It seems to me, with so many of societal norms being abandoned, that ordinary people want some certainty, and the traditional Christian faiths can often provide some of that for the right type of person.
Itâd be interesting, but isnât possible to know what percentage of these adult baptisms in France were immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa and what percentage were indigenous French. In England adult baptism into the Catholic Church was traditionally the preserve of middle/upper class Anglicans.
Also funny that secular France easily copes with Catholicism, whereas the English establishment still gets itself in a knot.
Maybe not for much longer.
RC women are on the march following their Protestant sisters.
As far as I can see all forms of Christianity have seen their appeal decline dramatically since WW2. Education had a lot to do with it, More people asked questions. The Catholic Church could no longer silence its critics and hide the many dubious practices it had supported for so long. But there are always those who are easily deceived and believe the snake oil sellers. It was ever thus.
It is the way the message is interpreted, I canât see Christ holding a mass in St Peterâs.
I suppose youâre extrapolating from what you see around you, because thereâs no evidence of any âdramatic declineâ - although the rise in the number of adherents is less than the rise in the general population, according to this: Statistics and Forecasts for World Religions: 1800-2025
What difference would someoneâs ethnicity make?
Those coming from other places would have a different world view and spirituality (one can debate what that is and if it exists) and so might much more readily embrace a major tradition like RC. They would also not have developed the required cynicism of those who grew up in the western education system towards religious institutions.
Within my experience during the past 150 years in England alone, adult Catholic baptism was comparatively rare and predominantly upper middle class , former Anglicans like Tony Blair. However this trope seems increasingly rare and I was suggesting a possible partial explanation as most Black Africans who arenât Muslim, are Christian, but not necessarily Catholic.
Iâd suggest that traditional African churches put a lot more emphasis on finery and mysticism than many contemporary English Protestants and that therefore Catholicism might appear more familiar and more attractive. Also a large number of younger Catholic priests in the UK are from sub-Saharan Africa.
Interesting thought. Iâm inclined to disagree, but thatâs because all of the African Christians I know happen to be Protestant, and their emphasis is on exuberant worship and the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Looking it up, it seems that a third of Christians in sub-Saharan Africa are Catholic, whereas over half are Protestant: In Africa, Pope Francis will find religious vibrancy and violence | Pew Research Center
Monkey glands? Even if itâs an old photo, youâre wearing remarkably well!
That probably reflects GBâs greater âsuccessâ in the late C19th âScramble for Africaâ⊠However their conventions might not be entirely familiar to Anglicans et al as African churches often combine aspects of animism with Western forms of Christianity. So Catholicism with relics and all its other wonderful trappings might be more appealing than the words of the King Jamesâ bible.
Or maybe theyâre just hedging their betsâŠ
? Why? Catholicism is historically dominant here and the English establishment is explicitly anti catholic. cf the references to Romish doctrines popery and abominations in eg the prayer book. No tractarianism can really overcome that 
The great fear that when the monarchy had more power was that the Pope would be interfering in British affairs if the monarchy were Roman Catholic, which given the history of Catholic attempts to do just that, makes this perfectly understandable.
Not to mention Catholic Spain and Portugal dividing the New World between them and attempting to make 2/3rd of the planet Catholic.
Itâs too easy to separate church and state in modern thinking - both the RC and CoE were political structures as well as organisations for faith in history. Perhaps a reason they are less subscribed is that mostly those with a faith are now involved.
Every time I read a thread like this and people talk about faith Iâm reminded of this clip.
Nicky Campbell. The Big Question. BBC.
A spokesman from the National Secular Society describing people she doesnât understand, and therefore disagrees with, as âidiotsâ. 
Although on her definition of it - âfaith is believing in things without evidenceâ - she has faith!
While I might not agree with how she put it, I find it difficult to disagree with the basic premise.
From what youâve said about your experience, it must be understandably difficult for you to view Christianity except in the light of what its adherents did.
Itâs nothing to do with how I view the behaviours of some so-called adherents to Christianity, more that Iâm quite cynical about mythical beings that have been derived to explain that which was not understood.