THE PRESIDENT of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, has been strongly criticised by left-wing politicians, teachers and Freemasons for undermining the secular state with his Rome speech last month that urged a "positive laïcité" and stressed his country's Christian heritage (The Tablet, 5 January).

"When Nicolas Sarkozy says someone who believes is someone who hopes, that implies that one should be a believer to be a good citizen," said Socialist opposition leader François Hollande. "The law separating Church and State was never as pertinent and precious as today. I call on the President to close this debate definitively."

The largest teachers' union denounced Mr Sarkozy's remark that educators could never replace parish priests for instilling values and teaching children right and wrong, calling it a "surprising and shocking statement" that risked undermining laïcité - the French concept of the secular state. The Grand Orient of France, with 50,000 members the country's largest Masonic organisation, requested and received a meeting with the President to express concern that he was upgrading the status of organised religion. The Women's Grand Lodge, with some 12,000 members, said Mr Sarkozy was preparing "an intolerable attack on fundamental freedoms to believe, not believe or believe differently". French Masons are active in public affairs, especially as defenders of laïcité.

Grand Master Jean-Michel Quillardet said after the meeting that Mr Sarkozy had assured them he respected secular morality as much as that based on faith. He said the President had pledged to make only "a few technical adjustments" to the 1905 laïcité law, which defines the separation between Church and State. A commission appointed by Mr Sarkozy has proposed changes in the law to allow religious congregations to receive state subsidies. At present, they must divide their work between religious activities, which cannot be subsidised, and social projects, which can receive state aid.

Mr Sarkozy has also sparked speculation by announcing last week that he wanted to update the preamble to the French constitution to "respond to the challenges of bioethics". He gave no details except that Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor who as Health Minister in 1975 led the campaign to legalise abortion, would head a panel studying the issue.

Some bioethicists argue for broad principles to be included, such as respect for human dignity, while others fear this could provide a legal basis for challenging the right to abortion. The Jesuit priest Fr Olivier de Dinechin, a member of the National Consultative Committee on Ethics, warned against poorly prepared changes. "I'm very wary of grand principles that one declares, only to make exceptions to them later," he said.

A committee appointed by Mr Sarkozy to study constitutional changes rejected the idea of adding broad principles such as diversity, gender parity or human dignity to the preamble.