The President's Passion Play.(World Affairs)(Nicolas Sarkozy)

Byline: Tracy McNicoll

Nicolas Sarkozy embraces God as good for society, igniting debate over church and state in France.

Being an Honorary Canon of The Basilica of Saint John of Lateran is an honor enjoyed by French leaders since Henri IV. Most don't care much (Presidents Francois Mitterrand and Georges Pompidou skipped the trip to Rome altogether). Not so current President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been gaining a reputation as France's chief sermonizer. Last December, as he received his title, he made a long speech to the gathered clerics, expounding on "France's essentially Christian roots."

"A man who believes is a man who hopes," said the president. "And the interest of the republic is that there be a lot of men and women who hope." He advocated a new "positive secularism" that "doesn't consider religions a danger, but an asset." And he declared, "In the transmission of values and in the teaching of the difference between good and evil, the schoolteacher will never be able to replace the priest or the pastor."

Those are fighting words in strictly secular France. Suddenly, faith, once an entirely private affair, has infused the president's political discourse. In Riyadh on Jan. 14, Sarkozy referenced the Lord 13 times in a speech to Saudi Arabia's Consultative Council, evoking a "transcendent God who is in the thoughts and the heart of every man." That was news to France's estimated 15 million atheists and agnostics, a quarter of the country.

The revival has touched a nerve among a large swath of the French population. Polled online, 73 percent disagreed with Sarkozy's pronouncement on school-teachers versus pastors. Last week 60 unions, teachers' associations and others launched a Web petition arguing that Sarkozy, "in mixing personal convictions and his presidential function, undermines the secularism of the republic." The petition drew 20,000 signatures in its first four days. Politicians are fanning the flames. Centrist leader Francois Bayrou, himself a devout Roman Catholic, forewarned that challenging secularism in France would open a Pandora's box of latent problems. Socialist leader Francois Hollande accused Sarkozy of using religion to sell nuclear energy to Muslim countries.

Sarkozy's take is simply that they are out of touch. He told diplomats in Paris last month that the two most important challenges facing society in the 21st century are climate change and "the conditions of the return of the religious in most of our societies." Last month, he declared to his UMP Party and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that it was "a mistake" to withdraw the reference to "Europe's Christian roots" from the European Constitution.