Religion in Luxembourg

This status, first afforded to the Catholic Church, stems from Napoleon's Concordat of 1801, the principles of which have continued to apply to Luxembourg, despite its separation from France in 1815 and its subsequent Dutch ownership.

Despite having the same roots as France's official position of laïcité, Luxembourg's approach to religion has taken a different direction in the past 200 years, reducing the separation of church and state, not increasing it.

The state currently recognises the Catholic Church, Judaism, Greek and Russian Eastern Orthodox Christianity, and Protestantism as officially mandated religions.

In 2003, representatives of Islam, Anglicanism, and Romanian and Serbian Orthodox Christianity engaged in discussions to be conferred similar status.

This was partially stimulated by several events, such as the debate on Catholic Church sexual abuse or the Grand Duke's religiously motivated refusal to sign a euthanasia bill adopted by Parliament.

[12] The Allianz vun Humanisten, Atheisten an Agnostiker, founded in 2010, became one of the most vocal advocates of secularism in Luxembourg.

Luxembourg was a major centre for Christianity during the Middle Ages, Catholicism was sustained through the Reformation by the hierarchy, buildings, and traditions established in the preceding centuries.

[16] A lot of people were increasingly estranged by the Church's belief system, and yet were still members of it, solidifying the current situation.

This secularisation, combined with the struggle to separate church and state, eventually led to the foundation of the Allianz vun Humanisten, Atheisten an Agnostiker in the spring of 2010.

It intended to unite the hitherto scattered organised activities by humanist, atheist, agnostic, skeptical and secularist thinking people into one force.