France is a secular state and has followed the Catholic tradition and culture from the very beginning. The Catholic Church in France played a very vital role until the mid 1960’s. It was considered one of the most important institutions and most of the newborns almost 91 percent were baptized in the Catholic Church. After the 1960’s there was a record of declining church visits. The most important regions of France were also included in these records. Gradually the region differences also started to fade. In 2003 there was a survey conducted on the religions in France. It was recorded that 62% was dominated by Catholicism after which came Islam at 6%, Protestantism and Judaism followed at 2% and 1% respectively. The other 26% showed that people had no reservations about following any particular religion. During the same survey it was found that 41 % of the French population thought that God does not exist and the chances of existence are near impossible. The remaining 58% agreed that the existence of god is certain or likely. Today there is freedom of expression and individual morality is accepted by everyone. Therefore there is a greater tolerance of religious differences among individuals and groups in France.
Catholic and Protestant churches
Catholicism
In 1994 it was recorded that 67% of people in France accepted that they were Catholics, almost 58% christened their children in a catholic church and 50 % had a Catholic Church wedding. However during the last fifteen years the belief in religion has declined largely. People are becoming ignorant of the religion and refuse to get involved in the age-old traditions like christening, belief in the existence of god and resurrection of Jesus. Belief christening has reduced from 95% to 58%; weddings have fallen from 85% to 50% and belief in god’s existence has dropped to 61% which was 66% fifteen year ago. This clearly shows that today French people are not much influenced by religion as they were a decade ago. For instance 18% of the French population does not know what the Whitsun festival stands for. The youth are especially growing increasingly ignorant about religion and belief in god. This situation is not within the French population but also within the church. Nowadays only 22,000 priests are involved in the church as against 45,000 in the 1960’s. Young people are refusing to take the path of religion and so there is a decline in number of young priests. Most of the priests at the church are above 60 years of age and only about 4.5% are below the age of 40 years. Similar trend has been observed in the case of nuns and monks.
Protestant
Protestant is a minority religion in France. Only 1.8% of the French population is estimated to be Protestants. The Protestant population is spread over France. East of France has 30%, Paris has 20%, Massif has a recorded protestant population of 15%, and the rest are spread across France. They all belong to the fifteen Protestant churches in France which is called the Protestant Federation of France. There is low religious observation among the Protestants. Only 10% attend Church and the rest do not go at all. The major difference among Catholics and the Protestants is not their principals. It is observed that younger populations belonging to the Protestant are getting involved in becoming Protestant pastors. This situation is completely opposite when compared to the catholic.
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