Editing Culture of France (section)

==Religions in France==
{{Main|Religion in France}}
[[File:Declaration of Human Rights.jpg|thumb|upright|The ''[[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]]'' (1789) guarantees [[freedom of religion]], as long as religious activities do not infringe on public order in ways detrimental to society.]]

France is a [[secularism|secular]] country where freedom of thought and of conscience which encompasses and supersedes [[freedom of religion]] is preserved, by virtue of the 1789 [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]]. The [[French Fifth Republic|Republic]] is based on the principle of ''[[laïcité]]'', which relies on the division between [[Private sphere|private life]], where adherents believe religion belongs, and the [[public sphere]], in which each individual should appear as a simple [[citizen]] who is [[Egalitarianism|equal]] to all other citizens, not putting the emphasis on any ethnic, religious, or other particularities. French secularism also includes [[freedom of conscience]] i.e. the freedom to believe or not to believe and even to change one's faith across one's life (including of agnosticism and [[atheism]]) enforced by the [[Jules Ferry laws]] and the [[1905 law on the separation of the State and the Church]], enacted at the beginning of the [[French Third Republic|Third Republic]] (1871–1940). A 2011 European poll found that a third (33%) of the French population "does not believe there is any sort of spirit, God or life force".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430163128/http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 April 2011|date=30 April 2011|access-date=21 August 2017}}</ref> In 2011, in a poll published by [[Institut français d'opinion publique]] 65% of the French population describes itself as Christians, and 25% as not adhering any religion.<ref>{{cite web|author1=Ifop|author-link1=Institut français d'opinion publique|title=Les Français et la croyance religieuse|url=http://www.ifop.com/media/poll/1479-1-study_file.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110601143927/http://www.ifop.com/media/poll/1479-1-study_file.pdf |archive-date=2011-06-01 |url-status=live|access-date=19 February 2016|date=2011|language=fr}}</ref>

According to [[Eurobarometer]] poll in 2012, [[Christianity]] is the largest religion in France accounting 60% of French citizens.<ref name=EUROBAROMETER>{{citation|title=Discrimination in the EU in 2012 |work=[[Eurobarometer|Special Eurobarometer]] |year=2012 |series=383 |page=233 |url=http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_393_en.pdf |access-date=14 August 2013 |publisher=[[European Commission]] |location=[[European Union]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121202023700/http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_393_en.pdf |archive-date=2 December 2012 }} The question asked was "Do you consider yourself to be...?" With a card showing: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, Other Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu, Atheist, and Non-believer/Agnostic.  Space was given for Other (SPONTANEOUS) and DK. Jewish, Sikh, Buddhist, Hindu did not reach the 1% threshold.</ref> [[Catholics]] are the largest [[Christians|Christian]] group in France, accounting for 50% of French citizens,<ref name="EUROBAROMETER" /> while [[Protestant]]s make up 8%, and other Christians make up 2%. [[Agnostic|Non believer/Agnostic]] account for 20%, [[Atheist]] 13%, and [[Muslim]] 7%.<ref name="EUROBAROMETER" />

France guarantees freedom of religion as a constitutional right, and the government generally respects this right in practice. A long history of violent conflict between groups led the state to break its ties to the established Catholic Church early in the last century, which previously had been the state religion. The government adopted a strong commitment to maintaining a totally secular public sector.<ref>{{cite web |language=ro |url=http://www.cotidianul.ro/index.php?id=8749&art=22782&cHash=597202ac5o |title=Franţa nu mai e o ţară catolică |trans-title=France is no longer a Catholic country |website=[[Cotidianul]] |date=11 January 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080117081812/http://www.cotidianul.ro/index.php?id=8749&art=22782&cHash=597202ac5o |archive-date= 17 Jan 2008 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070116133757/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/10/wfra10.xml |archive-date=16 Jan 2007 |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/10/wfra10.xml |title=France 'no longer a Catholic country' |website=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=10 January 2007 |first1=Henry |last1=Samuel }}</ref>

