Sarkozy Calls for "Positive Secularism" Seeing Religion as Asset
"...I call for the emergence of a positive secularism, that is to say a secularism which, while ensuring freedom of thought, freedom to believe and not to believe, freedom which does not consider religions a danger, but rather an asset."
Excerpts from Nicolas Sarkozy's speech at the Lateran Basilica, where he was installed as an Honorary Canon
"...Secularism has no authority to cut off France from its Christian roots. It tried to, but it shouldn't have. Like Benedict XVI, I believe that a nation which ignores the ethical heritage, spiritual, religious in its history commits a crime against culture, against this mix of its history, heritage, art and popular traditions, which permeate so profoundly the way we live and think. To pull out the roots is to suffer loss of meaning. It weakens the cement of national identity and dries up social relations and the much needed symbol of memory.
"Therefore we must hold together the two ends of the chain: acknowledge and even enhance the Christian roots of France, while defending the maturation of secularism.
"...I call for the emergence of a positive secularism, that is to say a secularism which, while ensuring freedom of thought, freedom to believe and not to believe, freedom which does not consider religions a danger, but rather an asset."
Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the Republic of France
Audio of speech in French: http://www.elysee.fr/president/les-actualites/discours/discours.18.html?mode=cview&press_id=819&cat_id=7&lang=fr
Speech in English (google translate)
Editorial: http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2008/01/sarkozy-and-secularism