“For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.”
Jacqueline Marie | April 23, 2025
Astrid and Tiphaine laugh as they switch between English and French on the Zoom call. It is Maundy Thursday of Holy Week, and they are sharing their testimonies before heading off to evening Mass at St. Marc and La Daurade Church, part of the Paroisse Etudiante de Toulouse (Student Parish of Toulouse).
Paroisse Etudiante de Toulouse is a non-geographic multi-church parish focused on the largest concentration of college students in France (140,000 students within the city).
The assistant priest, Father Antoine Laviale, interned with Divine Renovation at Saint Benedict Parish before his ordination in 2023. Now, he ministers within a parish seeing intense renewal, especially in the Gen Z population.
Paroisse Etudiante de Toulouse is unique, yet the overarching principles of Divine Renovation are at work. Their Leadership Team oversees smaller teams representing each of the parish’s four fraternities, composed of priests, young families and students — reflecting the unique structure of this student-focused parish.
“I met someone at the beginning of the year who asked: 'Who is Jesus for you?” I said nothing. Now I know He is everything…He begins to be at the center of my life…It was not the case before.”
The primacy of evangelization has spread beyond the clergy and leaders into the students themselves. Astrid and Tiphaine are evidence of this.
Both first-year university students in a health sciences and therapy program, the two 19-year-old women are actively evangelizing their peers. Astrid says, “God is the centre of our lives, that’s why He is at the centre of our discussions.”
After connecting at the beginning of the school year, the women began attending Mass together, along with two upper-level students who operate as their mentors at university. Astrid and Tiphaine only met this year, but their bond is obvious, often finishing one another’s sentences. Astrid grew up in a Catholic home, whereas Tiphaine’s parents don’t believe in Jesus beyond their exposure to cultural Catholicism. Like many in her generation, her grandparents grew up in the faith, but her parents’ generation is more secular. Yet, Gen Z is proving to have a hunger to find faith for themselves.
At the parish, they have been discipled into deeper faith and found support from others on the same journey.
Tiphaine is originally from Clermont-Ferrand, a town four hours away in central France, while Astrid’s family, once nearby, has since relocated to Senegal due to her father’s military assignment. Reflecting on her transition to university life, Astrid says, “I was really scared about my university years…I switched from family life to student life and the switch was very difficult.” Astrid continues, “I joined Tiphaine at the parish because I knew there were a lot of people like me…that it would help me to fight my fears about being alone.” The parish has become a sort of family, a home away from home for them.
Tiphaine relates, “It is new for Astrid and I to talk about Jesus, I especially, I didn’t talk about it before coming to Toulouse.” She didn’t grow up in a Christian household, so it wasn’t a topic in her home. Yet she says, “Today it is impossible for me not to talk about it. It is really surprising for them [her parents] because I think I am not the same person I was…It is surprising for my parents to see how determined I am in what I believe.” They see her faith as radical, and don’t understand what Tiphaine is living out. Yet she says, “despite it, I continue to talk about my faith with them; when they ask me if I went to church this week, I say ‘yes 3 times!’ with a smile.” She continues, “I’m surprised I have the courage to keep talking about it, and to say that ‘yes, I’m sure God exists.’”
Tiphaine recalls that, “I met someone at the beginning of the year who asked: ‘Who is Jesus for you?” I said nothing. Now I know He is everything…He begins to be at the center of my life…It was not the case before.”
Astrid, who was raised Catholic, also feels a shift within herself in the last year. “That’s all thanks to the Holy Spirit – I too didn’t talk about Jesus before; I didn’t know how to do it. Now we are Evangelists. We just talk about it.”
Now they spread their faith to friends and peers. Astrid says, “We were talking with our friends about God; we had debates about faith and Christianity.” then they invited one of their friends, Ange-Elise, to Mass. Ange-Elise knew about God, but it wasn’t until attending St. Marc’s that her faith grew, and she was able to be discipled. Now, she assists at Alpha along with Astrid. She will be confirmed this Pentecost.
