Latin masses, baptisms, pilgrimages, Catholicism seems hip again!
But behind the vibes, what do the stats and maps show?
A đź§µ on the decline and transformation of Catholicism in post-Catholic France
France is historically one of the most important Catholic countries in Europe
To this day the trace of Catholicism can be found everywhere in France
Here's a map of France with all the towns with "Catholic" names (with Saint or trinity in it for example)
But since around the mid 18th century, Catholicism stops being a mass phenomenon and is instead much more geographically polarised
Here's the map of practicing Catholics in 1965. Big contrasts. Alsace, Brittany, the SW and the south-center are very pious
This map is remarkably similar to the number of priests who refused to swear allegiance to the Republican constitution in 1791 showing long established divides
In fact the left-right divide in France from the French revolution until quite recently was a pretty good proxy for Catholicism
But today France is no longer polarised among Catholics vs non-Catholic lines.
France has been a for a little while now a post-Catholic country
Here's the map of practicing Catholics in 2012, looks very similar to the previous ones
But now look at the percentages on the left...
Catholicism was also the social matrix, even for those who weren't big pillars of the church:
From the cradle to the grave, Catholicism would likely be part of your life from start to finish
Cradle? Fewer kids than ever are getting baptised in France. It used to be 76% in the 70s, we now around a quarter
What about the number of Catholic weddings?
Massively collapsed in the last 2 decades
Divorces have stalled in France... but that's largely because fewer people are getting married
Grave?
Increasingly people in France prefer to get cremated instead
The number of priests in France also dropped massively in the early 2000S and very few were ordained to make up for it
You still see moments of Zombie Catholicism that pop up in French politics, a reminder of old divides
Take the 2005 referendum on the EU constitution, the old Catholic bastions overwhelmingly backed the EU side
But France is now decisively a post-Catholic country.
To be sure those trends are happening in many other European countries, but this statement is more true than in most EU countries
So has French Catholicism hit rock bottom?
There are some early signs of a transformation.
For years Catholicism survived thanks to its elders who were born in a Catholic world
Now it is transforming under pressure from the generation born in a post-catholic world
The number of baptisms of young children has continued to decline, but in large part because France's birth rate has collapsed.
Meanwhile the number of adults and adolescents getting baptised has surged 3 to 4X in 12 years
After decades of sex scandals, the Church's image was very damaged.
But young people in France overwhelmingly have a positive image of Catholicism
Signs of this youthful revival can be seen in pilgrimages such as the one in Chartres that attracted 19,000 pilgrims this year, an all-time record after having beaten the previous record from... 2024
Talk to priests across France and they are clearly starting to see something different.
In a post-Catholic world, many young Catholics have a sense of rebecoming missionaries once again
And among young people "traditional" forms of Catholicism, have been especially popular
But also with the influence of evangelical movements, many young Catholics simultaneously tend to adopt more spiritual forms of Catholicism
Does this make this burgeoning revival a reactionary movement?
For many the starting point of this turn traces back to 2013 and the mass demonstrations against the legalisation of gay marriage. Up to 1.4 million people demonstrated.
What do the polls say? It's mixed.
Practicing Catholic tend to be more right-wing than the French average
But the more practicing you are the less right-wing you are
Within French Catholic intellectual circles you do get a dynamic staunchly conservative ecosystem, but also interesting Catholic-environmental movements bolstered by pope Francis and his Laudato Si encyclical
On social media, since Covid there's been the emergence remarkably dymanic Cathosphere.
Soeur Albertine has 336K follower on IG, 200K on tiktok
For further reading on these topics I have to recommend the brilliant books from J. Fourquet who has created many of historic maps I used in this thread