Crux

Ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s visit to France this weekend, a recent convert to Catholicism who wrote a book about his experiences said the example of Muslims being proud of their faith has empowered French Catholics. Speaking to Crux Now, Joshua Colin, 23, who converted to Catholicism last Easter aged 22, said the proud attitude of immigrants from Muslim countries towards their religion had provided an opportunity for the Church to also be more assertive. “What’s very interesting in France is we have a lot of immigration from Muslim countries, and these people are not accepting laïcité [the French term for official state secularism] at all. They’re coming in and saying, ‘My religion comes first, and I’m not going to keep it to myself. I’m not going to keep it in private’,” Colin said. “That’s very disruptive here in France. It’s very interesting because French Catholics were sometimes afraid of saying Merry Christmas and now they’re saying, ‘If they’re accepting their faith and their right to do so, we need to do the same thing’,” Colin added. “That’s what we’re seeing in the Catholic Church with many youngsters going back to faith. We’re also observing it in other religions. Young Muslims are often more religious than their parents and grandparents, and Jews as well,” he said. In March this year, Colin published a book We, the newly baptized with Catholic publisher Éditions du Cerf as he was one of the recent adult converts that have caused headlines across the world. This year in France there were 21,386 adults and teenagers aged between 11 to 17 baptized during the Easter Vigil, an increase from 17,788 in 2025 — the year Colin was baptized. Colin explained that although he was optimistic for the future of the Church in the country, he didn’t believe Catholicism was currently having any meaningful influence on society. “Regarding the recent laws that have been voted by the parliament, I would say barely any. In 10 years we’ve voted for gay marriage, surrogacy, assisted suicide, and abortion in the constitution two years ago,” he said. “There are no more Catholic politicians. They erased themselves from the public debates. It’s very logical that things are happening like this,” he added. Leo’s apostolic visit to France will be Sept. 25–28 and will include stops in Paris, Lourdes, and Metz. Colin said he was “very happy” that Leo was coming to visit France and that the visit shows “that the Catholic Church is still alive in France.” Crux Now‘s interview with Joshua Colin is below, edited for for clarity and length … Crux Now: What inspired you to convert? Joshua Colin: It’s a long story. My parents don’t believe in God at all, and they don’t like the Catholic Church that much. They’re not hostile, but they’re indifferent to it. They didn’t teach me anything about religion as a child. My grandmother was the only Catholic actually in my family, and she taught me first when I was six years old that Christmas was the birth of Jesus Christ, and it was not just presents and Christmas trees. That Easter was not just chocolate, but it was also the resurrection of Christ. She brought me to Mass. She showed me that the Catholic Church is still alive. I lived in England for a while, and then in Chile. Chile has a strong Catholic culture so when I returned to France when I was 17, I thought France was Catholic too. But I saw that French people were actually apologizing for saying Merry Christmas, and I thought: there’s something wrong here in France. On my 18th birthday I was walking on the street thinking about my life, entering adulthood, and I just arrived in front of the cathedral. I had the thought that I needed to enter the cathedral so I just sat there on the wooden bench for about two hours in front of the cross. When I came out, I said, “Okay, actually, you believe in God, so now you need to to find out about this God.” I knew basically nothing about Christ, about the Catholic Church. I knew very little. So I started reading books, listening to podcasts, watching YouTube videos as well because many priests in France here are making YouTube videos about faith. I traveled to Israel, to Bethlehem, to Jerusalem, to Rome. I discovered this whole Christian civilization, this Christian way of life, and I decided to become part of it. I officially joined in Easter 2025 after three or four years of preparations. Were there any obstacles in your way? I lost a lot of friends. I lost family members as well. I didn’t tell my family actually about my baptism. I told them afterwards because since they’re a little hostile, I didn’t want to get any judgment, any reflection on it. So my family was an obstacle of sorts. A lot of friends were obstacles because when you become Christian, it’s a death and a resurrection. You change your life. You change your vision. You change friends. A lot of my friends’ lives were partying, nightclubs, casinos, girls, alcohol, even substances for some of them. I’ve never been into that even before converting, but once I became a Christian, they were like, “Okay, you’re not as fun anymore.” Here in France, the church is something from the past for many people, for many youngsters. They don’t understand why you would turn back to it, why you would believe in Christ. How can you believe in Christ when you’re an intelligent person? But I discovered a lot of new people so today it’s not a problem at all. I have many friends in the church that are more aligned with my vision, And why have so many young people converted? So here in France, around 80% of adult baptisms are for under-40s. Not all youngsters, but mainly young. We’re the first generation that has not been taught anything about religion, spirituality, even our culture, our identity, our faith, and so we’re suffering and trying to get back to it to discover it. I’m a very curious person, so it was very nice for me to read books and visit churches, abbeys, monasteries. I discovered the footprints of Christian civilization that had been here before me, and hopefully will be here after me. I think human beings need faith. We need spirituality. We need religion, and it has been put aside in our Western world. Once you put aside Catholicism, there are other forms of religion of spirituality coming in and taking the place. But they they will not give you the truth. They will not give you happiness, and they can even destroy you. Why has France, in particular, seen such an uptick in conversions? I think in France we have three churches today. We have a church in the main cities like Paris, Lyon, Marseille, that are very rich with very dynamic