French officials are defending a Catholic nun who was reportedly informed she couldnt live in a publicly funded retirement home unless she gave up her religious habit and veil.

French laws prohibiting people from wearing religious attire in certain public spaces which have lately had the greatest impact on Muslim women dont apply in this case, according to local officials.

Alain Chrtien, the mayor of the eastern town of Vesoul, where the home is located, apologized for the situation on Tuesday and pledged to help the nun find a spot in a public retirement home. Chrtien said that the retirement home had incorrectly interpreted Frances secularism laws.

This error of judgment is very regrettable, Chrtien said, according to The New York Times .

The nuns story has become a part of Frances ongoing debate over the place of religious attire in a society that treasures lacit, or state secularism.

The nun is over 70 years old and has not been publicly identified, according to The New York Times . After spending her entire adult life in a convent, she applied to retire to a government-funded home in Vesoul. But the retirement homes managers told her that to honor the countrys laws around secularism, she could not display any signs of being part of a religious community.

Religion is a private matter and must remain so, the retirement homes letter to the nun read, according to Agence France-Presse .

The nun refused to eschew her religious clothing back in July. Her story recently came to light when a Vesoul priest, Rev. Florent Belin, wrote about her situation in his November parish newsletter. Belin said that the local diocese has found another apartment for the nun, but that she is living alone and making her own meals. The priest accused the Vesoul retirement home of anti-Christian sentiment.

What is secularism? Surely its allowing everyone to live their faith without disturbing anyone else. I dont think a nuns veil is disturbing because its not a sign of submission but of devotion, Belin wrote in his newsletter, according to a translation in the Guardian .