By Tracy McNicoll
NEWSWEEK
Updated: 12:27 PM ET Feb 9, 2008

Being an Honorary Canon of The Basilica of Saint John of Lateran is an honor enjoyed by French leaders since Henri IV. Most don't care much (Presidents François Mitterrand and Georges Pompidou skipped the trip to Rome altogether). Not so current President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has been gaining a reputation as France's chief sermonizer. Last December, as he received his title, he made a long speech to the gathered clerics, expounding on "France's essentially Christian roots."

"A man who believes is a man who hopes," said the president. "And the interest of the republic is that there be a lot of men and women who hope." He advocated a new "positive secularism" that "doesn't consider religions a danger, but an asset." And he declared, "In the transmission of values and in the teaching of the difference between good and evil, the schoolteacher will never be able to replace the priest or the pastor."

Those are fighting words in strictly secular France. Suddenly, faith, once an entirely private affair, has infused the president's political discourse. In Riyadh on Jan. 14, Sarkozy referenced the Lord 13 times in a speech to Saudi Arabia's Consultative Council, evoking a "transcendent God who is in the thoughts and the heart of every man." That was news to France's estimated 15 million atheists and agnostics, a quarter of the country.