LA LAICITÉ (1905)

It’s during the IIId Republic that the Catholic Church, already manhandled during the French Revolution (1789), has completely lost its place next to political power. In 1905 the secularism’s law opens a debate on the place and the role of the Catholic Church in France. The direct clash between parliament members and catholics during the “inventory battle”, the deep division of french society during the Dreyfus case, the paradoxical position of Church during the Vichy system are many reflexions about the fascinating relation between Republican state and the Catholic Church in XXth century. Rich of interviews with Michel Charasse or the Cardinal Poupaud and interventions of Pierre Arditi, this episode of the great battles of France on secularism reviews how has been “given back to Cesar what’s belongs to Cesar” and wonders about contemporary repercussions of this law, aged a century, on the separation between State and Church.