional diversity: the majority come from the cities (83%), say they do not have any precise religious affiliation (36%) or at most trace their origins to a Christian faith professed by the family to which they belong (35%). Catechumens that belong to oriental religions like Buddhism or Shintoism (3%), Islam (6%), or traditional African religions are not lacking either. The social and professional status of the catechumens range from university professors to manual workers; the latter are the most widely represented category, together with white-collar workers in the private and public sector (22%, 25%). Many catechumens are those in difficult or precarious situations: the unemployed, immigrants, sans papiers, prison inmates, the disabled. What is it that prompts them to apply to enter a course of Christian initiation? In general it is a personal “meeting” (a face, a witness, a discussion, an act of generosity), an “event” (birth, love, mourning, grief, pilgrimage, television programme, spiritual experience) or a personal “quest” (questions about the meaning of life and the transcendent, readings, discussions, etc.). “It’s always a sudden and unexpected experience explains the national Service of the catechumenate -. The request does not depend on intellectual abilities or a favourable environment. Catechumens become seekers of God and Christians because they feel that by doing so they will find a meaning to give to their own life, and new reasons for living and acting. They experience a sense of liberation, a feeling of joy and inner peace, a refound self-confidence, a different attitude to themselves and to others, and an adventurousness that leads them to act, bear witness and give themselves”.