===Catholicism===
{{Main|Roman Catholicism in France}}
[[File:Reims Cathédrale Notre-Dame 5002 (fixed angles).jpg|thumb|right|upright|alt=Notre-Dame de Reims façade, gothic stone cathedral against blue sky|[[Reims Cathedral|Notre-Dame de Reims]] is the Roman Catholic cathedral where the [[Coronation of the French monarch|Kings of France were crowned]] until 1825.<ref name="bak1">{{cite book|last=Giesey|first=Ralph E.|title=Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual|editor=Bak, János M|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|year=1990|chapter=Inaugural Aspects of French Royal Ceremonials|url=http://www.escholarship.org/editions/view?docId=ft367nb2f3&brand=ucpress|access-date=25 September 2008}}</ref>{{Efn-ur|The last ''sacre'' was that of [[Charles X of France|Charles X]], 29 May 1825.}}]]

Long the established state religion, the [[Catholic Church]] has historically played a significant role in French culture and in French life. Kings were prominent members as well as head of the state and social order. Most French people are Catholics;<ref>{{Cite book|title = World and Its Peoples|url = https://archive.org/details/worlditspeoplese0010unse|url-access = registration|publisher = Marshall Cavendish|date = 1 January 2010|isbn = 9780761478874|language = en|page = 245}}</ref> however, many of them are secular but still place high value on [[Catholicism]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ferrara|first=Carol|date=2 October 2019|title=The Catholic-ness of Secular France|url=https://www.europenowjournal.org/2019/10/02/the-catholic-ness-of-secular-france/|url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-30|website=www.europenowjournal.org|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200425090848/https://www.europenowjournal.org/2019/10/02/the-catholic-ness-of-secular-france/ |archive-date=25 April 2020 }}</ref>

The [[Catholic]] faith is no longer considered the [[state religion]], as it was before the [[French Revolution|1789 Revolution]] and throughout the various, non-republican regimes of the 19th century (the [[Bourbon Restoration in France|Restoration]], the [[July Monarchy]] and the [[Second French Empire|Second Empire]]). The institutional split of the Catholic Church and French State ("Séparation de l'Eglise et de l'Etat") was imposed by the latter in 1905 and represented the crest of a wave of the laicist and [[anti-clericalist]] movement among French Radical Republicans in this period.

At the beginning of the 20th century, France was a largely rural country with conservative Catholic mores, but in the hundred years since then, the countryside has become depopulated as people have become urbanized. The urban populations have become more secular. A December 2006 poll by Harris Interactive, published in ''[[The Financial Times]]'', found that 32% of the French population described themselves as agnostic, some 32% as [[atheist]], and only 27% believed in any type of God or supreme being.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=usurped |url=http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/14255 |title=Religion Important for Americans, Italians |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070707022910/http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/14255 |archive-date=7 July 2007 |website=Angus Reid Global Monitor |date=16 December 2008}}</ref> according to the French Market research [[Ipsos]], Catholics today constitute 57.5% of the French population.<ref name="IPSOS">''[https://web.archive.org/web/20171019192134/https://www.reforme.net/actualite/societe/sondage-les-protestants-en-france-en-2017-1-qui-sont-les-protestants/ Les Protestants en France en 2017]'' Ipsos.</ref>

===Protestantism===
{{Main|Protestantism in France}}
France was touched by the Reformation during the 16th century; some 30% of the population converted to Protestantism and became known as [[French Huguenots]]. Some princes joined the reform movement. But the national monarchy felt threatened by people who wanted to leave the established state religion. Protestants were discriminated against and suppressed. On 24 August 1572, the [[St. Bartholomew's Day massacre]] took place in Paris and the [[French Wars of Religion]] are considered to have begun. this French civil war took place between Catholics, led by [[Henry I, Duke of Guise]], and Protestants, led by [[Henri de Navarre]]. Henri de Navarre became king after converting to Catholicism in 1589.

[[Louis XIII]], Henri IV's son, began to suppress Protestants in violent attacks, such as the [[Siege of La Rochelle]]. After [[Louis XIV]] revoked the [[Edit de Nantes]] in 1685, Protestants who did not leave the country were generally suppressed. Thousands of Protestant [[Huguenots]] emigrated from France for their safety and to gain religious freedom, generally going to Protestant nations such as the Netherlands, England, [[Huguenots in South Africa|South Africa]], and the [[Huguenot#North America|North American]] colonies.<ref>Birnsiel Eckart & Bernat Chrystel, ''La Diaspora des Huguenots : les réfugiés Protestants de France et leur dispersion dans le monde (XVIe – XVIIIe)'', Paris, Edition Champion, 2005</ref> Their exile continued during the 17th century and until 1787, when religious freedom was re-established by [[Louis XVI]].

