PARIS (OSV News) -- The archbishop of Paris spoke out in favor of freedom of Catholic education in France, amid weeks of tensions and protests after the principal of a Catholic school was fired by the state school-supervising body for "breaching secularism."

The principal of a high school in southern France introduced confessions during school hours and invited a bishop to speak to students, which was seen as an offense to school diversity, even if the school was Catholic.

In an interview for Radio Notre Dame, the station of the Archdiocese of Paris, Archbishop Laurent Ulrich of Paris said on Oct. 12 that "we must be able to proclaim the Gospel in Catholic schools," adding, "There are people who want to silence us."

Catholic schools educate around 17% of pupils in France. Of all the private schools in France, 95% are Catholic. They operate under a 1959 agreement with the French state, according to which they follow the same curriculum as public schools and welcome children of all faiths and backgrounds. Under this condition, the state pays the salaries of the Catholic schools' teachers, who are inspected by the Ministry of Education. The schools however retain their Catholic identity and can offer catechism classes, as long as they are not compulsory.

For 40 years, a relatively peaceful status quo prevailed in this respect. But over the past three years, state control over Catholic schools has tightened. In January, a large group of representatives from the public education sector urged the government in the national daily newspaper Le Monde to end state funding of Catholic schools.

The subject became even more tense at the start of the new school year. On Sept. 11, the principal of a Catholic high school in Pau was removed from office by the local education authority. Christian Espeso was accused of "breaching secularism," including offering confessions during school hours, withdrawing books from school circulation that he had deemed "inappropriate" for the children and bringing in the local bishop for a conference, which pupils in the upper classes were required to attend.

Immaculate Conception High School, where Espeso was principal, ranked first in the region and fourth in France.

In a Sept. 13 statement, the Directorate of Catholic Education of the Diocese of Bayonne said that the "decision, which we consider to be totally disproportionate in light of the facts for which he is accused, leaves many of us stunned."

The issue quickly took on a political dimension. Sen. Max Brisson, a former inspector general of the French Ministry of Education, issued a statement protesting the "decision of the academic management of the National Education services" as a "full scale attack on Catholic education as a whole," by an academic authority that "has given in to the injunctions of the most ideological unions, which are driven by a militant and distorted vision of what secularism is in our country."

On Sept. 19, the secretary general for Catholic education, Philippe Delorme, a deacon elected to the post by the French bishops, followed suit, deploring "attacks and inconsistencies" against Catholic schools.

"Some people devote a lot of energy to trying to deconstruct something that works well," he said at a press conference. "I consider state controls to be legitimate and indispensable," Delorme added. "But we are being controlled with a suspicion of illegality, as if they wanted to pin us down."

Delorme pointed out that "the further we go, the less we have the impression of being free and considered associated partners."

"I call for rightful, appropriate and proportionate controls," the secretary general told journalists. "The Catholic school assumes that its educational project is not neutral. ... It is the Christian educational project, based on the Gospel, that parents choose when they enroll their children, whether they are Christians or not."

"The situation is unprecedented in France in religious terms," Philippe Gaudin, longtime director of the Public Institute for the Study of Religions and Secularism, told OSV News.

"In France, there is a huge decline in Christian religious practice. At the same time, there is a growing presence of Muslims, who are loudly asserting their identity and their demands. This is something new. So the state is trying to put in place a public policy to manage all this," the expert pointed out.In 2021, an "anti-separatism" law was passed in France, initiated by President Emmanuel Macron, to step up the fight against radical Islamism. It increased the possibilities for state control over religious institutions -- to prevent extremism. Following the bill, in July 2024, the Lycée Averroès, France's leading Muslim high school, in Lille in northern France, suspected of complacency toward Islamism, had its state contract terminated.

"Because there are concerns with Islam, everyone is subject to the constraints, including Catholic schools," Gaudin explained. "On the other hand, the great attractiveness of Catholic schools arouses jealousy. People are jostling to get in, including Muslims. If the Catholic Church had the freedom to open more schools, it would fill them! Everyone knows that. It is extremely painful for the secular schools," he said.

"In the 19th century, when the church regained a place in a French society after the Revolution, it created schools in places that were suffering from the lack of education," Archbishop Ulrich said Oct. 12. "Parish priests were concerned not only to teach children the catechism, but also to ensure that they received a (general) education. This was before schools were declared by the republic to be secular, free and compulsory."

"It is not the state or the law that defines the 'proper character' of Catholic schools," Archbishop Ulrich pointed out. "It is up to us to define it," he said.

"We are not saying that everyone must welcome the Gospel message and become a believer, but pupils must be able to hear an evangelical word. ... It must also be possible, in these schools, to set up small groups of Christian pupils who really want to cultivate their Christian faith, for catechism classes, outside school hours, but nevertheless at times when the children are still at school," the archbishop said.

"I am not saying it is easy, because there are pressures against it," Archbishop Ulrich concluded. "But this is what needs to be done."

- - - Caroline de Sury writes for OSV News from Paris.