2 weeks Ago By RFI
With huge turnouts across France at Ash Wednesday Mass, marking the start of Lent, Christian influencers are being credited with bringing young people back to church, with their explanatory videos and practical advice shared on social media attracting a new generation in search of spirituality. "What's the Bible?" "How do you pray the rosary?" "How do you get closer to God?" On TikTok, 19-year-old Valentina – AKA Jesusuperfan – has posted countless videos talking about Christianity. With 17,000 subscribers, she describes herself as a "Catholic on a mission".
A practising Christian since 2021, she noticed that at that time there were very few videos on social media about religion. So she decided to "talk about Jesus to share my knowledge and help others". Her video on "the essentials of Lent", posted on 22 February, was a big hit on the platform, with more than 900,000 views.
The success of the video is in line with the momentum of the hashtag #TikTokChristian, which has more than 1.3 million videos on the Chinese-owned social media platform. Unprecedented turnout In recent weeks, the start of Lent – the 40-day period of preparation before Easter for Christians – has drawn notable new interest among young people in France, a phenomenon that is being partly credited to the influence of online videos.
In the parishes, attendance at the Ash Wednesday Mass, which marks the start of Lent, exceeded all expectations. Among adults, 36 percent of baptisms in France involved 18 to 25-year-olds – an increase of 150 percent in five years. Read more on RFI English Read also: Notre-Dame de Paris holds first mass after five-year restoration New golden age for Marseille’s Bonne Mère thanks to €2.
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