History of the Catholic Church in France
The history of the Catholic Church in France is inseparable from the history of France, and should be analyzed in its peculiar relationship with the State, with which it was progressively confused, confronted, and separated.
Early Christianity
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Legend
According to long-standing legend,
History
The first written records of Christians in France date from the 2nd century when Irenaeus detailed the deaths of ninety-year-old bishop Pothinus of Lugdunum (Lyon) and other martyrs of the 177 persecution in Lyon.
In 496 Remigius baptized Clovis I, who was converted from paganism to Catholicism. Clovis I, considered the founder of France, made himself the ally and protector of the papacy and of his predominantly Catholic subjects.
Foundation of Christendom in France
On Christmas Day 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, forming the political and religious foundations of Christendom and establishing in earnest the French government's longstanding historical association with the Roman Catholic Church.
The Treaty of Verdun (843) provided for the partition of Charlemagne's empire into 3 independent kingdoms, and one of these was France. A great churchman, Hincmar, Archbishop of Rheims (806-82), was the deviser of the new arrangement. He strongly supported the kingship of Charles the Bald, under whose scepter he would have placed Lorraine also. To Hincmar, the dream of a united Christendom did not appear under the guise of an empire, however ideal, but under the concrete form of a number of unit States, each being a member of one mighty body, the great Republic of Christendom. He would replace the empire by a Europe of which France was one member. Under Charles the Fat (880-88) it looked for a moment as though Charlemagne's empire was about to come to life again; but the illusion was temporary, and in its stead were quickly formed seven kingdoms: France, Navarre, Provence, Burgundy beyond the Jura, Lorraine, Germany, and Italy.
Feudalism was the seething-pot, and the imperial edifice was crumbling to dust. Towards the close of the 10th century, in the Frankish kingdom alone there were twenty-nine provinces or fragments of provinces, under the sway of dukes, counts, or viscounts, constituted veritable sovereignties, and at the end of the 11th century there were as many as fifty-five of these minor states, of greater or lesser importance. As early as the 10th century one of the feudal families had begun to take the lead, that of the Dukes of Francia, descendants of Robert the Strong, and lords of all the country between the Seine and the Loire. From 887 to 987 they successfully defended French soil against the invading Northmen: the Eudes, or Odo, Duke of Francia (887-98), Robert his brother (922-23), and Raoul or Rudolph, Robert's son-in-law (923-36), occupied the throne for a brief interval. The weakness of the later Carolingian kings was evident to all, and in 987, on the death of Louis V,
Thus the Capetian dynasty had its rise in the person of Hugh Capet. It was the work of the Church, brought to pass by the influence of the See of Reims, renowned throughout France since the episcopate of Hincmar, renowned since the days of Clovis for the privilege of anointing the Frankish kings conferred on its titular, and renowned so opportunely at this time for the learning of its episcopal school presided over by Gerbert himself.
The Church, which had set up the new dynasty, exercised a very salutary influence over French social life. It has been recently proven by the literary efforts of M. Bédier that the origin and growth of the "Chansons de geste", i.e., of early epic literature, are closely bound up with the famous pilgrim shrines, whither the piety of the people resorted. And military courage and physical heroism were schooled and blessed by the Church, which in the early part of the 11th century transformed
Time of the Crusades
"The reign of
A churchman, Suger, abbot of St-Denis, a friend of Louis VI and minister of
St.
Advent of Gothic art and the Hundred Years' War
France was the birthplace of
"Divine right" and the weakening of the influence of the papacy in Christendom
"Under
Hundred Years' War, Joan of Arc and the Rex Christianissimus
But at this juncture the Hundred Years' War broke out, and the French kingdom, which aspired to be the arbiter of Christendom, was menaced in its very existence by England. English kings aimed at the French crown, and the two nations fought for the possession of Guienne. Twice during the war was the independence of France imperilled. Defeated on the Ecluse (1340), at
The ideal of a united Christendom continued to haunt the soul of France in spite of the predominating influence gradually assumed in French politics by purely national aspirations. From the reign of Charles VI, or even the last years of Charles V, dates the custom of giving to French kings the exclusive title of Rex Christianissimus. Pepin the Short and Charlemagne had been proclaimed "Most Christian" by the popes of their day: Alexander III had conferred the same title on Louis VII; but from Charles VI onwards the title comes into constant use as the special prerogative of the kings of France. Philippe de Mézières, a contemporary of Charles VI, wrote: "Because of the vigour with which Charlemagne, St. Louis, and other brave French kings, more than the other kings of Christendom, have upheld the Catholic Faith, the kings of France are known among the kings of Christendom as 'Most Christian'."
In later times, the Emperor Frederick III, addressing Charles VII, wrote: "Your ancestors have won for your name the title Most Christian, as a heritage not to be separated from it." From the pontificate of Paul II (1464), the popes, in addressing bulls to the kings of France, always use the style and title Rex Christianissimus. Furthermore, European public opinion always looked upon St. Joan of Arc, who saved the French monarchy, as the heroine of Christendom, and believed that the Maid of Orléans meant to lead the king of France on another crusade when she had secured him in the peaceful possession of his own country. France's national heroine was thus heralded by the fancy of her contemporaries, by Christine de Pizan, and by that Venetian merchant whose letters have been preserved for us in the Morosini Chronicle, as a heroine whose aims were as wide as Christianity itself.
Rise of "gallicanism"
The 15th century, during which France was growing in national spirit, and while men's minds were still conscious of the claims of Christendom on their country, was also the century during which, on the morrow of the Great Schism and of the Councils of
Renaissance
Rivalry with "warrior popes"
"The Italian wars undertaken by Charles VIII (1493–98) and continued by Louis XII (1498–1515), aided by an excellent corps of artillery and all the resources of French furia, to assert certain French claims over Naples and Milan, did not quite fulfill the dreams of the French kings. They had, however, a threefold result in the worlds of politics, religion, and art:
- politically, they led foreign powers to believe that France was a menace to the balance of power, and hence aroused alliances to maintain that balance, such, for instance, as the League of Venice (1495), and the Holy League (1511–12);
- from the point of view of art, they carried a breath of the Renaissance across the Alps;
- in the religious world they furnished France an opportunity on Italian soil of asserting for the first time the principles of royal Gallicanism.
Louis XII, and the emperor Maximilian, supported by the opponents of Pope
Struggle with the House of Austria
"When Charles V became King of Spain (1516) and emperor (1519), thus uniting in his person the hereditary possessions of the House of Austria and German as well as the old domains of the
During this struggle against the House of Austria, France, for motives of political and military exigency, had been obliged to lean towards the
Wars of Religion
Appearance of Lutheranism and Calvinism
"The early part of the 16th century was marked by the growth of Protestantism in France, under the forms of
Beginning of the persecutions
However, "on learning, in 1534, that violent placards against the Church of Rome had been posted on the same day in many of the large towns, and even near the king's own room in the Château d'Amboise, he feared a Lutheran plot; an inquiry was ordered, and seven Lutherans were condemned to death and burned at the stake in Paris. Eminent ecclesiastics like du Bellay, Archbishop of Paris, and Sadolet, Bishop of Carpentras, deplored these executions and the Valdois massacre ordered by d'Oppède, President of the Parliament of Aix, in 1545. Laymen, on the other hand, who ill understood the Christian gentleness of these prelates, reproached them with being slow and remiss in putting down heresy; and when, under Henry II, Calvinism crept in from Geneva, a policy of persecution was inaugurated. From 1547 to 1550, in less than three years, the chambre ardente, a committee of the Parliament of Paris, condemned more than 500 persons to retract their beliefs, to imprisonment, or to death at the stake. Notwithstanding this, the Calvinists, in 1555, were able to organize themselves into Churches on the plan of that at Geneva; and, in order to bind these Churches more closely together, they held a synod in Paris in 1559. There were in France at that time seventy-two Reformed Churches; two years later, in 1561, the number had increased to 2000. The methods, too, of the Calvinist propaganda had changed. The earlier Calvinists, like the Lutherans, had been artists and workingmen, but in the course of time, in the South and in the West, a number of princes and noblemen joined their ranks. Among these were two princes of the blood, descendants of St. Louis: Anthony of Bourbon, who became King of Navarre through his marriage with Jeanne d'Albret, and his brother the Prince de Condé. Another name of note is that of Admiral de Coligny, nephew of that duke of Montmorency who was the Premier Baron of Christendom. Thus it came to pass that in France Calvinism was not longer a religious force, but had become a political and military cabal."
