PARIS, FRANCE, November 6, 2001: Cultural liberalism and the new individualism of democratic societies seems to be swaying the French away from religion. People are shying away from declaring their faith and have stopped approaching the Church at times of births, marriages and deaths. They are turning to science or the state and some to other forms of spiritualism. A survey by the weekly current affairs magazine L’Express showed that in the 1960s, 89 per cent of French people claimed to be religious, while today less than 55 per cent willingly state the same. It also showed that only 10 per cent of French people now attend weekly Mass, and as the churches empty out, the priests are dwindling in number while the faithful are getting older. A sociologist specializing in religion, Ms Danile Hervieu-Lger, said religion in France had lost its historical hold on the masses and there were very few real believers ready to publicly declare their faith. But the great paradox is that while Christianity is on the continuing decline, faith is not. People are putting their faith in people, in science, the state or in paganism, whatever means the most to them.
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