Just days after the Catholic funeral of a prominent Freemason and former senator sparked controversy among French Catholics, the newly reelected head of France’s largest Masonic organization reignited a long-running fault line between French Freemasonry and Catholic education.
Speaking with Le Figaro Aug. 28, Guillaume Trichard, reelected grand master of the Grand Orient de France (GODF), said his obedience — the term used for a Masonic Lodge’s jurisdiction — intends to shape the 2027 presidential race, starting with education, and announced that it will publish “a white paper on the school of the Republic, with numerous proposals.”
In his sights are independent schools operating outside state contracts, known in France as écoles hors-contrat, or “non-contract schools,” many of which are Catholic in identity or inspiration, and which, he said, “have no place in the Republic.” Unlike France’s much larger network of state-contracted private schools, most of which are Catholic, hors-contract schools receive no regular state funding and retain greater autonomy, although they remain subject to government inspection and basic educational requirements.
Although the majority of these non-contract schools targeted by Trichard are officially nondenominational, a large number of them are founded by Catholic communities, often of a traditionalist bent,
