Courtney McGrailA legal advisor to France’s top administrative court has said that public buildings in the strongly secularist country could be allowed to house nativity scenes.
According to French media, magistrate Aurélie Bretonneau said the tradition of nativity scenes – known as crèches in French – do not necessarily breach the nation’s 1905 law on church/state separation. In advising the State Council, the preeminent administrative body in France, Bretonneau insisted that religious neutrality does not forbid nativity scenes unless there is “a specific religious intention” linked with them.
Thus, crèches, if not accompanied by direct evangelising, could be viewed as ‘neutral’.
The Council has been asked to rule on nativity scenes in public buildings, where even the wearing of crosses is deemed a breach of secular norms.