1905 French law on the separation of Church and State

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On 9 December 1905, a law was passed in France separating the church and the state.^[1] This law was based on three principles: the neutrality of the state, the freedom of exercise of religion, and public powers related to the church. This law is seen as the backbone of the French principle of laïcité. The law famously states "The Republic neither recognizes, nor salaries, nor subsidizes any religion". (Aristide Briand however subsequently negotiated an agreement with the Vatican whereby the state has a role in the process of choosing diocesan bishops.)

Contents 1 Effects 2 Politics 3 References 4 See also

[edit] Effects

Prior to this law, the French national government funded four official religions: Roman Catholicism, Calvinist Protestantism, Lutheran Protestantism, and Judaism. It built churches, temples, synagogues and other religious buildings from taxes levied from the whole population (not just those affiliated with those religions).

The law put an end to the funding of all religious groups and declared all religious buildings property of the state and local governments; the government puts such buildings at the disposal of religious organisation at no expense to these, provided that they continue to use the buildings for worship purposes.^{[citation needed]} Other articles of the law included prohibiting affixing religious signs on public buildings, and laying down that the republic no longer names French archbishops or bishops (but see above).

Because Alsace-Lorraine was at the time a part of the German Empire, the 1905 law, as well as some other pieces of legislation, do not apply there (see Alsace-Moselle). Similarly, the 1905 law was not extended to French Guiana, at the time a colony — and to this day the local government of French Guiana funds Roman Catholicism.

[edit] Politics

The leading figures in the creation of the law were Aristide Briand, Émile Combes, Jean Jaurès and Francis de Pressens.

Initially, the Roman Catholics were seriously affected, as the law declared churches property of the state and local governments. One point of friction is that public authorities had to hand over the buildings to religious organisations (associations cultuelles) representing laymen, instead of putting them directly under the supervision of the church hierarchy. This caused civil disobedience and even riots by Catholics. The Holy See urged Catholic priests to fight in the name of Catholicism. Pope Pius X issued the Vehementer Nos encyclical denouncing the law as contrary to the constitution of the church. It did, however, free the church from state control as well, since they could raise more funds than the modest amounts the state provided and they could choose their own bishops. This was not entirely new however since Catholics in the United States, Poland, and Ireland funded their churches without state support.

One may see the situation from another angle, namely that this law currently de facto favours traditional French religions, in particular Roman Catholicism, at the expense of religions of more recent expansion in France, such as Islam: while most Catholic churches were built before 1905, and thus are maintained largely at the expense of the government, followers of Islam and other religions have to pay the full price of founding and maintaining religious facilities. This is the reason why certain French politicians, such as Nicolas Sarkozy, favour funding other religions.^[2] The 1905 law, however, is often considered politically untouchable. Rivals of Sarkozy, such as Jacques Chirac and Dominique de Villepin made a point that no change was foreseen to the law.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

• (French) Dossier from the French National Assembly

1. ^ Law of December 9, 1905, concerning the separation of the Churches and the State from wikisource (in French); updated official version from Légifrance (in French)
2. ^ The reflection he proposes is of significant historical and theoretical depth, even to the point of considering important legal changes that bring into question a taboo of the French republic, the law of 1905 on separation between Church and state. Even the République Needs Religion by Carlo Cardia, Avvenire, May 3, 2006, translated in www.chiesa

[edit] See also

• Concordat of 1801
• Catholic Church in France

Briand-Ceretti Agreement

• French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools
• French legislation for the prevention and repression of cultic groups