This is part of a roundtable on Notre-Dame de Paris. Self-declared atheists represent 30 percent of the French population, and France is among the top five most atheist countries in the world Marchand Since , public school students are not permitted to wear ostensible religious symbols i.
How could such a secular and atheistic nation collectively mourn a Catholic cathedral to begin with? Of course, many would say that this collective mourning of the famous cathedral is simply due to the fact that Notre-Dame is more than just a church. It was the sanctuary in which General Charles de Gaulle rallied the nation after the victory march at the conclusion of the Second World War.
Notre-Dame is the epicenter of our lifeβ¦. Thus, the place and space for this Notre-Dame in the French national imaginary may appear rather unsurprisingβeven despite the paradox it might present against secular Republican expectations.
The Catholic Church in France has experienced a number of changes over the past five decades or soβnot least of which is its shift toward becoming a minority religion despite its normative status in French society.
An survey of religious statistics in France showed that 98 percent of the population declared themselves Catholic and only 0. At the end of thes, more than 80 percent of French citizens still recognized themselves as Catholic, and about 25 percent attended Church every Sunday.
