Lessons in secularism are not the way forward, says Vingt-Trois

Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris, has criticised the socialist Government’s plan to step up teaching about France’s secular laïcité system in state schools in response to the killing of 17 people by militant Islamists in January, writes Tom Heneghan.

The Government, which has also announced measures to foster a moderate interpretation of Islam, came close to saying society would be more peaceful if people didn’t believe, the cardinal told the Catholic daily La Croix.

“They’ve turned the spotlight too hastily on religions and not enough on the real roots of this barbarism, which are not religious,” he said. “We are confronted above all with the political delirium of groups that want to monopolise society in the name of a totalitarian vision.

“The idea that one can change opinions by imposing school classes on laïcité is a dangerous Utopia,” he said. “Laïcité can’t be taught like French or the natural sciences … Nobody can make people give up what they believe just because the republic is secular.”