Ecumenism" "
The debate on whether it is appropriate for the State to finance the construction and the management of places of worship, and whether there is a need to reform the law of 1905 that sanctioned the absolute separation between Church and State, has been re-opened in France. The question has been put back on the agenda as a result of the publication of a book written by the French Minister for the Economy Nicolas Sarkozy called “The Republic, Religions and Hope”, in which he calls the law of 1905 “obsolete”, and urges that it be reformed. A series of opinion polls on the question have also been held, according to which (research of the IFOP Institute) the majority of French (57%) say they are contrary to any change of the law, against 47% who are in favour of a reform. The idea that the State and the local authorities should fund the construction of religious buildings is especially supported by Muslims, 82% of whom say they are favourable to such an idea, although the rector of the Paris mosque, Dalil Boubakeur, has expressed strong misgivings, posing a risk as it does to religious independence. The Catholic Church and the leaders of the Jewish communities also do not wish any changes to the law now in force. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, president of the French Protestant Federation, has also intervened on the question. He had adopted a more flexible position on the hypothesis of state funding for the construction of places of worship, though rejecting any attempt to infringe or subvert the principle of the separation between Church and State.
