CrossCurrents A Catholic Reflects on Faith in Our Times

Bernard F. Swain, Ph.D. www.CrossCurrents.us

The New Question: Which Faith?

The social (and religious) conditions behind France’s recent violence are hardly new. I first wrote about Paris’s “problem of the suburbs” ten years ago:

Most Parisians…have no business in the suburbs, and therefore rely largely on hearsay and stereotype for their impressions of suburban life. They tend to regard suburbs, especially those north of Paris, with a mixture of disdain and fear. They think of suburbs as ugly, dirty places, rife with Arabs and Africans, plagued by crime and gangs. They may know someone who has chosen to live in the suburbs (which are much less expensive than the city) but they tend not to visit, and when they do they remain a bit on edge, wary lest something go wrong.

That was in 1995, after my first trip to Paris in 25 years showed me how much French society – and the place of the Catholic Church in that society – have changed since the 1960s.

Parisians still remember 1968 for the famous student riots that started in the Latin Quarter, then spread to many labor unions as well as to students and workers in other countries, and paved the way for the eventual resignation of Charles de Gaulle. Many believe these outbreaks also soured Joseph Ratzinger’s optimism about modern culture and converted him to a more fearful conservative outlook.

But the ‘68 outbreak came a mere six years after France left its last North African colony, Algeria. The flow of French-speaking Arabs into France from Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Lebanon (as well as French speaking blacks from other African nations) had not yet peaked. So the demonstrators were overwhelmingly white students and workers. Nearly all had been baptized Catholics as infants, but all had been raised in France’s highly secular “laicized” culture, so few remained practicing Christians.

By then the Church had already accepted its marginal role in French life. Parishes routinely operated with few worshippers and little or no money, depending on volunteer labor for whatever priests didn’t do themselves. Church activists contented themselves with the modest influence of worker-priests in some factories and chaplaincies for students, prisons, hospitals, and other specialized ministries. For more than 30 years after Vatican II, Catholic leaders tended to see their role limited to “Proposing the Faith” to a secularized nation, assuming that some individuals would be attracted by the option of a spiritual tradition deeper than modern consumer society.

Partly, this rather timid posture came by default (Catholicism lacked the resources to be more aggressive). But partly it was deliberate: Catholic leaders feared stirring up the anti-clerical hostility that, since the French revolution, had linked the Catholic Church with the rich and powerful and aristocratic, against “the people.”

Meanwhile, though, French people mellowed about religion (in my annual visits since 1995, I’ve found many people puzzled about my work in the Church, but I’ve met almost no hostility or ridicule). Today most secularized French people regard Catholicism with a sort of nostalgic detachment. To them, the Church is like the monarchy, just a part of their pre-revolutionary past. Like royal palaces and aristocratic chateaus, cathedrals and churches are part of France’s national heritage – beautiful monuments to a bygone age of faith. And while many French are unmoved by faith, they are always moved by beauty.

But in those same 30 years, millions of French speaking blacks and Arabs have arrived in France seeking opportunity or asylum – a better life. Many of them have been relegated to massive housing projects outside of Paris and other major cities. In troubled economic times, they have suffered massive and chronic unemployment, and they have generally felt like victims of both racial and religious discrimination (though blacks have felt this much less than Arabs).

In recent years, this suburban discontent has left millions of the young vulnerable to the appeal of Islamic extremism. In a century where secularism has ruled for generations, French leaders have been unprepared for a religion that takes active and aggressive steps to attract new followers. Whole neighborhoods of the Paris region have become increasingly faith-based, and mosques continue to spring up in growing numbers.

This new Muslim presence and influence has created a competitive religious environment that has caught Catholic leaders flat-footed. All along, those leaders had assumed that French secularism was here to stay, not only dominant but non-negotiable. So they consoled themselves by also assuming that, for those who were seeking faith, Catholicism was the only game in town. The rise of French Islam has proved them wrong on both counts. Secularism appears less and less dominant, and Islam (especially Islamic fundamentalism) has suddenly become a major player.

While Catholic leaders contented of themselves with “Proposing the Faith,” Muslim leaders waded in to help with shelter, jobs, bureaucratic red tape, meals, as well as a generally supportive environment that included spiritual values deeper than France’s secular culture.

The result: rather than assimilating into that culture, many 2^nd and 3^rd generation Arab youths have absorbed the values of the “old country” – and resented the privileges they believed their “new country” denied them on racial and religious grounds.

This wasn’t just a recipe for revolt – it is also a lesson to the established leadership in France, both secular and Catholic. The religious impulse in human nature will not accept being permanently sidelined on the margins of life, even in post-Christian Europe. The natural human hunger for faith and spiritual communion will eventually assert itself.

So secular leaders will have to learn to face the demand for religious freedom in the public realm; it will no longer be enough to tell people they can have their religion in private.

And Catholic leaders will have to realize they’re no longer the only religious game in town. If they remain on the sidelines, someone else will fill the vacuum secularism leaves. Much of the time, that someone else will be, not mainstream Moslems, but Muslim fundamentalists.

In short, the future is upon us: a day when it is no longer enough to answer the question, “To Believe or Not to Believe?” People will insist on belief; they will turn to faith. So merely “proposing the faith” is only half the challenge, because the new competitive environment raises a whole new question, and the new question is: “Which Faith Shall We Turn To?”

© Bernard F. Swain PhD 2005

Send Your Comments and Questions to bfswain@juno.com

Dr. Swain’s opinions do not represent the views of this parish or any other official body.

Bernie Swain has devoted more than 30 years to adult spiritual formation in dioceses in the US, Canada, and France. Since 1991 he has maintained a private practice as trainer, teacher, and consultant to leaders in parishes and other religious organizations. He holds degrees in theology and political science from Holy Cross, Harvard, The University of Paris, and The University of Chicago.

His writings include Liberating Leadership (Harper & Row, 1986) and more than 200 articles in periodicals such as The National Catholic Reporter, Commonweal, The Miami Herald, The Catholic Free Press, The Pilot, Harvard Theological Review, and Liturgy.

A lifelong layperson, he lives in Boston with his wife and three children. Visit his website at:

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