The World of Religions, January-February 2007 —
“France, eldest daughter of the Church.” Pronounced in 1896, Cardinal Langénieux’s phrase refers to the historical reality of a country where Christianity was introduced in the 2nd century and which, from the 9th century onward, offered the model of a people living in unison around the Catholic faith, symbols, and liturgical calendar. This is what historians have called “Christendom.”
With the French Revolution, and then the 1905 separation of Church and State, France became a secular country, relegating religion to the private sphere. For numerous reasons (rural exodus, changing social mores, the rise of individualism, etc.), Catholicism has steadily lost its influence on society ever since. This sharp decline is first noticeable in the statistics of the Church in France, which show a constant decrease in baptisms, marriages, and the number of priests (see pp. 43-44). It is also evident in opinion polls, which highlight three indicators: practice (attending Mass), belief (in God), and affiliation (identifying as Catholic).
For the past forty years, the most significant indicator of religiosity, regular religious practice, has seen the most dramatic decline, affecting only 10% of the French population in 2006. Belief in God, which remained relatively stable until the late 1960s (around 75%), fell to 52% in 2006. The least significant indicator, belonging, which encompasses both religious and cultural dimensions, remained very high until the early 1990s (around 80%). It has also experienced a dramatic decline over the past fifteen years, dropping to 69% in 2000, 61% in 2005, and our survey reveals that it is currently at 51%.
Surprised by this result, we asked the CSA institute to repeat the survey with a nationally representative sample of 2,012 people aged 18 and over. The figure was the same. This drop is partly explained by the fact that 5% of respondents refused to be included in the list of religions offered by polling institutes (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, no religion, etc.) and spontaneously answered "Christian." Contrary to the usual practice of forcibly including this percentage in the "Catholic" category, we have listed it separately. It seems significant to us that people with a Catholic background reject this affiliation while still identifying as Christian. In any case, fewer and fewer French people are claiming to be Catholic, and more and more are describing themselves as "no religion" (31%). The other religions, which are very much in the minority, remain roughly stable (4% Muslims, 3% Protestants, 1% Jews).
Also highly instructive is the survey conducted among the 51% of French people who identify as Catholic (see pp. 23-28), which reveals just how far removed the faithful are from dogma. Not only does one in two Catholics not believe in or doubt the existence of God, but among those who claim to believe, only 18% believe in a personal God (which is, however, one of the foundations of Christianity), while 79% believe in a force or energy. The distance from the institution is even greater when it comes to questions related to morality or discipline: 81% are in favor of priests marrying and 79% of women being ordained. And only 7% consider the Catholic religion to be the only true religion. The Church's magisterium has thus lost almost all authority over the faithful. Yet, 76% have a favorable opinion of the Church and 71% of Pope Benedict XVI. This very interesting paradox shows that French Catholics, who are on the verge of becoming a minority in the population – and who certainly already perceive themselves as such – embrace the dominant values of our profoundly secularized modern societies, but remain attached, like any minority, to their place of community identification: the Church and its main symbol, the Pope.
Let's be clear: not only in its institutions, but also in its mentality, France is no longer a Catholic country. It is a secular country where Catholicism remains, and will likely remain for a very long time, the most important religion. Consider this statistic: what we perceive as the dwindling number of regularly practicing Catholics is numerically equivalent to the entire French Jewish, Protestant, and Muslim population (including non-believers and non-practicing Catholics).