Legal status ,
c. 1416.
St. Denis is the patron saint of France. The
1905 French law on the separation of Church and State removed the privileged status of the state religion (Catholic Church) and of the three other state-recognised religions (Lutheranism, Calvinism, Judaism), but left to them the use without fee, and the maintenance at government expense, of the churches that they used prior to 1905. A notable exception is
Alsace-Lorraine, which at the time of the separation was part of
Germany, and where the pre-1905 status, including the concordat, is still in force. This was negotiated in 1918 when
Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France at the end of the First World War, and approved by both France and the Holy See with the
Briand-Ceretti Agreement. As a consequence, and although France is one of the countries in the world where the state and church are most separated, the French head of state is paradoxically the only temporal power in the world still nominating Catholic bishops, namely the
bishop of Metz and the
archbishop of Strasbourg. They are approved by the Pope and in practice selected by him, but formally nominated by the French president following diplomatic exchanges with the Holy See through the nunciature. During the application of the 1905 law, prime minister
Emile Combes, a member of the
Radical-Socialist Party, tried to strictly enforce measures which some Catholics considered humiliating or blasphematory, leading to clashes between the
Congregationists and the authorities. Anti-clericalism slowly declined among the French left-wing throughout
France in the twentieth century, while the question of religion and of freedom of thought seemed to have been resolved. However, it is still present as a defining trait of the left-wing, while most right-wing Frenchmen describe themselves as Catholics (although not necessarily practicing). Thus, the draft laws presented by
François Mitterrand's government in the early 1980s, concerning restrictions on the state funding of private (and in majority Catholic) schools, were countered by right-wing demonstrations headed by the then mayor of Paris, the Gaullist
Jacques Chirac, who was to be his prime minister in 1986 and would succeed him in 1995 as president. In the same way, the
2004 law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools, revived the controversy twenty years later, although the dividing lines also passed through each political side due to the complexity of the subject. On this occasion, several
Muslim associations have allied themselves with conservative Catholics to reject the law. One consequences of the law was that some Muslim middle and high school students who refused to remove their veils or "conspicuous religious symbols" withdrew from the public school system in favour of the private, but publicly funded, Catholic schools (where the law does not apply, being restricted to the public education system). In any case, since the 1905 law on the separation of the Church and State, the prevailing public doctrine on religion is
laïcité – that is, neutrality of the state with respect to religious doctrine, and separation of the religious and the public spheres, except in
Alsace-Lorraine and in some oversea territories. This state neutrality is conceived as a protection of
religious minorities as well as the upholding of freedom of thought, which includes a right to
agnosticism and
atheism. Although many Catholics were at first opposed to this
secular movement, most of them have since changed opinions, finding that this neutrality actually protects their faith from political interference. Only some minority
traditionalist Catholic groups, such as the
Society of St. Pius X, push for the return to the
Ancien Régime or at least pre-separation situation, contending that France has forgotten its divine mission as a Christian country (an argument already upheld by the Ultras presenting the 1825
Anti-Sacrilege Act).
Statistics 2006 Statistics from the Catholic Church in France: Of French Catholics, 74% support
same-sex marriage and 24% oppose it while 87% of French Catholics believe society should accept
homosexuality, while 10% believe society should not accept homosexuality.
Divisions Within France the hierarchy consists of: • Metropolitan archbishop • Suffragan •
Besançon • Belfort-Montbéliard •
Nancy • Saint-Claude • Saint-Dié •
Verdun •
Bordeaux •
Agen • Aire sur Adour • Bayonne • Périgueux • Clermont-Ferrand •
Le Puy-en-Velay • Moulins •
Saint-Flour • Dijon •
Autun • Nevers •
Sens (-Auxerre) • Mission de France •
Lille •
Cambrai •
Arras (Boulogne, Saint-Omer) •
Lyon (-Vienne) (
Primate) or
Primate of the Gauls • Annecy • Belley-Ars • Chambéry •
Grenoble • Saint-Etienne • Valence • Viviers •
Marseille •
Aix-en-Provence (-Arles-Embrun) •
Ajaccio • Avignon •
Carpentras •
Digne •
Fréjus et Toulon •
Gap •
Nice •
Montpellier • Béziers • Agde • Carcassonne • Mende • Nîmes • Perpignan-Elne •
Paris • Créteil • Evry-Corbeil-Essonnes •
Meaux • Nanterre • Pontoise • Saint-Denis • Versailles •
Poitiers •
Angoulême • La Rochelle •
Limoges •
Tulle •
Reims • Amiens •
Beauvais •
Châlons •
Langres •
Soissons •
Troyes • Rennes • Angers • Laval • Le Mans • Luçon • Nantes •
Quimper (Léon) • Saint-Brieuc • Vannes •
Rouen •
Bayeux (-Lisieux) •
Coutances •
Evreux • Le Havre •
Sées • Toulouse • Albi • Auch • Cahors • Montauban • Pamiers • Rodez • Tarbes et Lourdes •
Tours • Blois •
Bourges •
Chartres •
Orléans Immediately subject to the
Holy See: •
Strasbourg •
Metz •
Diocese of the French Armed Forces Other: •
Apostolic Exarchate in France, Benelux and Switzerland for the Ukrainians •
Armenian Catholic Eparchy of Sainte-Croix-de-Paris •
Maronite Catholic Eparchy of Our Lady of Lebanon of Paris France is the location of one of the world's major Catholic
pilgrim centres at
Lourdes. ==Politics==