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December 22, 2007

From combined dispatches. – PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy has broken a French taboo by urging a more active role for religion in public life, but stopped well short of the American-style mix of faith and politics his critics say he wants to copy.

A twice-divorced “cultural Catholic,” Mr. Sarkozy used a visit to the Vatican on Thursday to declare France was rooted in Christianity and needed Catholics to be more active in public life because faith helped give meaning to life.

Sarkozy’s audience with the pope “will give the president an opportunity to reaffirm his respect and commitment, not to religion in particular … but to spiritual issues in general,” his spokesman said ahead of the audience.

His trip to Rome, which included being inducted as honorary canon of the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, provoked charges that he was trying to blur the separation of church and state and make religion a political issue, as in the United States.

In its front-page cartoon yesterday, the Paris daily Le Monde showed Mr. Sarkozy dressed as a bishop, with President Bush shouldering a cross and an American flag and confessing to Pope Benedict XVI: “I think this guy is stealing my job.” 

The communist daily L’Humanite scoffed that Mr. Sarkozy had bowed his head to the pope “like an altar boy” and “abandoned all reserve and placed his status as a Catholic above that of the head of a secular state.”

In his speech accepting the canon’s title, an honor given to French leaders since the 17th century, Mr. Sarkozy made repeated references to France’s Christian roots — a link that Paris refused to have mentioned in Europe’s planned constitution.

He also gave Benedict a copy of his 2004 book “The Republic, Religions and Hope” in which he first spelled out his dissenting views about faith and French politics.

But “Sarko the American” — a nickname he earned for his pro-American views — stressed he agreed with the separation of church and state and only wanted to ease some practices that faith leaders, especially Muslims, consider anti-religious.

“We should uphold both sides — accept the Christian roots of France … while defending secularism,” he said. “We don’t want to change the law separating church and state. The French don’t want that, and the religions don’t want it either.”

Mr. Sarkozy said France needed “convinced Catholics who are not afraid to say who they are and what they believe.” But he made clear he welcomed outspoken believers of all faiths and was not trying to mobilize Christians to support certain policies.

“Of course, those who do not believe should be protected from all forms of intolerance and proselytism,” he said. “But a person who believes is a person who hopes. The republic has an interest in having many men and women who hope.” 

RTL radio commentator Serge July noted the Catholic Church in France has criticized Mr. Sarkozy’s crackdown on immigration and plans to drop most restrictions on Sunday shopping. “Catholics may vote for him, but the bishops are wary,” he said.

The president stopped short of discussing his own religious views, avoiding a faux pas the French might find even less pardonable than talking about religion and politics in general.

French commentators have expressed amazement that candidates in U.S. primaries discuss the Bible, question others’ beliefs, reject evolution or declare that freedom required religion.

“France is very hostile to religion in politics,” said Olivier Roy, a leading specialist on secularism and religions, especially Islam. “We have different traditions for dealing with this.”