In France, Catholicism can claim a numerical and historical precedence. The significance of this ‘recognition’ is to be sought in the competition which takes place between specific religious groups in public institutions (army, schools, hospitals, prison). Yet the decrease in the number of practising Catholics has reconstituted this condition and led to a debate across accusations of minorization, refusal of marginalization, and claims of minority status which reveals the intrinsic plurality of French Catholicism. This Catholicism can therefore be identified as a ‘paradoxic minority,’ since it persists in its claim to a place at the very centre of society.