Massacre of St. Bartholomew
"Such was the beginning of the Wars of Religion. They had for their starting-point the conspiracy of Amboise (1560) by which the Protestant leaders aimed at seizing the person of Francis II, in order to remove him from the influence of Francis of Guise. During the reigns of
Edict of Nantes and the defeat of Protestantism
"At the end of the 16th century it seemed for an instant as though the home party of France was to shake off the yoke of Gallican opinions. Feudalism had been broken; the people were eager for liberty; the Catholics, disheartened by the corruption of the Valois court, contemplated elevating to the throne, in succession to Henry II who was childless, a member of the powerful House of Guise. In fact, the League had asked the Holy See to grant the wish of the people, and give France a Guise as king. Henry of Navarre, the heir presumptive to the throne, was a Protestant; Sixtus V had given him the choice of remaining a Protestant, and never reigning in France, or of abjuring his heresy, receiving absolution from the pope himself, and, together with it, the throne of France. But there was third solution possible, and the French episcopate foresaw it, namely that the abjuration should be made not to the pope but to the French bishops. Gallican susceptibilities would thus be satisfied, dogmatic orthodoxy would be maintained on the French throne, and moreover it would do away with the danger to which the unity of France was exposed by the proneness of a certain number of Leaguers to encourage the intervention of Spanish armies and the ambitions of the Spanish king, Philip II, who cherished the idea of setting his own daughter in the throne of France.
The abjuration of
The accession of the Bourbon royal family was a defeat for Protestantism, but at the same time half a victory for Gallicanism. Ever since the year 1598 the dealings of the Bourbons with Protestantism were regulated by the Edict of Nantes. This instrument not only accorded the Protestants the liberty of practicing their religion in their own homes, in the towns and villages where it had been established before 1597, and in two localities in each bailliage, but also opened to them all employments and created mixed tribunals in which judges were chosen equally from among Catholics and Calvinists; it furthermore made them a political power by recognizing them for eight years as master of about one hundred towns which were known as "places of surety" (places de sûreté).
Under favour of the political causes of the Edict Protestants rapidly became an imperium in imperio, and in 1627, at La Rochelle, they formed an alliance with England to defend, against the government of Louis XIII (1610–43), the privileges of which Cardinal Richelieu, the king's minister, wished to deprive them. The taking of La Rochelle by the king's troops (November 1628), after a siege of fourteen months, and the submission of the Protestant rebels in the Cévenes, resulted in a royal decision which Richelieu called the Grâce d'Alais: the Protestants lost all their political privileges and all their "places of surety" but on the other hand freedom of worship and absolute equality with Catholics were guaranteed them. Both Cardinal Richelieu, and his successor, Cardinal Mazarin, scrupulously observed this guarantee."
Louis XIV and the rule of Gallicanism
Louis was a pious and devout king who saw himself as the head and protector of the Gallican Church, Louis made his devotions daily regardless of where he was, following the liturgical calendar regularly. Towards the middle and the end of his reign, the centre for the King's religious observances was usually the Chapelle Royale at Versailles. Ostentation was a distinguishing feature of daily Mass, annual celebrations, such as those of Holy Week, and special ceremonies.[2] Louis established the Paris Foreign Missions Society, but his informal alliance with the Ottoman Empire was criticised by the British for undermining Christendom.[3]
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes
"Under Louis XIV a new policy was inaugurated. For twenty-five years the king forbade the Protestants everything that the Edict of Nantes did not expressly guarantee them, and then, foolishly imagining that Protestantism was on the wane, and that there remained in France only a few hundred obstinate heretics, he revoked the Edict of Nantes (1685) and began an oppressive policy against Protestants, which provoked the rising of the Camisards in 1703-05, and which lasted with alternations of severity and kindness until 1784, when Louis XVI was obliged to give Protestants their civil rights once more. The very manner in which Louis XIV, who imagined himself the religious head of his kingdom, set about the Revocation, was only an application of the religious maxims of Gallicanism."
Imposition of Gallicanism on the Catholic Church
"In the person of Louis XIV, indeed, Gallicanism was on the throne. At the States-General in 1614, the Third Estate had endeavoured to make the assembly commit itself to certain decidedly Gallican declarations, but the clergy, thanks to Cardinal Duperron, had succeeded in shelving the question; then Richelieu, careful not to embroil himself with the pope, had taken up the mitigated and very reserved form of Gallicanism represented by the theologian Duval." The lack of universal adherence to his religion did not sit well with Louis XIV's vision of perfected autocracy: "Bending all else to his will, Louis XIV resented the presence of heretics among his subjects."[4]
"Hence the persecution of Protestants and of
The domestic policy of the 17th-century Bourbons, aided by Scully, Richelieu, Mazarin, and Louvois, completed the centralization of the kingly power. Abroad, the fundamental maxim of their policy was to keep up the struggle against the House of Austria. The result of the diplomacy of Richelieu (1624–42) and of Mazarin (1643–61) was a fresh defeat for the House of Austria; French arms were victorious at Rocroi, Fribourg, Nördlingen, Lens, Sommershausen (1643–48), and by the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and that of the Pyrenees (1659), Alsace, Artois, and Roussillion were annexed to French territory. In the struggle Richelieu and Mazarin had the support of the Lutheran prince of Germany and of Protestant countries such as the Sweden of Gustavus Adolphus. In fact it may be laid down that during the
Catholic awakening under Louis XIV
Impact of the Council of Trent
The 17th century in France was par excellence a century of Catholic awakening. A number of bishops set about reforming their diocese according to the rules laid down by the Council of Trent, though its decrees did not run officially in France. The example of Italy bore fruit all over the country. Cardinal de la Rochefoucauld, Bishop of Claremont and afterwards of Senlis, had made the acquaintance of St.
