Poll finds signs of a confession revival in France
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A new poll suggests that the sacrament of confession may be experiencing a revival in France, at least among regular Massgoers.
A survey conducted by the Ifop polling firm for Bayard-La Croix concluded that 50% of the country’s weekly Massgoers attend confession, also known as the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
The poll, whose results were published Dec. 8 by the Catholic daily newspaper La Croix, which is owned by Bayard Presse, also found that 36% of those who attend Mass at least once a month frequent the sacrament.
Among those who go to Mass less than once a month but are still engaged with the faith, 7% attend confession, compared with 12% among those who attend Mass mainly on special occasions.
La Croix noted that the survey did not state whether the figures were higher or lower than in previous years. But it said that anecdotal evidence suggested confession was “making a comeback” among French Catholics.
Canon Jean-Marc Pimpaneau, the pastor of the Church of Saint-Louis d’Antin in Paris, told the newspaper he was convinced more Catholics were attending confession.
“It’s in the air,” he said. “The return of traditional practices, prayer vigils, pilgrimages... and a certain awareness of sin.”
Priests hear confessions daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at Saint-Louis d’Antin, which is located near the capital’s most popular department stores. At the church’s entrance are two banners proclaiming: “Priests welcome you for confession seven days a week.”
France’s bishops called at a plenary meeting in November 2024 for the country’s dioceses to establish a body known as a pénitencerie diocésaine, or diocesan penitentiary, to provide training and support to priests who hear confessions. Pimpaneau helped to establish a pénitencerie diocésaine in the Archdiocese of Paris.
The results of the Ifop poll appear to challenge the widespread perception that confession is in terminal decline among Catholics in Western nations.
In the book “For I Have Sinned,” published in April 2025, author James O’Toole noted that the practice diminished dramatically in the U.S., beginning in the 1970s. Historian Guillaume Cuchet has suggested that a similarly sharp decline occurred in France from 1965 onward.
Attending confession at least once a year is one of the five precepts of the Church, a summary of Catholics’ essential obligations.
In recent years, the Catholic Church in France has bucked trends seen elsewhere
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