1905 French law on the separation of Church and State: Encyclopedia II - 1905 French law on the separation of Church and State - Effects

1905 French law on the separation of Church and State - Effects

Prior to this law, the French national government funded four official religions: Roman Catholicism, Calvinist Protestantism, Lutheran Protestantism, and Judaism. It built churches, temples, synagogues and other religious buildings from taxes levied from the whole population (not just those affiliated with those religions).

The law put an end to the funding of all religious groups and declared all religious buildings property of the state and local governments; the government puts such buildings at the disposal of religious organisation at no expense to these, provided that they continue to use the buildings for worship purposes. Other articles of the law included prohibiting affixing religious signs on public buildings, and laying down that the republic no longer names French archbishops or bishops.

Because Alsace-Lorraine was at the time occupied by Germany, the 1905 law, as well as some other pieces of legislation, do not apply there (see Alsace-Moselle). Similarly, the 1905 law was not extended to French Guiana, at the time a colony — and to this day the local government of French Guiana funds Roman Catholicism.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Effects", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki