Adult baptism course applications more than double in Munich

Applications for adult baptism courses in Munich have more than doubled from the previous year, BR reports. On Sunday, Cardinal Reinhard Marx will baptise 22 women and men at St Michael’s Jesuit church in a service dedicated to adult baptisms for the first time.

The candidates are aged between 17 and 60. Fifteen are from Germany; the others are from Bulgaria, Portugal, Croatia, Morocco, Turkey, Russia and India. They prepared in a course lasting several months, learning about Christianity and discussing their personal paths to faith, according to the Catholic Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

One of those being baptised is 33-year-old Antonia Urbas-Ulbrich. She grew up around church, attending services with her grandmother, but was not baptised because her parents wanted her to decide for herself.

As a young adult, she had little contact with the Church. In 2024, she felt drawn to attend a service, though it took her almost a year to go. “For me, it felt like coming home, a complete feeling of security and love,” she told BR24.

She began reading the Bible and soon started going to church almost every Sunday. Urbas-Ulbrich initially declined an invitation to a baptism course in November 2025 because she did not feel ready. After continuing to explore her faith and learning about other Christian denominations, she accepted another invitation in the spring.

She invited 16 people to her baptism, and 13 plan to attend. She is due to become a mother in a few weeks and says she intends to have her child baptised as a baby.

Adult baptisms are rising in Munich, but they do not make up for people leaving the Church. Around 25,000 people left the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising in 2025, fewer than in the previous year.