France is usually thought of as the embodiment of laïcité (secularism). However, the struggle to both reach a generally accepted understanding of it, and to implement it, is ongoing. The immediate past has highlighted tensions due to religious beliefs and practices in French society, whereas recent social and religious evolutions also have an impact on laïcité. Laïcité is nowadays an important topic in French public debate: according to the catalogue of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, in 2014 no less than 11 books contained the word in their title, whereas newspaper Le Monde recently also dedicated a newsletter to it. Another illustration of this reality is the formation, by the government, of a monitoring group on secularity, the Observatoire de la Laïcité, which was created in 2007 by president Jacques Chirac and fully set up in 2013 by president François Hollande and prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. The aim of this monitoring group is to advise and assist the government in ensuring respect of the principle of laïcité. In July 2014, the Group issued a short note entitled La laïcité aujourd’hui (Secularism today), recalling the historical roots and meaning of secularism and developing ways of implementing it in contemporary society. This reflects the current struggle to reach a balance between promotion of secularism and respect of religious freedom.

For some decades now, the nature of the relations between politics and religion in Germany has been the subject of profound mutations that are linked to secularization, to the growing importance of the so-called Konfessionslose, to religious individualization and pluralization and, most importantly, to the ever increasing presence of Islam. These evolutions, which tend to question the bi-confessional protestant-catholic balance that has for long been considered an essential dimension of German collective identity, shake up the representations of a society that has difficulties imagining pluralism and confessional neutrality without any reference to Christianity. Thus public authorities have to find political and legal means of reconciling the protection of freedom of conscience and religion, the principle of State neutrality, and equal treatment of all religious communities.

While Ireland remains a predominantly Catholic society, in recent years the Church has experienced a notable erosion in its authority and power. At the same time, other faiths are growing, and the number of atheists and agnostics is increasing steadily. Ireland is a majority Catholic society. According to the 2011 census, about 84 per cent of the population self-identify as Roman Catholic. At the same time, the Irish religious landscape exhibits considerable diversity. The Orthodox, Hindu, and Pentecostal faiths are the country’s three fastest growing non-Catholic religious traditions. The number of atheists and agnostics has grown by about 320 and 130 per cent respectively in the 2006-2011 span (All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO), PDR Table 35: Percentage and Actual Change in Population by Sex, Religion, Census Year, and Statistic).

A country of twenty million Latin-language speaking inhabitants, Romania is situated on the crossroad of different politic, religious and cultural influences. In the Moldavian and the Walachia principalities, the role of the Byzantine, the Ottoman, and the Russian Empires was essential. As for Transylvania, it was influenced by Vienna, Budapest and Rome. Unavoidably, this historic heritage is closely related to the Romanian religious situation. In ancient Moldavian and Walachia principalities, the dominant Church (87 %) is the Orthodox. In Transylvania, different denominations share the believers with the Orthodoxy: Roman Catholicism (5 %), Greek-Catholicism (Uniatism) (1 %) and the Protestantism, or more precisely Calvinism (3 %), Unitarianism (anti-Trinitarians) (0.3 %) and Lutheranism (0.5 %). Roman Catholicism, Calvinism, Unitarianism, and Lutheranism followers are mainly among the Hungarian community.

A country, which has two established churches, the Church of England and the Church of Scotland, does not seem to be a propitious setting for secularism to flourish. To this point can be added a number of other matters that seem to be inimical to the idea that secularism can prevail in the United Kingdom. There is, for example, the fact that large numbers of State schools in the present day continue to have partly religious foundations, historically once solely Christian or Jewish but now also including the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh faiths. Equally there the fact that one of the established churches, the Church of England, has the legal right, which it exercises, to have bishops and archbishops as members of the House of Lords, one of the two chambers of the United Kingdom Parliament. 

