Secularity does not mean hostility to faith, Pope tells French lawmakers

June 17, 2013

The principle of secularity in French government “shouldn’t mean hostility to religious reality or the exclusion of religious from the social sphere,” Pope Francis argued in an address to French lawmakers.

In his June 15 meeting with the French political leaders—who had requested the papal audience—the Holy Father said that the Church offers guidance to the world not only on religious and social questions “but also in the political, economic, and cultural spheres.” He encouraged the lawmakers to be mindful of the Church’s teachings, and to guide their deliberations by the recognition of “the indispensable quality that elevates and ennobles the human person.”

 

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Further information:

• Pope Francis: Principle of Secularism Entails Neither Hostility to Religious Reality Nor Exclusion of Social Sphere (VIS)