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Legal basis of state secularism in France

The 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and State (French: ) was passed by the Chamber of Deputies on 3 July 1905. Enacted during the Third Republic, it established state secularism in France. France was then governed by the Bloc des gauches (Left Coalition) led by Émile Combes. 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). It is however not applicable in Alsace and Moselle, which were part of Germany when it was enacted.

Article 1 described the purpose of the act as to ensure "freedom of conscience" and to guarantee "the free exercise of religion under the provisos enacted hereafter in the interest of public order." Article 2 stated "The Republic does not recognize, pay, or subsidize any religious sect. Accordingly, from 1 January following the enactment of this law, there will be removed from state budgets, departments and municipalities, all expenses related to the exercise of religion." Article 42 retained legal holidays. (Repealed) At the same time, it declared that all religious buildings were property of the state and local governments and made available for free to the church. When the 1905 legislation superseded the Concordat elsewhere in France, Alsace Lorraine was part of the German Empire; thus, the 1905 law has never applied there. Similarly, the law has never been applied in the overseas Department of French Guiana as it was a colony in 1905. A third condemnation came in January 1907 through the encyclical Une fois encore. In 1908, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary ruled that all Deputies and Senators who had voted in favour of the law were latae sententiae excommunicated. 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.

The leading figures in the creation of the law were Aristide Briand, and Francis de Pressensé. 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. and the Cardinal Lavigerie's toast in 1890 favour of the Republic. However, the concept of laïcité progressively became almost universally accepted among French citizens, including members of the Catholic Church who found greater freedom from state interference in cultural matters, now that the government had completely stripped itself of its former Catholic links. The Affaire Des Fiches produced a considerable backlash, after it was discovered that the Combes government worked with Masonic lodges to create a secret surveillance of all army officers to make sure devout Catholics would not be promoted. 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, With the exception of the historically anomalous Alsace Lorraine, 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". These actions are consistent with Title V, Articles 26, 29, and 35 of the law.