Religious Beliefs: France has been dominated by the influence of the Catholic Church, yet the constitution declares it to be a secular country. Secularism does not reject religion but attempts to bar any single religion from gaining political control. The minister of the interior is also the minister of religions, an office established to ensure the representation of various creeds. About 80 percent of the population is Roman Catholic. The second largest religion in terms of adherents is Islam. There are about a million Protestants, 700,000 Jews, and 200,000 Orthodox Christians. There is also a significant Buddhist population. About 15 percent of the population claims the status of a nonbeliever. Religious practice has diminished during the last fifty years, and less than 10 percent of the population attends religious services.
The dominance of Catholicism is historically linked to the conversion of Clovis in 496. In most of the country, communes began as parishes, and most rural villages see the local church building as a symbol of local identity. The church bell rings to mark deaths, wars, and weddings. French history is marked by religious struggles between Catholics and Protestants, especially during the wars of religion in the sixteenth century. Many Protestants fled during the seventeenth century, when their religious rights were rescinded by Louis XIV.
The French Revolution in the eighteenth century was in part a reaction to the power and wealth of the Catholic Church. The 1905 law passed during the Third Republic officially separated church and state. The split between republicans and antirepublicans, who were conservative and Catholic, was strong at the local level in Catholic regions such as Brittany during the turn of the century. Anti-Semitism is symbolized by the Dreyfus Affair, which was sparked at end of the nineteenth century by the false conviction for spying and imprisonment under a death sentence of a Jewish army officer. This divided republican and antirepublican factions across the nation. Anti Semitism was prevalent during the Vichy regime and has resurfaced with the neofascist Front National.
Folk religion varies by region. Witchcraft beliefs persist in some regions, such as the Vendée. Many Catholic regions combine elements of folk religion and Catholicism in their belief systems.
Religious Practitioners: Because of the strong influence of the Catholic Church, priests are the most important religious practitioners at the local level.
Characteristic stone buildings in the village of Lot. Privacy is strongly valued in French households.
The village priest was historically a major presence in rural areas. The triad of priest and schoolmaster was a feature of village life in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Strong anticlerical beliefs, particularly in southern areas, challenged this status. A shortage of priests has reached a crisis point. Reflecting this shortage as well as the decline in religious participation, few village churches hold regular services or have a village priest. People must travel to towns for mass.
France has a variety of religious practices. Immigrants bring new forms of both established and folk religious practices to urban areas. For Muslim immigrants in particular, religious practice is an important way to preserve one's identity in an assimilationist society. In rural areas, folk healers and diviners are consulted. New Age religions are thriving, and herbalists, massage healers, and other practitioners are growing in influence.
Rituals and Holy Places: France was the site of many pilgrimages during the Middle Ages. Most regions have historic churches that are visited regularly on holy days, with processions leading to them. Lourdes is one of the best known pilgrimage sites in the world. Located in the Pyrenees region in the southwest, it is visited by five million people each year. In 1858, the Virgin Mary appeared to a young girl, at the grotto in Lourdes. This miracle inspires handicapped and ill people to visit this site and take the waters, which are believed to have healing qualities. Lourdes has a Web site where one can hear the church bells and watch the visitors.
Death and the Afterlife: The Judeo Christian tradition dominates beliefs about the afterlife, with heaven and hell playing a major role in the cosmology. In traditional rural areas, th and in many regions, such as Brittany, a cult of death especially among older women. Funerals are important events, drawing from the entire community. The cemetery in France is a symbolic site of memory, often visited by older female relatives who tend to family plots. Young children often accompany grandmothers for walks through cemeteries.
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