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PARIS, April 10 (AFP) – The French Catholic Church is expecting around 9,500 people to be baptized as Catholics in the country this year, with almost 1,000 of those to be converts from Islam. Around 2,500 people, mostly between 18 and 40 years old, are due to be baptized this year, and the remaining 7,000 are following a two-year initiation program. If the Church’s numbers are accurate, it means that, compared to 10 years ago, the amount of people who convert to Catholicism in France would double. Three-quarters of the new believers had no previous faith, but 9 percent are former Muslims, 2 percent are former Jews and 2 percent are former members of other Christian denominations, the Church report said. The Church's new followers come from every walk of life, from highly qualified academics to manual laborers to the unemployed. "These are today's people with today's questions... It's a shock for us because they are not typical church-goers," said father Dominique Sentucq, director of the novice section of the Catholic Church.
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