Newsroom (12/20/2025 20:42, Gaudium Press) A recent survey conducted by the Ifop Group for the Bayard-La Croix provides a detailed overview of the resurgence of Confession in France. Released in early December, the study reveals that half of the faithful who attend Mass weekly in the country now seek the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
In a nation long seen as a laboratory of Western secularization, an unexpected sign has emerged in French Catholic life: the Sacrament of Confession seems to be regaining ground.
According to the survey, among Catholics who attend Mass at least once a month, more than one-third admit going to confession. Even those who attend sporadically go to confession. Confession has not disappeared.
These figures challenge the narrative that has dominated debates about Western Catholicism for decades: that Confession is in irreversible decline. Historians record a sharp decline in the practice from the mid-1960s in France and the 1970s in the United States. The new data does not erase this trajectory, but it does indicate a change of course.
The reality of parishes in central Paris offers a concrete example. At Saint-Louis d’Antin Church, a few steps from some of the capital’s busiest shopping centers, priests hear confessions from early morning until evening, seven days a week.
Large banners at the entrance to the church explicitly invite passersby to the sacrament. For the parish priest, Canon Jean-Marc Pimpaneau, the renewed interest is palpable.
Traditional devotions, pilgrimages, extended prayer vigils, and a revitalized moral vocabulary are resurfacing together, generating what he describes as a new awareness of sin and reconciliation.
This pastoral dynamic is already beginning to influence institutional responses. At a plenary assembly in late 2024, French bishops called on dioceses to establish penitentiaries—structures dedicated to the formation and accompaniment of confessor priests. Paris has already taken steps in this direction, recognizing that sacramental practice requires ongoing clerical preparation.
The broader ecclesial scenario in France helps explain the timing of this resurgence. In recent years, the country experienced an increase in adult baptisms, especially among young people, growth in Bible sales, and record participation in pilgrimages.
These advances coexist with the continuing decline in the social presence of Catholicism. According to the Ifop study, about 5.5% of the adult population attends Mass at least monthly, while another 6.5% do so only on rare occasions.
Urban concentration plays a decisive role. Nearly a third of regular churchgoers are now in the Paris region, while rural dioceses face both secularization and depopulation. The result is a visible concentration of committed Catholics in parishes in the centers of large cities, forming communities that convey vitality and self-confidence.
The confessional, long seen as a victim of modernity, may be reemerging as a central and defining space in the life of the Catholic Church in France.
With information from Zenit.org
Compiled by Dominic Joseph
Related Images:
