The future of secularism” “

What we need is not a “repressive and discriminatory secularism that is the source of exclusion”, but “an intelligent and understanding secularism” because “our fragile society has a need for common values, not for new forms of exclusion”: so declared Bishop CLAUDE DAGENS of Angoulême, in his recent address to the Conference “The future of secularism in France” (Rome, Saint-Louis de France Cultural Centre). On 10 February, the French National Assembly approved a bill on secularism, which now passes to the Senate. If it is finally approved (the vote is expected to take place in March), the law would ban religious symbols such as the Islamic headscarf, the Jewish kippah and the Christian cross from state schools. THE LAW ON RELIGIOUS SYMBOLS. According to Msgr. Dagens, in response to the understandable fears that Islam may provoke, “and in particular after 11 September”, the question of the Islamic headscarf “has become a real obsession, so much so that numerous politicians, both of the left and the right” have supported the provision banning religious symbols from state schools. “It is – he comments – “an ill-advised and potentially dangerous law”. Even admitting that “the headscarf may represent women’s condition of inferiority and may even be the expression of religious fanaticism”, as “the supporters of the bill maintain”, the question is whether “religious signs should or should not be worn in schools, within the school as an institution”. The latter – explains Msgr. Dagens – must be respected as such: in other words, it must be able to express the authority invested in an institution that plays an educational role”. “Was a law of the State needed to this end? I don’t think so”, continued the bishop. He then questioned the “conformity” of the provision with the French Constitution, which “asks the State to respect all faiths and to permit their practice”, and expressed the fear of “complex litigation and especially a return to the past, in the sense that secularism in France could become (or become anew) repressive, discriminatory and the source of exclusion”. “I continue and shall continue to maintain the need for an intelligent and understanding secularism”, stressed Dagens, expressing the hope that the discussion would shift from the field of religions to “that of our fragile society that has a need for common values, and not for new forms of exclusion”. CATHOLICS AND MUSLIMS. “What should be our attitude to Muslims? How should we exercise our responsibility in an effective and positive way?”. “We must engage in dialogue with them by trying to understand Islam, and understanding a religion – explained the bishop – does not mean being converted to it or affirming in a simplistic manner that we have the same God”. It means, rather, “making a genuine effort of critical intelligence to repudiate every form of fanaticism that feeds on slogans”, bearing in mind that our understanding of the God of Islam obliges us “to question ourselves about the quality and measure of our own faith”. SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL. “Catholics – Dagens continued – ask to be respected in their own identity, both by Muslims and by the civil authorities” at a time when “the Church is going through a phase of far-reaching reform, a ‘reform’ that calls us to become more Christian, i.e. with greater solidarity between priests and laity, men and women, all equally involved in the common mission of communion, presence and charity”. It is a renewal that, according to the bishop of Angoulême, “is expressed through personal commitment” in our society within which “the Church brings an effective capacity for action”. “No longer a Catholic bloc opposed to another bloc, perhaps anticlerical. On the terrain of social realities, and often fragile situations, we have – insisted Dagens – a need for each other, and the presence of Catholics in the slum quarters of our cities or in rural areas in crisis is no longer cause for surprise”. And these Catholics, he explained, are “men and women of every political persuasion who find their strength in the faith, in the Word of God, in prayer”. “The Catholic Church in France – he continued – shares people’s anxieties and fears, but with her own convictions”; she is, in other words “at once social and spiritual”. In an “individualistic and fragmented society, in which personal interests prevail” and that “easily accepts equality and liberty, what’s become of fraternity?” asked the bishop, convinced that it is precisely “on the terrain of sharing and fraternity, that we have a message we need to express in our lives and transmit to others – modestly, but effectively”. “Religion is not just a private affair”, concludes Msgr. Dagens. “It has a social dimension that demands that each believer be assured the freedom to publicly express his/her own faith, as laid down by the Constitution, which guarantees “freedom of conscience and the free exercise of worship” to all citizens’.