Vatican

"Dans sa lettre à Mgr Rino Fisichella sur le Jubilé de la miséricorde (8 décembre 2015-20 novembre 2016), le pape François annonce avoir décidé 'nonobstant toute chose contraire, d'accorder à tous les prêtres, pour l'Année jubilaire, la faculté d'absoudre du péché d'avortement tous ceux qui l'ont provoqué et qui, le cœur repenti, en demandent pardon'" — L'avortement pourra être pardonné pendant le Jubilé (Zenit, InfoCatho) 

"L'absolution reçue en se confessant aux prêtres de la Fraternité Saint-Pie X sera 'valide' et 'licite' pendant le Jubilé, déclare le pape François dans la lettre qu'il adresse à Mgr Fisichella pour l'année jubilaire de la miséricorde, rapporte l'agence Zenit" — Le geste de François envers les Lefebvristes (A.B. avec Zenit, La Vie) 

Boko Haram

"Un reportage de l'agence américaine Crux montre que certains chrétiens nigérians, lassés des attaques de Boko Haram contre leurs églises, souhaitent prendre les armes pour se défendre" — Au Nigeria, des chrétiens tentés de prendre les armes contre Boko Haram (A-B H avec Cruz et Apic, La Croix) 

"Près de 80 personnes ont été tuées ce weekend par des membres présumés du groupe islamiste Boko Haram dans l'attaque de trois villages du nord-est du Nigeria, ont indiqué lundi des habitants" — Nigeria : près de 80 personnes tuées par Boko Haram dans trois villages du nord-est (AFP, La Libre) 

Inde

"Diminution de la proportion des hindous, stabilisation de la part des chrétiens et augmentation de la proportion des musulmans dans la société indienne, telles sont les caractéristiques du nouveau visage religieux de l'Inde, d'après les résultats du dernier recensement" — Recensement 2011 : le nouveau visage religieux de l'Inde (Eglises d'Asie) 

Sri Lanka

"Premier Ranil Wickremasinghe van Sri Lanka heeft de religieuze leiders in zijn land opgeroepen om bij te dragen tot de nationale verzoening van de 20 miljoen Sri Lankanen" — Premier van Sri Lanka vraagt steun religieuze leiders (Kerknet)

Terrorisme islamique

La Belgique apparaît, une fois de plus, comme une base logistique et de repli pour un terrorisme mutant et opportuniste, guidé à distance par l'Etat islamique et son sinistre fanzine, Dar al-Islam — Attaque du Thalys : l'Etat islamique projette sa guerre en Europe (Marie-Cécile Royen, Le Vif L'Express)

France

Mgr Rey, évêque de Toulon, a rompu un cordon de sanitaire vieux de trente ans. Pour la première fois, Marion Maréchal-Le Pen a été conviée à une université d'été catholique, celle qu'il organise chaque année à Sainte Baume, avec l'Observatoire sociopolitique qu'il a créé. Si certains ne voient pas pourquoi il y aurait polémique, d'autres accusent l'Église de contribuer à la dédiabolistion du parti lepéniste — L'invitation de Marion Maréchal-Le Pen par l'évêché du Var trouble l'Église de France (Eugénie Bastié, Le Figaro)

China

"Human rights lawyer and church activists understood to be among people detained after Communist party campaign to take down religious symbols" — China arrests Christians who opposed removals of crosses (Tom Phillips, The Guardian)

"Despite claims that her father is being harassed in China over her association with the spiritual faith, Miss World Canada 2015 refuses to renounce it and her humanitarian work: 'I feel my presence in that country would give people hope'"— Anastasia Lin: a Falun Gong practitioner seeking the Miss World crown – in China (Mali Ilse Paquin, The Guardian) 

"Le ralentissement économique qui frappe actuellement la Chine ne l'empêche pas d' investir dans d'autres secteurs, comme le marché halal, dont l'industrie pèse 500 milliards de dollars dans la balance du commerce mondial. Un marché gigantesque coinvoité par la Chine qui a fait de ses relations commerciales avec le monde musulman une de ses priorités économiques" — La Chine veut devenir un géant du halal (Oumma)