From the scope left to the teaching of religion in schools to the question of religious buildings and their organization: just some of the questions at the centre of relations between the Catholic Church and the French State. The first of a series of meetings between religious and political representatives with the aim of examining the law of 1905 was held in Paris on 12 February. Since 1992, the French State, the French Church and the Holy See have had various discussions. The representatives of the Holy See explain that these talks have especially been concerned with overcoming some difficulties that arose in the application of the legal status of the Catholic Church in France. The State, for its part, sees the purpose of the talks as sitting round a table together to try to resolve practical problems, to find an environment in which it is possible to discuss issues which arouse a diversity of opinions, without necessarily reaching an agreement at the end of each meeting.
