Sarkozy pressed to ditch secularism and fund religion

With the election of Nicholas Sarkozy as the new President of France, the Catholic Church has lost no time in pressing him to undermine the 1905 law separating church and state. The former Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran has said that he hopes Sarkozy will “ease” France’s legislation so that the state can provide financial support to religion.

The French-born cleric, now head of the Vatican library, told the Vatican newspaper Avvenire that Mr Sarkozy was “extraordinarily open to religion” He said Mr Sarkozy regarded laïcité – the official Church-State split of 1905 – not as the enemy of religion but as a guarantee that all faiths can flourish.

All the same, the Church is indicating that it intends to encourage Mr Sarkozy to pursue a policy he first expressed in a book he wrote in 2004 entitled The Republic, Religions and Hope – the book “signalled the possibility of altering the 1905 law… to make possible state financing of the major religions”.

When reminded that Mr Sarkozy had recently said that he sensed that there was no consensus for change, Cardinal Tauran replied: “Yes, I read that, but what he wrote in his book remains.”

During the presidential election campaign, our sister organisation in France, Libre Pensee, sent Mr Sarkozy a questionnaire in response to which he said: “I don’t believe that there is at the moment any massive interference by religion in the public sphere. On the other hand, the law of 1905 is one of the pillars of our legal system, the French are very attached to it, no one is thinking of calling into question the principles and the fundamentals. All agitation over this topic seems to me to be overdone, even though the Republic must remain vigilant, as it has shown it does with the law on the wearing of religious symbols in schools. Be assured that I will see that this remains the case.

“I will never call into question the separation of church and state. But this principle has never been and must never become an excuse for remaining inactive in the face of the situation of millions of our fellow citizens, namely Muslims, who are sometimes reduced to performing their religious observances in unrenovated cellars and left to the mercy of extremist preachers. I wish to find a solution to this problem, in a spirit of consultation with all the affected parties and with respect for the principle of laïcité.”

Libre Pensee also asked: “Are you in agreement with giving different currents of philosophical thought and of free thought access time to the media equal to that now enjoyed by religions?”

To which Sarkozy replied. “No. The different currents of philosophical thought and free thought are not – to my knowledge – religions. The question is to know if one should give access time to the media to the great religions or not, and not to give this access time to everyone who has an opinion about the existence of God.”

The new president was also asked whether he was in favour of the possible reinstatement of the blasphemy law. He said: “I have had occasion at several times to take a firm public stand in favour of freedom of expression, namely in the Danish cartoon affair. On this point my position is constant and it will remain so if the French give me their confidence.” Sarkozy said he had no intention of ending the application of the (Napleonic) concordat in three departments of France - Alsace, Moselle and overseas. In 1905 when the law was implemented, Alsae and Moselle were part of Germany and are therefore it does not apply there.

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