Laïcité is not an easy concept to translate from French to English, nor is it easy to interpret the argument now raging in France about its implications. It refers to the supposedly secular character of French public life, and to the maintenance of a proper distance between Church and State. President Nicolas Sarkozy has stirred up fears, particularly on the French Left, that he wishes to modernise the concept out of all recognition by granting the Catholic Church, and other religious groups in France, a significantly greater role in public affairs. He has proposed, for instance, that they serve on various Government advisory bodies. In several public speeches - and a book he published before becoming president last year - he has questioned the prevailing negative version of laïcité and argued for a more positive alternative. And he has praised the contribution Christianity has made to France's history, even putting it alongside the Enlightenment.

Those who uphold the secularist tradition see this as an attack on the fundamental values of the French Republic, whose constitution took on an overtly anti-clericalist character after a series of Church-State upheavals in 1905. They may acknowledge that the Catholic Church of today is a very different animal from the Catholic Church of 100 years ago, but they have been less willing to admit that the values that it now stands for, in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, are no threat whatsoever to the values of the French political class. History's weight hangs heavily over the current controversy.

In the past, French Catholicism has sometimes displayed disquieting leanings towards anti-Semitism and the far Right, as, for instance, in the Vichy period. Indeed, the French Church took a long time to come to terms with the French Revolution, and still has its ancien régime fringe. Democracy and human rights were regarded as alien concepts. Throughout the nineteenth century the Church often maintained a controversial stance towards the politics of its day - politics often conducted from behind barricades to the sound of musketfire. Three archbishops of Paris died violently between 1848 and 1871. In contrast, church leaders today seek no privileges and have a sophisticated understanding of how they want Church-State relations to operate. What motivates the president's secularist critics is not fear of the present but fear of the past returning. They draw some ammunition from what is happening in Italy, where the Vatican has been accused - not very convincingly - of trying to bring down the Prodi Government. This illustrates a problem at the heart of the French secularists' case. They uphold democracy and freedom of speech as basic values, but that must include the freedom of Catholic and other religious leaders to speak out on issues of the day, thereby influencing how their followers vote. Inside the Church there is a lively debate about when this is appropriate and when it is not. It is only reasonable that politicians and the Church should be in dialogue, therefore, and it is only a short step from that to the Government finding institutional means to facilitate that process. From outside France, what President Sarkozy is proposing seems reasonable. But from the perspective of French history, he needs to proceed rather cautiously. If he succeeds, however, France can only benefit.

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