1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State

Prior to the French Revolution of 1789 — since the days of the conversion of Clovis I to Christianity in 508 AD — Catholicism had been the state religion of France, and closely identified with the Ancien Régime. However, the revolution led to various policy changes, including a brief separation of church and state in 1795, ended by Napoleon's re-establishment of the Catholic Church as the state religion with the Concordat of 1801. The 1871 Paris Commune had proclaimed state secularism on 3 April 1871, but it had been cancelled following the Commune's defeat. After the 16 May 1877 crisis and the victory of the republicans at the following elections, various draft laws requesting the suppression of the Concordat of 1801 were deposed, starting with the 31 July 1879 proposition of Charles Boysset. Beginning in 1879, the French state began a gradual national secularization program starting with the removal of priests from the administrative committees of hospitals and boards of charity, and in 1880 with the substitution of lay women for nuns in hospitals. Thereafter, the Third Republic established secular education with the Jules Ferry laws in 1881–1882, which were a significant part of the firm establishment of the republican regime in France, with religious instruction in all schools forbidden. Other moves towards secularism included: • the introduction of divorce and a requirement that civil marriages be performed in a civil ceremony • legalizing work on Sundays • secularising schools and hospitals • ordering soldiers not to frequent Catholic clubs • removing the religious character from the judicial oath and religious symbols from courtrooms • forbidding the participation of the armed forces in religious processions The 1901 Law of Associations, which guaranteed freedom of association, also enabled the control of religious communities and, notably, limited their influence on education. In 1903, while former Catholic seminarian Émile Combes was minister, a commission was selected to draft a bill that would establish a comprehensive separation between the state and the churches. Its president was the former Protestant pastor Ferdinand Buisson, and its minute writer was Aristide Briand. On 30 July 1904, the Chamber of Deputies voted to sever diplomatic relations with the Holy See following the sanctioning by the Holy See of two French bishops (Albert-Léon-Marie Le Nordez and Pierre Joseph Geay) who had declared themselves republicans and in favour of conciliation with the Republic. The relationship was not reestablished until 1921, after the Senate accepted a proposition brought by Aristide Briand. ==Provisions==

in 1905 Title I: Principles • Article 1 described the purpose of the act as to ensure "freedom of conscience" and to guarantee "the free exercise of religion under the provisos enacted hereafter in the interest of public order." • Article 2 stated "The Republic does not recognize, pay, or subsidize any religious sect. Accordingly, from 1 January following the enactment of this law, there will be removed from state budgets, departments and municipalities, all expenses related to the exercise of religion." • Article 42 retained legal holidays. (Repealed) • Article 43 (amended in 2007) set a deadline of three months by which measures for implementation will be determined. • Article 44 specified previous laws that were to remain in force along with the Act. ==Effects==

The 1905 law put an end to the government funding of religious groups by France and its political subdivisions. At the same time, it declared that all religious buildings were property of the state and local governments and made available for free to the church. When the 1905 legislation superseded the Concordat elsewhere in France, Alsace-Lorraine was part of the German Empire; thus, the 1905 law has never applied there. Similarly, the law has never been applied in the overseas Department of French Guiana as it was a colony in 1905. A third condemnation came in January 1907 through the encyclical Une fois encore. In 1908, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary ruled that all Deputies and Senators who had voted in favour of the law were latae sententiae excommunicated. Although the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State initially was a particularly "painful and traumatic event" for the Catholic Church in France, the French government began making serious strides towards reconciliation with the Catholic Church later during the 1920s by both recognizing the social impact of organized religion in France and amending the law itself through new legislation and rendering court decisions that were favorable to organized religion in France. ==Politics==

, Minister of Public Instruction, forcing the separation The leading figures in the creation of the law were Aristide Briand, and Francis de Pressensé. The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State declared that cathedrals remained the property of the state and smaller churches that of the local municipal government. and the Cardinal Lavigerie's toast in 1890 favour of the Republic. However, the concept of laïcité progressively became almost universally accepted among French citizens, including members of the Catholic Church who found greater freedom from state interference in cultural matters, now that the government had completely stripped itself of its former Catholic links. The Affaire Des Fiches produced a considerable backlash, after it was discovered that the Combes government worked with Masonic lodges to create a secret surveillance of all army officers to make sure devout Catholics would not be promoted. A few French politicians and communities have more recently questioned the law, arguing that, despite its explicit stance for state secularism, it de facto favors traditional French religions, in particular the Catholic Church, at the expense of more recently established religions, such as Islam. Indeed, most Catholic churches in the country were built well before the enactment of the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, and thus are maintained at full public expense, With the exception of the historically anomalous Alsace-Lorraine, This was one of the controversial arguments used by Nicolas Sarkozy, when he was Minister of Interior, in favour of funding other cultural centers than those of Catholicism, Protestantism and Judaism. In 2016, President Hollande proposed a temporary ban on foreign funding for mosques and shut down at least 20 mosques found to be "preaching radical Islamic ideology". These actions are consistent with Title V, Articles 26, 29, and 35 of the law. ==See also==