Church of France
 Catholic Church in France |
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| French: Église catholique en France | |
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| Type | National polity |
| Orientation | Catholic Church |
| Governance | Episcopal |
| Pope | Pope Francis |
| President | Georges Pontier |
| Primate of the Gauls | Philippe Barbarin |
| Apostolic Nuncio | Luigi Ventura |
| Region | France |
| Language | French, Latin |
| Headquarters | Cathedral Notre-Dame de Paris |
| Founder | Saint Remigius, according to Catholic tradition |
| Origin | C. 177: Christianity in Gaul C. 496: Frankish Christianity Gaul, Roman Empire |
| Members | 27,000,000 - 58,000,000 |
| Official website | Episcopal Conference of France |
The Catholic Church in France is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome. Established in the 2nd century in unbroken communion with the bishop of Rome, it is sometimes called the "eldest daughter of the church".
The first written records of Christians in France date from the 2nd century when Irenaeus detailed the deaths of ninety-year-old bishop Pothinus of Lugdunum (Lyon) and other martyrs of the 177 AD persecution in Lyon. In 496 Remigius baptized King Clovis I, who therefore converted from paganism to Catholicism. In 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, forming the political and religious foundations of Christendom in Europe and establishing in earnest the French government's long historical association with the Catholic Church. The French Revolution (1789-1790) was followed by heavy persecution of the Catholic Church. Laïcité, absolute neutrality of the state with respect to religious doctrine, is nowadays the official policy of the Republic of France.
Estimates of the proportion of Catholics range between 41% and 88% of France's population, with the higher figure including lapsed Catholics and "Catholic atheists". The Catholic Church in France is organised into 98 dioceses, which in 2012 were served by 7,000 sub-75 priests. 80 to 90 priests are ordained every year, when the church would need eight times as many to compensate the number of priest deaths.
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Wikipedia