Legitimate and healthy” “

Establishing relations of mutual trust between Church and State cannot but have “positive effects” for the life of a country. The task is therefore that of putting in place a “legitimate and healthy form of secularism”. “Instead of adopting an antagonistic role, the social forces should always be at the service of the population living in France”. These points are made by John Paul II in a letter to the president of the French bishops, Monsignor Jean-Pierre Ricard, on the occasion of the centenary of the law on secularism that in 1905 decreed the separation between Church and State in France. To mark the anniversary, a wide-ranging debate has been opened in the country, in which not only the Catholic bishops, but also the representatives of the other Christian churches and members of the Islamic communities have expressed their views. And in recent days, in Paris, the Academy of Moral and Political Sciences, which had the task of conducting a reflection on the law, promoted a first conference on this theme, in the presence of French Prime Minister JEAN-PIERRE RAFFARIN . Raffarin, in turn, has written an exclusive article for the French Catholic daily “La Croix” commenting on the law and the words of the Holy Father, and stressing that “secularism is not in opposition to religions”. A preliminary agreement seems, however, to have been already reached at the beginning of this year. Neither the Catholic Church nor the government in Paris has any intention or wish to amend the law of 1905. The Pope does not even speak of it in his letter to Ricard. And Raffarin writes in “La Croix”: “I am not in favour of any alteration of the principles established by the law of 1905. A legislative change in this field cannot be partial: touching one part of the edifice, for however laudable reasons, could lead inexorably to reactions of public opinion that could make the whole system collapse”. In France, therefore, only the Protestants seem to be calling for a reform of the law and to lament forms of discrimination that in the name of secularism are allegedly hurting the Protestant communities in the country. It was the president of the Protestant Federation of France, Pastor JEAN-ARNOLD DE CLERMONT , who personally denounced them to Prime Minister Raffarin during a meeting in January. A DIFFICULT HISTORY. In 1905 – recalls the Pope – the law on the separation between Church and State “was a painful and traumatizing event for the Church in France”. Following the new legislation, only the freedom of cult was maintained, “relegating at a single blow religion itself to the private sphere and not recognizing any role in society for religious life and for the Church as an institution”. As early as 1920, the French government and Church pledged to re-establish new relations. These efforts culminated in the re-establishment of diplomatic relations. In his letter to the French bishops, the Pope emphasizes that, “if understood in the right way”, the principle of secularism “also belongs to the social doctrine of the Church”. The separation of powers between political and ecclesiastical institutions only echoes the teaching of Christ to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s”. That however does not remove the duty for pastors and believers in France to “participate, in conformity with their own responsibilities and convictions, in the various fields of public life”. Numerous French personalities did so in the course of the twentieth century. They, “together with other Catholics” – points out John Paul II – have had a decisive influence on the social life” of France, “and, in some sense, on the construction” of the Old Continent. A LEGITIMATE AND HEALTHY SECULARISM. This mission must continue. In his letter, the Pope observes that “the crisis of values and the lack of hope that is registered in France and in general throughout the West form part of the crisis of identity of contemporary societies”. The Pope therefore urges the French episcopate and Christians to participate in the public life of the country “to give a new impetus to social life and a renewed hope to the men and women of our time”. “In this perspective – continues the Holy Father – building relations of trust and forms of collaboration between Church and State cannot but have positive effects in constructing together what Pope Pius XII called ‘a legitimate and healthy secularism'”. Recognizing the religious dimension of the person – declares John Paul II – “means wishing to associate this dimension with others of national life, so that it may contribute its impetus to the promotion of society”. All this must not be considered “a danger for the State”. The Pope appeals to the French bishops to “intervene regularly in the great public debates on the major social questions” of our time. In particular, he emphasizes, they should do so by adopting a stance on everything that concerns the fundamental rights of the human person, the respect of his dignity, the progress of humanity, and the protection of the planet. It is in this, the Pope asserts, that the “price” of secularism consists: “far from being a source of conflict, it can truly become a space for constructive dialogue in the spirit of the values of liberty, equality and fraternity to which the French people are justly very attached”.