First missionaries
It was the period, too, when France began to build up her
Enlightenment and Revolution
"Religiously speaking, during the 18th century the alliance of parliamentary Gallicanism and Jansenism weakened the idea of religion in an atmosphere already threatened by philosophers, and although the monarchy continued to keep the style and title of "Most Christian",
Wars with England
"Politically, the traditional strife between France and the House of Austria ended, about the middle of the 18th century, with the famous Renversement des Alliances. This century is filled with that struggle between France and England which may be called the second Hundred Years' War, during which England had for an ally Frederick II, King of Prussia, a country which was then rapidly rising in importance. The command of the sea was at stake. In spite of men like Dupliex, Lally-Tollendal, and Montcalm, France lightly abandoned its colonies by successive treaties, the most important of which was the Treaty of Paris (1763). The acquisition of Lorraine (1766), and the purchase of Corsica from the Genoese (1768), were poor compensations for these losses; and when, under Louis XVI, the French navy once more raised its head, it helped in the revolt of the English colonies in America, and thus seconded the emancipation of the United States (1778-83)."
New ideas of the Enlightenment
"The movement of thought of which
Revolution
Rejection of the Catholic Church
"The Constituent Assembly (5 May 1789-30 September 1791) rejected the motion of the Abbé d'Eymar declaring the Catholic religion to be the religion of the State, but it did not thereby mean to place the Catholic religion on the same level as other religions. Voulland, addressing the Assembly on the seemliness of having one dominant religion, declared that the Catholic religion was founded on too pure a moral basis not to be given the first place. Article 10 of the
Persecution of the priesthood
"The
The tone of the Civil Constitution can be gleaned from Title II, Article XXI:
Before the ceremony of consecration begins, the bishop elect shall take a solemn oath, in the presence of the municipal officers, of the people, and of the clergy, to guard with care the faithful of his diocese who are confided to him, to be loyal to the nation, the law, and the king, and to support with all his power the constitution decreed by the National Assembly and accepted by the king.[5]
"The Convention (21 September 1792 – 26 October 1795) which proclaimed the republic and caused Louis XVI to be executed (21 January 1793), followed a very tortuous policy toward religion. As early as 13 November 1792, Cambon, in the name of the Financial Committee, announced to the Convention that he would speedily submit a scheme of general reform including a suppression of the appropriation for religious worship, which, he asserted, cost the republic "100,000,000 livres annually". The Jacobins opposed this scheme as premature, and Robespierre declared it derogatory to public morality. During the first eight months of its existence the policy of the convention was to maintain the "Civil Constitution" and to increase the penalties against "refractory" priests who were suspected of complicity on the War in the Vendée. A decree dated 18 March 1793 punished with death all compromised priests. It no longer aimed at refractory priests only, but any ecclesiastic accused of disloyalty (incivisme) by any six citizens became liable to transportation. In the eyes of the revolution, there were no longer good priests and bad priests; for the sans-culottes every priest was suspect."
Anti-religious dictatorship under the Terror
"From the provinces, stirred up by the propaganda of André Dumont, Chaumette, and Fouché, there began a movement of
When Robespierre had sent the partisans of Hébert and of Danton to the scaffold, he attempted to set up in France what he called la religion de l'Etre Suprême. Liberty of conscience was suppressed, but atheism was also a crime. Quoting the words of Rousseau about the indispensable dogmas, Robespierre had himself proclaimed a religious leader, a pontiff, and a dictator; and the worship of the
Progressive restitution of freedom of religion
"After the 9th of Thermidor, Cambon proposed once more the principle of separation between Church and State, and it was decided that henceforth the Republic would not pay the expenses of any form of worship (18 September 1794). The Convention next voted the laicization of the primary schools, and the establishment, at intervals of ten days, of feasts called fêtes décadaires. When Bishop Grégoire in a speech ventured to hope that Catholicism would some day spring up anew, the Convention protested. Nevertheless the people in the provinces were anxious that the clergy should resume their functions, and "constitutional" priests, less in danger than the others, rebuilt the altars here and there throughout the country. In February 1795, Boissy-d'Anglas carried a measure of religious liberty, and the very next day Mass was said in all the chapels of Paris. On Easter Sunday, 1795, in the same city which, a few months before, had applauded the worship of Reason, almost every shop closed its doors.
