Cardinal Kevin Farrell has warned of a marked worldwide decline in both infant baptisms and Catholic marriages, using new remarks at a Vatican study day to argue that the Church faces a growing crisis in the transmission of faith within family life. Speaking on April 28 at the Casina Pio IV, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life cited figures from the Annuarium Statisticum Ecclesiae 2021 showing that baptisms of children under seven fell by 31.1 per cent between 1991 and 2021, while Catholic marriages dropped by 48 per cent over the same period.