The high court had been seized by Christian organizations on two provisions deemed too restrictive with regard to freedom of worship and association.
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The decision was eagerly awaited by the cults. The Constitutional Council validated, on Friday July 22, several provisions of the controversial “separatism” law contested by the major French Christian authorities who saw in it “serious damage” to the freedoms of worship and association. The Sages held that the disputed provisions “do not disregard the principle of secularism“by not depriving the free exercise of worship of legal guarantees, according to the terms of their press release.
The High Court had been seized of two priority questions of constitutionality by the Conference of Bishops of France, the Protestant Federation of France with the United Protestant Church of France and the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France. In their sights, provisions considered too restrictive with regard to the freedoms of worship and association which find their foundations in the laws of 1905 and 1907 organizing the separation of Churches and the State.
The religious authorities considered that the State instituted a system of prior authorization for the recognition of certain religions by obliging the associations to declare their religious nature in order to benefit from the advantages specific to the category of religious associations. Christian cults had notably denounced an increase in constraints, fearing an impact on the daily life of religious associations, often made up of volunteers.