In France, with Muslims, the Catholic Church must develop a "clear, lucid and friendly dialogue, for we are friends of Muslims and want to go on being their friends". Those words were spoken alongside the Assembly of French bishops (ending today in Lourdes) by Msgr. Michel Dubost, bishop of Evry. Yesterday, he submitted to the French bishops a report on "Catholics and Muslims in today’s France". It was the outcome of a workshop created for this purpose last year. In France, the Muslims are almost 4,155,000. The majority of them (2,900,000) come from Maghreb. They represent 7% of the population and about one third of them have French citizenship. They can rely on 1,500 places of worship and as many imams. "Today said Bishop Dubost, it is no longer possible to talk about immigrants, but we can talk about Muslims perfectly integrated in our society". For this reason, the Church must also be ready "for dialogue", and to "promote a society based on dialogue". In the first case, the bishop invoked the need for a higher preparation and training for those who are going to dialogue with Muslims. In the second case, he talked about a "friendly and frank dialogue", which does not hide problems, including religious freedom. "The liberty of changing religion recalled the bishop, – is a right clearly stated in the Constitution".
