” “State, Church and democracy” “

“Responsibility of the State and religious practice in France”: that’s the question tackled by the president of the French Episcopal Conference, Archbishop Jean-Pierre Ricard of Bordeaux, during an audition held on 24 October at the Commission for the application of secular principles in the French Republic, chaired by Bernard Stasi. And in preparation for the centenary of the law on Separation between State and Church, issued in 1905, the French bishops will dedicate their next plenary assembly in Lourdes (3-8 November) to the theme: “The Catholic Church in France today, from one century to another”. A résumé of the audition is given below. The law of Separation. “The Catholic Church rejected this law ever since its promulgation. It was traumatized by it. It felt it was unjust and discriminatory. For three reasons: the government’s unilateral denunciation of the Concordat with the Holy See, the repudiation of the age-old institutional links of the Church with the State, and the proposal for religious associations whose running seemed contrary to the hierarchical structure of the Church”. According to Ricard, a change of opinion was however registered in 1996 when, in a Letter to French Catholics, the bishops wrote: “We accept the need to place ourselves as Catholics in the contemporary cultural and institutional context prominently characterised by the emergence of individualism and the principle of secularism”. Various factors determined this change of attitude: On the part of the State, “a re-interpretation of the law of 1905 that tends to facilitate freedom of worship” and on the part of the Church, “a process of internal reflection” supported by two documents of Vatican Council II, the declaration on religious liberty ( Dignitatis humanae) and the pastoral constitution on “The Church in the Modern World” ( Gaudium et Spes) which both underline “the independence of the Church and of the political community”. Practice of secularism. “The Church does not ask for a reform of the law, since she herself is based on the principle established by articles 1 and 2 of the law and on subsequent provisions (law of 1907, accords of 1923-1924). These provide assurances on the protection of “religious freedom by the Republic, the free exercise of worship” and do not recognise “subventions and salaries to any cult”. “This text founded on the neutrality and independence of the State, which is not subject to any philosophic or religious conviction, does not provide any cult with a privileged status and does not intervene in the organization of cults. The State, therefore, makes possible the cults and does not just exercise vigilance over their possible excesses”. “This practice of secularism – according to Ricard – has favoured the integration of Catholics in French democratic life”. On the use of the chador and on Islam. “As regards the use of the Islamic head-scarf, the chador, and the prohibition in schools of any religious symbol, we need to avoid a law that – in the archbishop’s view – would make many Muslims feel discriminated against. Rules need to be established, but in a climate of dialogue”. “But it’s not so much the question of the chador as the incorporation of Moslem cult in French society” that arouses the concern of Msgr. Ricard. In particular the request for places of worship: “Is it up to the State to guarantee and facilitate the free exercise of cult? And how can thus be done without causing offence to those French people who belong to other religions or cultures? The application of principles must be accompanied by practical wisdom”. Another problem is the growth of a form of Islamism that “flourishes on the difficulties the Moslem population have in achieving integration in French society, with the risk that some may find their identity in radical Islam”. Nor should we underestimate the “difficulty many Muslims have in distinguishing the religious from the civil law. Without this distinction it is impossible to incorporate Islamic cult into a democratic and pluralist society”. “May everything that the French Republic has done with realism, vigilance, without any policy of compromise and with dialogue, throughout the twentieth century, be further pursued in the third millennium!”, Archbishop Ricard concluded.