In May 1795, the Convention restored the churches for worship, on condition that the pastors should submit to the laws of the State; in September 1795, less than a month before its dissolution, it regulated liberty of worship by a police law, and enacted severe penalties against priests liable to transportation or imprisonment who should venture back on French soil.
The Directory (27 October 1795 – 9 November 1799), which succeeded the convention, imposed on all religious ministers (Fructidor, Year V) the obligation of swearing hatred to royalty and anarchy. A certain number of "papist" priests took the oath, and the "papist" religion was thus established here and there, though it continued to be disturbed by the incessant arbitrary acts of interference on the part of the administrative staff of the Directory, who by individual warrants deported priests charged with inciting to disturbance. In this way, 1657 French and 8235 Belgian priests were driven into exile. The aim of the Directory was to substitute for Catholicism the culte décadaire, and for Sunday observance the rest on the décadis, or tenth days. In Paris, fifteen churches were given over to this cult. The Directory also favored an unofficial attempt of Chemin, the writer, and a few of his friends to set up a kind of national Church under the name of "Theophilanthropy"; but Theophilanthropy and the culte décadaire, while they disturbed the Church, did not satisfy the needs of the people for priests, altars, and the traditional festivals."
Napoleon I and the Concordat of 1801
Concordat and the revival of congregations
Religion had been a major issue during the Revolution, and
All these were restored by the Concordat of Napoleon Bonaparte, who became Consul for ten years on 4 November 1799. The Concordat assured to French Catholicism, in spite of the interpolation of the articles organiques, a hundred years of peace. The conduct of Napoleon I, when he became emperor (18 May 1804) towards Pius VII was most offensive to the papacy; but even during those years when Napoleon was ill-treating
Vocation for the care of the poor in the Industrial Revolution
Under the Restoration parliamentary government was introduced into France. The revolution of July 1830, the "liberal" and "bourgeois" revolution asserted against the absolutism of
The Revolution of February 1848 against Louis Philippe and
Third Republic and anti-clericalism
Throughout the lifetime of the Third Republic (1870–1940), there were fierce battles over the status of the Catholic Church among the Republicans, the Monarchists and the Authoritarians (such as the Napoleonists). The French clergy and bishops were closely associated with the Monarchists and many of its hierarchy were from noble families. Republicans were based in the anticlerical middle class who saw the Church's alliance with the monarchists as a political threat to republicanism, and a threat to the modern spirit of progress. The Republicans detested the church for its political and class affiliations; for them, the church represented the
Republicans feared that many schools taught anti-Republicanism to children, especially schools of religious institutes such as the Jesuits and Assumptionists. Determined to root this out, Republicans insisted they needed control of all the schools, if economic and militaristic progress was to be achieved; (Republicans felt one of the primary reasons for the German victory in 1870 was because of their superior education system). The early anti-Catholic laws were largely the work of republican Jules Ferry in 1882. Religious instruction in all schools was forbidden and religious institutes were forbidden to teach in them. Funds were appropriated from religious schools in order to build more state schools. Later in the century other laws passed by Ferry's successors further weakened the Church's position in French society. Civil marriage became compulsory, divorce was introduced and chaplains were removed from the army.[8]
When
Defeat of Catholicism
In 1901 France was home to the largest number of Catholic Christians, where 40.5 million people, or 98.4% of the French population, were Catholics.[9] And at the beginning of the twentieth century, Paris was the largest Catholic city.[10]
Émile Combes, when elected prime minister in 1902, was determined to thoroughly defeat Catholicism. After only a short while in office he closed down all parochial schools in France. Then he had parliament reject authorisation of all religious institutes. This meant that all fifty-four orders were dissolved and about 20,000 members immediately left France, many for Spain.[11] In 1904 French President Émile Loubet visited the King of Italy in Rome and the Pope protested at this recognition of the Italian State. Combes reacted strongly and recalled his ambassador to the Vatican. Then in 1905 a law was introduced abrogating Napoleon's 1801 Concordat. Church and State were finally separated. All Church property was confiscated. The religious no longer were paid by the State. Public worship was given over to associations of Catholic laymen who controlled access to churches. In practice, Masses and rituals continued.[12]
The Waldeck-Rousseau Ministry (1899–1902) and the