“I hope that people will have the same experience that I had with God that changed my life.”
Tiphaine and Astrid then share a story about another student they evangelized: Daniel, a third-year student in the same university program. One day, his path crossed with Astrid in the university hallway and they began speaking. Astrid mentioned she was headed to Mass. Curious, Daniel, who had never been to Mass in his life, asked to join. He told her afterwards that he experienced “a lot of love, a lot of comfort at church” that day. After that, he began coming regularly and dining out with a group of students after Sunday Mass. Then suddenly, he became overwhelmed with all the questions in his mind and stopped coming. Just this past Sunday, he returned to Mass. He told Astrid and Tiphaine that something was missing without God. Tiphaine says, “He felt something that attracted him in Mass.” he had told Tiphaine that “he was going through some difficulties in his life and after the Mass, he said that he was liberated – that a weight was lifted from his shoulders.” Tiphaine continues that many students are like Daniel, that the desire is not just a curiosity about religion and rituals; “they don’t just want to discover Mass…he wants to understand ‘who is Jesus’?”
The two share that many students, coming from secular backgrounds, are curious and searching for faith and meaning. “I think that the majority of us in St. Marc, their faith is new.”
Clémence, Tiphaine’s university upperclassman mentor (roughly translated as ‘good mother’) is another example of a young person returning to faith. “She is the best,” Tiphaine says. Quickly, they discovered their shared faith (the Jesuit cross in Tiphaine’s Instagram helped Clémence know she could bring up faith in their discussions). Clémence began to attend St. Marc with Astrid and Tiphaine. After that, her discussions with Tiphaine centered around their faith. Now, Tiphaine says, “we talk every day about our difficulties, about ways to pray and praying for each other, and our relationships with our parents who don’t believe in God.” Before this year, Clémence was alone in her faith and did not have Catholic friends. This year has brought her back to faith and she has been formed at the student parish. Next year, she will be confirmed.
This past Easter Vigil, Paroisse Etudiante de Toulouse had 30 adult baptisms with 70 confirmations coming this Pentecost. The parish currently has over 240 catechumens in their weekly baptism and confirmation classes.
Astrid says that, for her, the root of evangelization comes from a hope, “I hope that people will have the same experience that I had with God that changed my life.”
Tiphaine furthers shares that, “I think that sometimes when I talk with other students about Jesus…I have a lot of joy in my heart, and it is impossible not to talk about it.” She says, for example, “yesterday I went to confession, and it was really good, and when I arrived home, I called a friend to explain all the joys in my heart, the liberation after the confession, all the joys… and this friend is Muslim.” Tiphaine says, “She’s very curious and open-minded, and that’s why it’s possible to talk so much with her. But sometimes (like in the evening after confession) I tell myself that maybe it’s ‘too much’ for her, who doesn’t know Jesus, but I can’t help telling her about the deep joy inside me!”
“It is impossible not to do it. I think that it is not me who is speaking, I am sure that the Holy Spirit talks through me.”
Through Paroisse Etudiante’s focus on the primacy of evangelization and the leadership of priests like Father Antoine and the Parish Priest Father Damien Verley, students in Toulouse are having a passion for mission ignited in them. Through the deeply missional stance of the parish, they have been able to take up the mantle of evangelization to their peers. Both young women say it is the Holy Spirit who is emboldening them.
Just last week on the metro, Tiphaine saw a woman crying – but as she was only on for one more station, she didn’t know what to do. She shares, “I wrote a verse, a proverb in order to give her courage, that she is not alone, that God will help her and I gave her the paper.” But she says this is a prompting of the Holy Spirit, “It is not common for me to do this, I knew it is not me.”
Tiphaine and Astrid show how a parish on mission forms missionary disciples — ready to share the love of Jesus wherever life takes them.
