Today France prides itself on being a secular state. It is against the law to teach about Jesus and the Christian faith in schools, whereas the study of Philosophy, Voltaire and Descartes is compulsory. Only that which can be proved to be absolutely certain is worthy of belief. Those who try to evangelise others, therefore, are viewed as coming from a brain-washing cult. These factors give the local church a tendency to be inward looking, its main goal being the struggle for survival.
Members often feel dissatisfied, and divisions are common.
In the Catholic church, things are no better. The number of priests is at crisis level. It has dropped from 41,000 in 1976 to less than 28,000 in 1995. Those remaining are mainly elderly and under great pressure as they struggle to cover an increasing number of parishes. Young replacements cannot be found.