"Luckily", over the last ten years, the relations between the Church and the State have changed. "President Sarkozy proved it in his speech at the Lateran when he spoke of a positive laicism that acknowledges the importance and value of religions". "Now, this concept of laicism needs to be put in practice". This was stated by the Vatican Secretary of State, card. Tarcisio Bertone, in an interview given yesterday to the French Catholic newspaper "La Croix" (now on the home page, at http://www.la-croix.com) just a few days before Pope Benedict XVI’s apostolic journey to the country (12-15 September). The Secretary of State takes stock of the current relations between the Church and the State in France. "The French notion of laicism comments card. Bertone has had the tendency, for a long time, to leave out faith, pushing it into the private sphere. On its part, the Church in France, which is in the habit of dialoguing with the other religious confessions and the other families of thought that exist within French society, has often had trouble proving it does not speak nor acts as a lobby that tries to push its own interests, but that it wants to contribute, through its work, to the search for the common good". (continued)
