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Religious diversity in France

The religious panorama of France

During the last century, especially since the law of separation of the Church and the State, the religious variety in France

considerably increased. If the Catholicism remains the majority religion, we notice that the Islam became the second religion of the

country.

In 1905, four cults were recognized in France (Catholicism, reformed Protestantism and Lutheran, Judaism). Nowadays, new

religions are established on the territory: the Islam and the Buddhism but also other forms of Christianity as for example the

orthodoxy or the evangelic churches. Since the last official census in 1872 on the practice of the cult, it is forbidden to integrate

questions concerning the religious membership in a demographic investigation. Thus, we do not have public statistics and the experts

have to base their studies on estimations provided directly by the religious groups. By this way we can raise there the following

picture:

- Catholicism remains widely majority, even

if it knows a decline since the seventies. In

2006, according to a sounding IFOP-La

Croix, 65 % of the French people declared

themselves catholic, while they were, at the

beginning of the seventies, more than 80 %.

- The agnosticism is developping. The

number of persons identified with no

religion (more than 25 % of the French

people) increases, particularly among young

people. However, the fact that they're

declaring themselves as "without religion "

does not inevitably mean that they are

atheistic.

- The Islam globally became the second

religion of France. We consider currently at

approximately 4 millions the number of

persons of Muslim tradition, that is 6 % of

the population, bound for many in the

Maghreb.

- The historic Christendoms. To the Orthodox Church (estimated at 300 000 members), and in the Armenian apostolic Church ( the

same order of height ), it is necessary to add the believers linked with the diverse oriental Churches independent or united in Rome.

- The Judaism. It counts approximately 600 000 believers who have, for a notable majority, Sephardic origins following the arrival in

mainland France of Jews of North Africa in the sixties.

- The Buddhism left the marginality in which it was confined for a long time in France. We estimate the number of its believers at 300

000, native for the main part of Asia.

- The atypical religious movements know, in spite of the debates they activate and whatever is the status we attribute(award) them, a

certain vitality. We notice it, for example, for the Jehovah's Witness, who claim 140 000 believers.

The secularism in debate

The secularism is a fundamental principle of the French Republic. Secularism is based on two conditions. In the first place

the neutrality of the State : the Republic "recognizes, no salarie, nor subsidizes no cult". Secondly, the respect of the freedom of cult

which allows every individual to practice his religion freely. If the laic major principles are not questioned, the statutory modalities

regarding the organization and application of the separation between the Church and the State are sometimes discussed. Indeed, even

if we should not exaggerate the questioning of the principle of secularism, numerous recent events leads us to bent over the

modification of the law of 1905 : the contesting of certain contents of eduction in schools, the ostentatious religious signs, the

discriminatory attitudes towards the women, the attacks because of the religious membership. These attitudes have multiple origins

and do not concern a religion in particular. In front of these new debates the republic answered by a series of laws and measures in

order to reaffirm the principle of secularism.

The law of March 15th, 2004 enters in this frame by forbidding the port of signs or dresses showing a religious membership

in public schools. We thus see that instead of re-establishing or modifying the limits of the law of separation of the Church and the

State the Republic chose to reaffirm the foundations of the secularism guaranteeing the respect of the principle " of equality in front of

the law of all the citizens without distinction of origin, purebred or religion". At the same time, the French Republic, has chosen to

strengthen the study of the religious fact in schools and thus supports the idea that the teaching of religious cultures are as necessary

as our literary, artistic or political heritage.

Source: Study of the family and intergenerational relations, National institute of the demographic studies (2005).

The distribution of the religions in France