PARIS — In his first visit to France as pope, Benedict XVI touched on central themes of his papacy — the tensions between faith and reason and church and state, as well as his efforts to reach out to Muslims and Jews — and urged an increasingly irreligious Europe to look back to its intellectual roots in Christian monastic culture.

"What gave Europe's culture its foundation — the search for God and the readiness to listen to him — remains today the basis of any genuine culture," he said.

Pope Benedict spoke before 700 academics, cultural figures and Muslim leaders at the College des Bernardins, a new cultural center in a 13th-century monastery, a location he called "emblematic" for his remarks.

"Amid the great cultural upheaval resulting from migrations of peoples and the emerging new political configurations, the monasteries were the places where the treasures of ancient culture survived," he said.

"It is through the search for God that the secular sciences take on their importance."

His message went counter to a deep vein of anti-clericalism in France, which has long drawn sharp distinctions between issues of faith and matters of temporal power.

"At this moment in history, when cultures continue to cross paths more frequently, I am firmly convinced that a new reflection on the true meaning and importance of secularism is now necessary," the pope said at a ceremony earlier Friday with President Nicolas Sarkozy at the Elysee Palace. He used the word "laicite," which denotes the separation of church and state.

But the pope proposed a "distinction between the political realm and that of religion in order to preserve both the religious freedom of citizens and the responsibility of the state toward them." He distinguished the state's legislative and social duties from religion's role "for the formation of conscience" and the "creation of a basic ethical consensus in society."

After his speeches, the pope said a Mass for young people at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame.

The pope's four-day stay in France had been planned to commemorate the 150th anniversary of what the Vatican recognizes as the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to a 14-year-old peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, at Lourdes in 1858. He broadened his journey at the invitation of Sarkozy, who spoke during a visit to Rome and the Vatican last year of a "positive secularism," saying religion "should not be considered a danger but an asset."

Roman Catholics make up about 60 percent of the French population of 65 million. But fewer than 10 percent of French Catholics say they attend Mass regularly. France also has a growing Muslim minority of 6 million and smaller groups of other faiths.