About 80,000 young Catholics filled the Stade de France in Saint-Denis near Paris on Friday for a vigil with Pope Leo XIV. The crowd chanted his name as he called them “the saints of France,” answered questions and led them in prayer during his four-day official visit.
The gathering comes amid signs of renewed interest among younger generations in France: the Catholic Church expects 13,200 adults and 8,200 adolescents aged 11 to 17 to be baptized in 2026, up 28% and 10%, respectively, from the previous year. Infant christenings have dwindled in recent years.
France has also grown more secular: a survey published by La Croix last year found that 46% of French people described themselves as Catholic, down from 85% in the 1960s. Young attendees said the pope’s message of hope spoke to worries about the future, wars and other problems, and that gathering helped them feel less alone in their faith.