parishes. They’re coming back to Christ because their money and their way of life is not satisfying them. So they need something that’s sure and rooted. There is the church in the suburbs of the cities, mainly made up of immigrants from Africa and other parts of the world. Often they convert as a reaction to Islam, mainly. And there is the church of the countryside in France that is very poor and that’s not doing well at all. You will have one priest for 40 churches, for example, in some areas of France, and so they’re having very hard times. There’s also the question of laïcité here in France, which is separating the church and the state and keeping religion in private. That has done a lot of harm to to the Catholics here in France for the past 250 years since the French Revolution. In 1968, there was the student revolution in France that cut the head off the church, basically, because they promoted progressive values. They’re the ones that first put the church aside and decided they no longer needed Christ in the country and they didn’t transfer it to their kids and grandkids. So we’re coming after these people, and we’re trying to come back to the religious values. What’s very interesting in France is we have a lot of immigration from Muslim countries, and these people are not accepting at all laïcité. They’re coming in and saying, “My religion comes first, and I’m not going to keep it to myself. I’m not going to keep it in private.” That’s very disruptive here in France. It’s very interesting because French Catholics were sometimes afraid of saying Merry Christmas and now they’re saying, “If they’re accepting their faith and their right to do so, we need to do the same thing.” So is that creating a bit of an opportunity for the Church? Absolutely. That’s what we’re seeing in the Catholic Church with many youngsters going back to faith. We’re also observing it in other religions. Young Muslims are often more religious than their parents and grandparents, and Jews as well. With this situation that’s going on in France, is there anything that it can teach the wider church? Absolutely. The church was taken aback a little in 2021 and 2022 because they saw 1000s of new people arrive all at once and they were not ready to welcome them. They’re not to blame but it was new, so they needed to adapt. And in the last two or three years, they have made enormous progress. In June, there was a reflection from the archbishop of Paris to think about how to welcome catechumens and how to teach them about the Church and how to integrate them into the parishes. They’re taking this question very seriously, and they’re making progress. And hopefully, the numbers keep going up. What’s worked? I would say it’s not because of the institutional church that they are converting. We’re coming back for other reasons, and so they just have to get ready to welcome us. But they didn’t reach out to us. They’d been in a sort of comfort zone for years and years, and now there are many people coming in that need to be welcomed, need to be taken care of, and so they’re working on it, and they’re doing it very well. I have been very happy with my interactions with the Catholic priests in my parish where I did the preparation. We had monthly meetings, so every month we were received by special priests and given Bible reflections, etc. We also had some people accompanying us towards baptism. So in my case, it was Marie-Françoise, who’s 80 years old, retired, and we met every Saturday morning for two or three hours. She told me all the basic things about the Church, which was not only the Bible, but very simple questions. When do you go to Mass? When do you need to stand up? When do you need to sit down? When do you need to kneel? How do you take the Eucharist? Basic questions like this, and she guided me for two years to that baptism. From your perspective, what sort of influence does Catholicism have on French society today? Regarding the recent laws that have been voted by the parliament, I would say barely any. In 10 years we’ve voted gay marriage, surrogacy, assisted suicide, and abortion in the constitution two years ago. There are no more Catholic politicians. They erased themselves from the public debates. It’s very logical that things are happening like this. What are your expectations for Leo’s visit? I’m very happy that he’s coming to visit us. We haven’t had a pope in France for 18 years, so it’s been a very long time. Pope Francis was not very happy about France, so he said he came three times, but he said, “Okay, I’m coming to Marseille, but I’m not coming to France.” He was angry with our country, and it was understandable from his point of view. But from our perspective, French Catholics, we felt a little excluded, left aside by this. We’re very happy about Leo coming. He’s going to celebrate a huge Mass in Paris on Saturday. I’m going with my grandmother. He’s filled up the Stade de France, the stadium for youngsters, especially for people between 18 and 35. So he’s going to speak to us, I guess, about the future of the church. It shows that the Catholic Church is still alive in France. How is Pope Leo viewed amongst French Catholics and in in French society as a whole? I don’t think he’s very well known. We want to meet him as well to get to know him more. I think he’s liked. He’s appreciated by the people. But there was a poll made this week about the French population. It asked: What role do you give to the Pope? And they said it is someone that needs to speak about peace and promote peace. Spiritual battle was around 20% of people, no more. So it’s going to be interesting to see. What are your feelings about the future of the church in France? As Christians, we’re not allowed to be pessimistic. I’m aware of the problems and the challenges, but I’m very optimistic. I think there is a big renewal happening. My generation needs to turn to the fight. That’s why I wrote the book as well, even if it’s not a very famous book. But I needed to speak about it and help people understand this phenomenon. I don’t know about the future. The parishes are alive. They’re growing. There is a pretty dynamic momentum, so we need to keep it up. Numbers are very bad for the catechumens, actually, because bishops tell you that in the three or five years after their christening, 80% of them quit. I don’t really understand those numbers. They’re telling us catechumens are very involved until they get baptized. After that, it’s difficult to make sure they enter the community and stay in the community. That’s the challenge for us.

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