On 10 February 1905, the Chamber declared that "the attitude of the Vatican" had rendered the separation of Church and State inevitable and the
Historian Kenneth Scott Latourette has examined the impact of separation. He has written that at first, it appeared disastrous because it followed the closing of the majority of the orders of priests and religious sisters, the closing of thousands of Catholic schools, and the secularizing of other aspects of life. The Pope's refusal to compromise made it harder to function.[15] However all was not lost:
- The adjustment was difficult and at times painful, but the Roman Catholic Church survived. To be sure, many of the clergy were badly inconvenienced. ...Many [priests] continued their functions as pastors while working at other occupations to support themselves. The number of young men entering the priesthood sharply declined. ...No longer was the priest the chief man in the rural village. Now that state education prevailed, the teacher, trained in the secular attitude, competed with him and in places overshadowed him. The control of the Vatican over the episcopate was heightened. The Pope need no longer be guided by nominations from the state. ...Bishops and their clergy were now liberated from control by the civil authorities. The Church could arrange as it saw fit the boundaries of its dioceses. The clergy were no longer subject to penalties for displeasing the state, such as the suspension of their salaries. Traces of Gallicanism survived, but on the whole ultramontanism had conquered. Working arrangements were devised ... by which the church buildings could continue to be used for worship. Parish committees laboured to maintain public worship, and private gifts came to the rescue of Catholic charities.[16]
Laymen
The Catholic Church expanded its social activities after 1920, especially by forming youth movements. For example, the largest organization of young working women was the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne/Féminine (JOC/F), founded in 1928. It encouraged young working women to adopt Catholic approaches to morality and to prepare for future roles as mothers, at the same time as it promoted notions of spiritual equality and encouraged young women to take active, independent, and public roles in the present. The model of youth groups was expanded to reach adults in the Ligue ouvrière chrétienne féminine and the Mouvement populaire des familles. These groups advocated ideas that were sometimes conservative, sometimes liberal, often contradictory, but all rooted in Catholic social doctrine.[17][18]
World Wars
World War I
French Catholic priests fought valiantly in the war; 33,000 priests joined the army, of whom 4,600 were killed and over 10,000 were awarded medals for bravery. Much of the religious fear and distrust were dissolved by the camaraderie of the trenches, never to reappear in politics.[19]
After the Great War, the national spirit was built up around France's Catholic history and traditions, as can be seen with the mystification of St Joan of Arc who was canonized on 16 May 1920. Over 30,000 people attended the ceremony in Rome, including 140 descendants of Joan of Arc's family. Pope Benedict XV presided over the rite. St Joan of Arc was to remain a symbol of French Catholic pride.
World War II
The debate over the involvement of the Catholic Church in France reflects the debate over the involvement of the worldwide Catholic Church during World War II. Some criticize the silence of the Catholic Church in France over the deportation of the Jews.
The Vichy government had given the Church the draft law on the status of Jews. On 31 August 1940, Bishop Gerlier spoke to the Assembly of Cardinals and Archbishops (ACA) in emphasizing the "manifest good will the government."
On the one hand, the fact of the existence of an international Jewish community to which are attached the Jews of all nations and that these are not ordinary foreigners welcomed in a country but people to assimilate, may require a State to take precautionary measures on behalf of the common good. On the other hand, however, a State cannot chase the Jews irrespective of their activities, deny them the rights they derive from nature in the individual or family.[20]
Asher Cohen sums up the position of French bishops: "They gave carte blanche to the regulations and the law against foreign Jews, but also, without knowing it, gave a warning against the deportations."[21]
If the case of Father Alexandre Glasberg, who was concerned already in 1940 for the foreign population interned in camps, is exceptional, Asher Cohen writes that he was at the end of 1940 the only anti-clerical pétainiste in Lyon, but that aid to the Jews became widespread in many parishes after the Act of 2 June 1941 hardening the status of Jews and encouraging them to seek false certificates of baptism.[22]
Broadly speaking, the defeat, and then the hardness of life, under the Occupation triggered a revival of religious fervor that was marked by increased participation of the faithful in various forms of religious practices and an influx of future seminarians, as the table established by Canon Boulard shows the changes in the rate of ordinations.
