On This Day: French law separating church and state passed, now faces controversy - Dec. 9, 1905
(edited from Religion Wiki)
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1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State
The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and State was passed by the Chamber of Deputies on 9 December 1905. Enacted during the Third Republic, it established state secularism in France.
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https://religion.fandom.com/wiki/1905_French_law_on_the_Separation_of_the_Churches_and_the_State
(edited from Wikipedia)
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The law was based on three principles: the neutrality of the state, the freedom of religious exercise, and public powers related to the church. This law is seen as the backbone of the French principle of laïcité (secularism).
History
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.
An important document in the evolution toward religious liberty was Article Ten of the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, stating that "No one may be disturbed on account of his opinions, even religious ones, as long as the manifestation of such opinions does not interfere with the established Law and Order."
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. Other articles of the law included the prohibition of affixing religious signs on public buildings, and laying down that the Republic no longer names French archbishops or bishops.
Secularization had a profound impact on church music. Government funding had provided a steady revenue source for funding professional musicians and installing large complex organs. Overnight, many choirs were disbanded and organists were forced to earn side income from teaching. A profound break in sacred music complexity can be found in the compositions of this time. Because much 19th century church music required professional forces no longer available, much of it was forgotten.
Reactions by the Catholic Church
Pope Pius X condemned the law declaring it a "nefarious law" and calling French Catholics to "defend the religion of your Fatherland".
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
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. Those public authorities had to hand over the buildings to religious organizations representing associations formed of laymen, instead of putting them directly back under the supervision of the church hierarchies.
Implementation of the law was controversial, due in some part to the anti-clericalism found among much of the French political left at the time.
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. Followers of Islam and other religions more recently implanted in France instead have to build and maintain religious facilities at their own expense. 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".
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1905_French_law_on_the_Separation_of_the_Churches_and_the_State
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