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The Catholics in France Since the Armistice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Georgette Vignaux
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Extract

We Shall describe first the attitude of the hierarchy towards the Vichy regime just after the armistice, secondly the political and religious resistance of a certain number of lay Catholics to this regime, and finally how this will to temporal independence by Catholic citizens (with the exception of some Catholic leaders who did not grasp the significance of the Pétain government) resulted in a general opposition to the totalitarian pretensions of the “French State.”

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , April 1943 , pp. 194 - 215
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1943

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References

1 Scmaine Cathohque de Toulouse, August 31, 1941.

2 Slogan of the B.B.C. on the program: “The French talk to the French.”

3 Information générates (Bulletin of the Ministry of the Interior of Vichy). No. 12, November 19, 1940, p. 17.

4 Ibid., No. 13, November 26, 1940, pp. 40–41.

5 Ibid., p. 40.

6 Ibid., no. 42, June 17, 1941, p. 772.

7 Letter of Archbishop Saliège, read in his diocesan churches August 30, 1942 in spite of the prohibition by the Vichy police.

8 Cf. Tissier, Pierre and Harrap, G., The Government of Vichy, London and Toronto, 1942. pp. 132–133, 184–189Google Scholar.

9 Libérer et Fédérer no. 2, September 1, 1942 is the organ of a group advocating liberation and reconstruction, and in which men both of Christian and socialist formations participate.

10 La Voix du Nord ei du Pas-de-Calaīs, no. 32, 05 20, 1942Google Scholar. This is a republican journal.

11 La France Libre, no. 21, 06 15, 1942. p. 193Google Scholar.

12 Temps Nouveau was founded at Lyon after the armistice to replace the Catholic weekly Temps Présent, itself the successor of Sept, founded by the Dominicans of La Vie Intellecluelle.

13 Les Cahiers du Témoignage Chrétien:

I. France, Prends garde de perdre lon ame [France, Take Care not to Lose Your Soul] November 1941.

II–III. Notre Combat [Our Fight] December 1941-January 1942.

IV–V. Les racistes peinis par eux-memes [The Racists Portrayed by Themselves]. February–March 1942.

VI–VII. Anlisémiles [Antisemiles] April–May, 1942.

VIII–IX. Droits de I'homme et du chrétien [The Rights of Man and of the Christian] June–July, 1942.

14 Cahiers…. I, p. 1.

15 Cahiers…. VI–VII, Antisémiles, p. 27, quoted from the Abbé Journet, Charles, Nova el Vetera, 06–09, 1941, p. 225 et seqGoogle Scholar. This article has been reprinted in Journet, Charles, Vues chrétiennes sur la polilique, 1942, pp. 143–152Google Scholar.

16 Cahiers… VI–VII, Antisémites, p. 27.

17 Ibidem, p. 17.

18 Cahiers… VIII–IX, Drolls… p. 14.

19 Maritain, Jacques, France My Country, New York, 1941Google Scholar.

20 Cf. Morris, Herbert, “Catholic Labor and Vichy,” in The Commotnveal, 09 25, 1942Google Scholar. Documents and news of the resistance of French workers have been published regularly in France Speaks, a weekly news-letter on democratic France. 7 E. 15th St.. New York.

21 Mouvements de Jeunesse, a pamphlet published by the Ecole nationale des Cadres d'Uriage, 1941.

22 Nouvelle revue françahe, October 1, 1941.

23 “An Act of the French Episcopate,” La Semaine catholique de Toulouse, August 31, 1941.

24 “M. Pelorson defines the mission of the general secretariat for Youth, in Le Temps, September 10, 1942.

25 “An Act of the French Episcopate.” Cf. supra note 23.

26 Address of the Cardinals and Archbishops of the Occupied Zone to Marshal Pétain. July, 1942: “It is in the name of humanity and of Christian principles that our voice is raised in protest in favor of the imprescriptible rights of the human person.”

Communiqué of His Excellency Cardinal Gerlier, Archbishop of Lyon, which was to be read from the pulpit Sunday September 6 and to which nothing was to be added: “But who would reproach the Church for asserting loudly, in this dark hour and in the presence of what is imposed upon us, the imprescriptible rights of the human person, the sacred character of family ties, the inviolability of the right of sanctuary and the imperious exigencies of this fraternal charity with which Christ marked his disciples. It is the honor of Christian civilization and ought to be the honor of France never to abandon such principles.”

Letter of the Bishop of Montauban on the Respect for the Human Person, Montauban, August 26, 1942: “I pronounce the indignant protest of the Christian conscience and I proclaim that all men, Aryan or non-Aryan, are brothers because created by the same God; that all men, whatever may be their race or their religion, have the right to the respect of individuals and of States.”

Letter of Archbishop Saliege of Toulouse read in the diocesan churches August 30, 1942: “There is a Christian ethics and there is a human ethics which imposes duties and recognizes rights. These duties and rights derive from the nature of man. They come from God. No one can violate them. It is not in the power of any mortal man to suppress them… The Jews are men and the Jews are women… They are a part of the human race. They are our Brothers like other men. A Christian cannot forget it.”

Telegram of the Prefect of Toulouse to the mayors of all communes in the Prefecture to forbid the reading of the letter of Archbishop Saliège:

“Request you contact priests officiating in your commune and point out government's order to prevent reading of episcopal letter they are to read tomorrow. It could be interpreted in manner inimical to government.”

27 Protestant Federation of France, Paris, 06 11, 1942Google Scholar. “The vice-president of the Council of the Protestant Federation of France lo the Pastors of the Occupied Zone.”

28 La semaine catholique de Toulouse, February 8, 1942. “Pastoral Letter and Instructions for Lent, 1942.”

29 Ibid., November 23, 1941.

30 Ibid.. February 6, 1942.

31 The London daily France of January 18, 1943 states that the German commandant of the eastern sector visited Cardinal Gerlier early in January to inform him that the German government would take no measures against the Catholic Church in France if, first, it refrained from opposing the anti-semitic laws and, secondly, did not take up the defense of the Jews. The Cardinal replied that the French clergy had always observed strictly the instructions of the Holy Father, and terminated the audience by saying: “Certainly your Excellency is aware of the fact that the Holy Father has condemned the anti-semitic laws and measures against the Jews.”