===Judaism===
{{Main|History of the Jews in France}}
The current [[Religions in France|Jewish community in France]] numbers around 600,000, according to the [[World Jewish Congress]] and 500,000 according to the Appel Unifié Juif de France. It is concentrated in the metropolitan areas of Paris, [[Marseille]] and [[Strasbourg]].

The history of the Jews in France dates back over 2,000 years. In the early [[Middle Ages]], France was a center of Jewish learning, but persecution increased as the Middle Ages wore on. France was the first country in Europe to emancipate its Jewish population during the [[French Revolution]], but despite legal equality anti-Semitism remained an issue, as illustrated in the [[Dreyfus affair]] of the late 19th century. However, through the 1870 ''[[Cremieux Decree|Décret Crémieux]]'', France secured full [[citizenship]] for the Jews in then French-ruled [[Algeria]]. Despite the death of a quarter of all French Jews during the [[Holocaust]], France currently has the largest [[Jewish population]] in Europe.

In the early 21st century, French Jews are mostly [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardic]] and of North African origins. More than a quarter of the historic Ashkenazi Jewish community was destroyed during the [[Holocaust]] of World War II after German forces occupied France and established the [[Vichy Regime]]. Jewish religious affiliations range from the ultra-Orthodox [[Haredi]] communities to the large segment of Jews who are secular and identify culturally as Jews.

===Islam===
{{Main|Islam in France}}
[[File:Mosque Paris Aug 2006 002.jpg|right|thumb|The [[Grand Mosque of Paris|Grand Mosque]] in Paris]]
[[Islam]] is the third-largest faith in France in the early 21st century. The [[Grand Mosque of Paris|Grand Mosque]] was constructed in Paris in 1929 in honour of French colonial troops from North Africa who fought in the First World War. Arabs from North Africa started to settle in France. In the early 21st century, France had the largest Muslim population (in percentage) of any Western European country. This is a result of immigration and permanent family settlement in France, from the 1960s on, of groups from, principally, former French colonies in North Africa ([[Algeria]], [[Morocco]], [[Tunisia]]), and, to a lesser extent, other areas such as [[Turkey]] and West Africa.<ref>Kidd and Reynolds, 104-5.</ref> The government does not collect data on religious beliefs in census records, but estimates and polls place the percentage of Muslims at between 4% and 7%.<ref>Kidd and Reynolds, for example, give a figure of 4 million Muslims, or 6.9%, based on sources dated 1993, 1994, 1999. (102). See [[Islam in France]] for more on recent estimates.</ref>

===Buddhism===
{{Main|Buddhism in France}}
[[Buddhism]] is widely reported to be the fifth largest religion in France, after Christianity, [[atheism]], [[Islam]], and Judaism. France has over two hundred Buddhist meditation centers, including about twenty sizable retreat centers in rural areas. The Buddhist population mainly consists of Chinese and [[Vietnamese people|Vietnamese]] immigrants, with a substantial minority of native French converts and "sympathizers". The rising popularity of Buddhism in France has been the subject of considerable discussion in the French media and academy in recent years. The [[Plum Village Tradition]] school of Buddhism was developed in France with the [[Plum Village Monastery]] located in the [[Dordogne]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Plum Village Tradition |url=https://thichnhathanhfoundation.org/plum-village-tradition |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Thich Nhat Hanh – The Mindfulness Bell |url=https://www.parallax.org/mindfulnessbell/thich-nhat-hanh/ |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=www.parallax.org |language=en-US}}</ref>

===Cults and new religious movements===
France created in 2006 the first [[French parliamentary commission on cult activities]] which led to a report registering a number of [[cult]]s considered as dangerous. Supporters of such movements have criticized the report on the grounds of [[Status of religious freedom in France|the respect of religious freedom]]. Proponents of the measure contend that only dangerous cults have been listed as such, and state secularism ensures religious freedom in France.