1900-1904 | 1909–1913 | 1925–1929 | 1934–1938 | 1940–1947 | 1948–1950 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
51 | 30 | 30 | 39 | 50 | 39 |
After the war, the Church tried to publish some more or less official explanations and acts of repentance on how it lived through the Occupation. In 1947, Archbishop-Coadjutor of Cambrai Arch. Guerry, former secretary of the ACA, sought to justify the silence of the years 1940 and 1941 on the status of Jews.[24] In 1995, about 85 bishops, priests and French religious were honored by the Yad Vashem medal, which recognizes the "Righteous Among the Nations".[25][26] In his book on the deportation of Jews from France, completed in 1985, Serge Klarsfeld raised awareness on the role of Catholics in the rescue of Jews which was considered much more significant than previously thought.[27]
Post-war France and the Second Vatican Council
Post-war France is a country with deeply rooted and widespread Catholic values and beliefs. The revival and dynamics of the faith are seen in the festivities around the 100th anniversary of the Lourdes apparitions, which attract over 2 million persons annually.[28] However, scandals in the Church and the new wave of existentialist intellectuals reject their bourgeois and Catholic heritage, with leading figures such as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir.
The
During the 1960s, all the curves started a brutal and enduring curve downward. This drop was caused by the loss of credibility in the structures where authority had an important role, the sexual revolution in the wake of May 68 which marginalized celibacy, the revolution in entertainments which put worship in competition with other more attractive occupations, and the general effects of consumerism and relativism. In this context, young people were the first to leave the Catholic Church.
Recent history
The crisis in the faith seems to have reached a peak in the 1990s. The percentage of declared Catholics went from 71% of the population in 1981 to 53% in 1999. At the same time the number of baptized persons is estimated at 45 million or 75% of the population. In the same period, the percentage of practising Catholics went from 18% to 12% of the population, from 9.7 to 7 million.
Despite this decline, Catholicism is still present in French society through family associations and various commissions, committees, or parliamentary Catholics and maintains a role in
Finally, since the 1990s, greater participation has been noticed at gatherings of young people, as well as various national pilgrimages, indicating probable involvement of other Christians in the life of the Catholic Church.
On the eve of the release of the
On 7 July 2009, two years after the publication of the motu proprio, the Tridentine Mass was celebrated in an additional 72 chapels and churches with the consent of the Ordinary of the place, an increase of 55%. The number of places served by the Society of Saint Pius X remained 184, as before.
Notes
This article incorporates text from the entry France in the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1910.
- ISBN 1-84176-395-0
- .
- ^ Tony Claydon, Europe and the Making of England, 1660-1760 (2007) p 182
- ^ R.R. Palmer, A History of the Modern World, rev. ed. 1956:164
- ^ Text of the Legislation, from J.H. Robinson, ed., The Civil Constitution of the Clergy, July 12, 1790, Readings in European History, 2 vols., (Boston: Ginn, 1906), 2: 423-427
- ^ D.M.G. Sutherland, France 1789–1815. Revolution and Counter-Revolution (2nd ed. 2003) ch 11
- ^ Philippe Rigoulot, "Protestants and the French nation under the Third Republic: Between recognition and assimilation", National Identities, March 2009, Vol. 11 Issue 1, pp 45-57
- ^ Patrick J. Harrigan, "Church, State, and Education in France From the Falloux to the Ferry Laws: A Reassessment", Canadian Journal of History, April 2001, 36#1 pp 51-83
- ^ The Global Catholic Population, Pew Research Center, 13 February 2013
- ISBN 9781349136186.
Buenos Aires was the second largest Catholic city in the world (after Paris)
- ^ Frank Tallett and Nicholas Atkin, Religion, society, and politics in France since 1789 (1991) p. 152
- ^ Jean-Marie Mayeur and Madeleine Rebérioux. The Third Republic from its Origins to the Great War, 1871 - 1914 (1984) pp 227-44
- ^ Douglas Porch, The March to the Marne: The French Army 1871-1914 (2003) excerpt and text search pp 92-104, is the most thorough account in English
- ^ Paul, Sabatier, Disestablishment in France (1906) online
- ^ Kenneth Scott Latourette. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, I: The Nineteenth Century in Europe: Background and the Roman Catholic Phase (1969) p 414.
- ^ Latourette. pp 414-15.
