Most French people, especially if they are from Paris, do not practice Catholicism. Someone is branded Catholic just because someone might have baptized them when they were an infant, but that does not make them Catholic, just as some Jews don't recognize non-practicing Jews even if their mother is Jewish. Jewish identity might not be tied to practice but to self-identity because who says that they only recognition is that which is defined by the Orthodox. We now know what we are through genetics. Some might inherit more ancestral traits from our Jewish father than our "Catholic" mother.
In reply to Her mother was Catholic, her by Carmen Frutz
Most French people, especially if they are from Paris, do not practice Catholicism. Someone is branded Catholic just because someone might have baptized them when they were an infant, but that does not make them Catholic, just as some Jews don't recognize non-practicing Jews even if their mother is Jewish. Jewish identity might not be tied to practice but to self-identity because who says that they only recognition is that which is defined by the Orthodox. We now know what we are through genetics. Some might inherit more ancestral traits from our Jewish father than our "Catholic" mother.