No longer a faith

Laicité in France is always the object of hot debates. President Sarkozy’s address at the Lateran in December 2007 that mentioned a positive form of laicité caused a stir. In such a tense situation, the militant laicist organization “La Libre pensée”, presented an increasing number of appeals for each decision involving public use of funds for religious purposes – in their opinion – to favour a religious tradition, identifying in all such cases, notably those promoted by local authorities, a violation of Act 1905 on the Separation of Church and State. Then, on July 20 the Conseil d’État (Council of State), France’s highest administrative Court, issued a ruling on the five cases of funding by local authorities, which provides significant indications on how to interpret the 1905 bill. The five cases starkly differ from one another. They regard regions, religions and problems involving different Treaties. The Council dealt with the case of a church organ in western France, paid by the local Council, that was employed both for liturgical services and for use by the public music school. Other appeals regard the installation of an elevator for the disabled in the large Marian sanctuary of Fourvière, Lyon, attended by two million people each year; in the city of Le Mans, public funding for a slaughterhouse for the Aït-El-Kébir, the slaughter of animals according to Islamic rules; in Montpellier the concession of a hall that serves as a Mosque; in Montrueil, near Paris, the appeal regarded a strip of land loaned to an association for the building of a mosque. It is interesting that the Council has brought these cases together, as if it wished to give a magisterial lesson on laicity. In the five court cases, the judges recalled that the law stipulates granting financial aid when a local interest is at stake, (in Lyon, for example, a tourist site is involved) provided that the principle of neutrality of public powers is respected. However, such aid cannot be considered as funding a religious tradition, and therefore it doesn’t violate the sacrosanct 1905 law. With these decisions the French legal system paves the way to a liberal interpretation, acknowledging the cultural dimension of religions, which is never only confined to worship. It considers religious practice as a normal practice. According to this interpretation it is possible for local councils to loan a public area to religious groups, as it would happen with sports facilities. And most of all, faith isn’t separated from public affairs, and it is not confined to the private space. There ensues that religion is deemed important also for the economic, cultural and social development of a given area. French judges based their rulings on the Separation law, on the Constitution, and also on the European Convention of Human Rights, which provides for the respect of religious freedoms (Article 9). In this way the judges are saying to the upholders of laicism that French laicité can no longer be isolated. In fact, it must develop within a European context, i.e., if in France laicité is considered as another expression of faith, France’s European neighbours are not less lay, and indeed they are even more lay, if laicité is understood as the freedom to profess one’s faith.