The Constitutional Council has ruled: the so-called “separatism” law does not contravene freedom of worship. The three Christian churches (Orthodox, Protestant and Catholic) had lodged an appeal against this law which, according to them, modified the balance of the law of 1905 applying a regime of constraints.
The wise have decided. The Constitutional Council validated, this Friday, July 22, several provisions of the controversial law known as “against separatism”, contested by the major French Christian authorities who saw in it “serious attacks” on the freedoms of worship and association.
Decision No. 2022-1004 QPC of July 22, 2022, Union of Diocesan Associations of France and others [Régime des associations exerçant des activités cultuelles] Compliance – reserve pic.twitter.com/5C04dzuRwA
— Constitutional Council (@Conseil_constituent) July 22, 2022
A DECISION VERY AWAITED BY THE THREE CHURCHES
In this decision eagerly awaited by the cults, the Sages ruled on the one hand that the contested provisions “do not disregard the principle of secularism” by not depriving the free exercise of the cults of legal guarantees, according to the terms of their press release.
Furthermore, the Council, chaired by Laurent Fabius, considered that the legislator “has pursued the objective of constitutional value of safeguarding public order” by strengthening “the transparency of the activity and financing of associations ensuring the public exercise of worship”.
The constitutional judges accompanied their decision with two reservations of interpretation that must be taken into account by the regulatory texts adopted in application of the law without the latter being called into question in the new principles it imposes.
Two priority questions of constitutionality (QPC)
The High Court had been seized of two priority questions of constitutionality (QPC) by the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF), the Protestant Federation of France (FPF) with the United Protestant Church of France and the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France (AEOF).
In their sights, the provisions of Title II of the “separatism” law considered too restrictive with regard to the freedoms of worship and association which are based on the laws of 1905 and 1907 organizing the separation of Churches and the State .
Among the other grievances forwarded to the Constitutional Council, these bodies considered that the State was instituting a system of prior authorization for the recognition of certain religions by obliging associations to declare their religious nature in order to benefit from the advantages specific to the category of religious associations. .
The “separatism” law has often been presented as a sovereign marker of Macron’s first five-year term. Although explicitly aimed at “Islamist separatism”, it had made the leaders of the Christian Churches jump.
Since 2008, any citizen can seize via a QPC the Constitutional Council, through the filter of the Council of State and the Court of Cassation, of an existing law on which the supreme judge has never ruled.