- ^ Susan B. Whitney, "Gender, Class, and Generation in Interwar French Catholicism: The Case of the Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne Féminine", Journal of Family History, October 2001, Vol. 26 Issue 4, pp 480–507
- ^ W. Brian Newsome, "French Catholics, Women, and the Home: The Founding Generation of the Jeunesse ouvrière chrétienne féminine", Historical Reflections (2011) 37#1 pp. 18-44
- ^ Kenneth Scott Latourette, Christianity in a Revolutionary Age. Vol. IV: The 20th Century in Europe; the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Churches (1969) p 131
- ^ Quoted in François Delpech, Église et chrétiens dans la Deuxième guerre mondiale, Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1983, tome II, p.283
- ^ Asher Cohen, Persécutions et sauvetages, Juifs et français sous l'occupation et sous Vichy, Éd. du Cerf, 1993, p.43
- ^ Asher Cohen, p.110
- ^ F. Boulard, Essor ou déclin du clergé français, Éd. du Cerf, 1950, p.31
- ^ E.M. Guerry, L'Église catholique en France sous l'occupation, Paris, 1947
- ^ Charles Molette, pp.82-83
- ^ Among which Cardinal Gerlier who received the title posthumously on July 15, 1980. Les Justes parmi le Nations, AKADEM Official Website
- ^ Serge Klarsfeld, Paris-Auschwitz, Fayard, 1983 et 1985
- ^ Lourdes Grotto Marks 100th Year: Two Million Persons Annually Visit Catholic Shrine of Miracle Cures. Los Angeles Times. February 16, 1958.
- ^ André Collonge, Le Scandale du XXe siècle et le drame des prêtres-ouvriers, Olivier Perrin, Paris, 1957
- ^ Canon 1382 of the Code of Canon Law
- ^ Pope lifts excommunications of Lefebvrite bishops, Catholics News Service, January 27, 2009. Accessed 10-09-2009
Further reading
- Akan, Murat. The Politics of Secularism: Religion, Diversity, and Institutional Change in France and Turkey (Columbia University Press, 2017).
- Atkin, Nicholas and Frank Tallet, eds, Religion, Society and Politics in France since 1789 (1991)
- Baumgartner, Frederic J. 1986. Change and Continuity in the French Episcopate: The Bishops and the Wars of Religion, 1547–1610. Duke University Press. ISBN 0-8223-0675-1.
- Byrnes, Joseph F. Catholic and French Forever: Religious and National Identity in Modern France (2005)
- Byrnes, Joseph. Priests of the French Revolution: Saints and Renegades in a New Political Era (2014)
- Chadwick; Kay. Catholicism, Politics, and Society in Twentieth-Century France (2000) online
- Collins, Ross W. Catholicism and the Second French Republic 1848-1852 (1923)
- Cubitt, Geoffrey. The Jesuit Myth: Conspiracy Theory and Politics in Nineteenth-Century France (1993)
- Dansette. Adrien. Religious History of Modern France (2 vol 1961)
- Gildea, Robert. Children of the Revolution: The French, 1799-1914 (2010), ch 4, 12
- Gibson, Ralph. A Social History of French Catholicism 1789–1914 (1989)
- Hales, E.E.Y. Napoleon and the Pope: The story of Napoleon and Pius VII (1962)
- Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age, Vol I: Background and the Roman Catholic Phase (1958)
- Latourette, Kenneth Scott. Christianity in a Revolutionary Age. Vol. IV : The 20th Century in Europe; the Roman Catholic, Protestant and Eastern Churches (1969)
- McManners, John. Church and Society in Eighteenth-Century France (2 vol 1998)
- Mourret, Fernand. History Of The Catholic Church (8 vol, 1931) comprehensive history to 1878. country by country. online free; by French Catholic priest.
- Nettelbeck, Colin W. "The Eldest Daughter and the Trente glorieuses: Catholicism and national identity in postwar France." Modern & Contemporary France 6.4 (1998): 445–462, covers 1944-1970s
- Nord, Philip. "Catholic Culture in Interwar France", French Politics, Culture and Society (2001) 21#3 pp 1+ online
- Phillips, C.S. The Church in France, 1789–1848: a Study in Revival (1929), stress on politics
- Phillips, C.S. The Church in France, 1848-1907 (1936), stress on politics
- Ravitch, Norman. The Catholic Church and the French Nation, 1589–1989 (1990)
- Reardon, Bernard. Liberalism and Tradition: Aspects of Catholic Thought in Nineteenth-Century France (1975)
- Roberts, Rebecca. "Le Catholicisme au féminin: Thirty Years of Women's History", Historical Reflections (2013) 39#1 pp. 82–100, on nuns and sisters in France
- Sabatier, Paul. Disestablishment in France (1906) online
- Spencer, Philip H. Politics of Belief in Nineteenth-Century France: Lacordaire, Michon, Veuillot (1973)