L'Action Fran\ccaise: The Crisis

...We are always made anxious by the sight of the perils which beset our dear youth from all sides, even when they assume the form of a thing so praiseworthy as love of country...

...This pontifical document bears the date of September 5. Far from putting an end to the controversy, as one would have wished, it is hardly too much to say that it inaugurated it...

...Just as, formerly, Pius X admonished the partisans of Lc Sillon (who submitted in all docility) that they were going too far in seeking to identify the doctrine of the Bible with that of the republic and democracy, so today, Pius XI recalls to the partisans of l'Action Fran-Caise that Catholicism is not a whit the more bound to monarchical institutions, still less to materialistic theories made over from pagan antiquity...

...The letter concluded with these words: Atheism, agnosticism, anti-Christianity, anti-Catholicism, amoralism in the individual and in society—the necessity of maintaining order in spite of these subversive negations—• of restoring paganism with all its injustice and with all its violences, these, my dear friends, are the doctrines which the directors of l'Action Francaise are teaching their disciples, and to which you should turn a deaf ear...

...At the time that this protest reached Bordeaux, a document of far greater significance was in the hands of Cardinal Andrieu...

...In these manifestations, there are substantial traces of a renaissance of paganism which their authors (unconsciously, we believe) have acquired through the public teaching of that modern and laicized school which they themselves often combat so ardently...

...It would be a useless task in this place to enlarge upon such attacks, for American Catholics have too much common sense and too much respect for the Holy See to take them seriously...

...The phrase is an old one, but the world keeps on repeating it...

...The Osservatore Romano pro70 THE COMMONWEAL November 24, 1926 tested against this false interpretation of the Cardinal's words and seized the occasion to be even more precise upon the ideals of the Holy See...

...If only for this reason, it seems to me that La Croix and other Catholic organs which have with praiseworthy zeal made a point of faithfully interpreting the thought of the Holy Father, will do well to follow the route so well begun, for the good of religion, the country generally, and especially its youth...

...It has, in fact, become a matter of the first importance for our Catholic press, not only to circulate the decisions of religious authority in exact fashion, but to defend them against a campaign of detraction carried out more or less directly by l'Action Franchise, and in an overt and outrageous fashion by its friends in other organs of Paris and the provinces...

...Your Eminence has done well in leaving to one side purely political questions, for example, the form of government...

...68 THE COMMONWEAL November 24, 1926 L'ACTION FRANCAISE: THE CRISIS By FELIX KLEIN THE condemnation of l'Action Franchise issued by Cardinal Andrieu, Archbishop of Bordeaux, and sanctioned by the Papacy, has aroused, in France and neighboring countries, not only among Catholics, but among all who are interested in politico-religious matters, a profound emotion, which the past two months has only intensified...

...The National Federation of Catholic Students of l'Action Franchise, a Parisian group, having forwarded to the Pope, on September 13, an address of submission, and a promise, expressed in rather too general terms, to avoid henceforth the dangers which he had indicated, we find the Cardinal Secretary of State, on October 2, writing to the Archbishop of Paris that the Holy Father has been touched by their good sentiments...

...Ix:t them once more read what he wrote, calmly, without prejudice, and in that spirit of filial devotion of which the Pontiff refuses even to entertain a doubt, and all will be understood...

...As official declarations by the Sovereign Pontiff throw a final and authoritative light upon the whole question for Catholics, his exact words must be quoted: We have read with great pleasure the reply made by Your Eminence to the young Catholics who had asked for guidance in the matter of l'Action Francaise...

...On September 8, certain prominent men among these Catholics addressed a lively protest to Cardinal Andrieu: "Our consternation in face of these reproofs," they wrote, "is inexpressible...

...others again, with Bernard dc Mcnthon in the Annales de la Jeunessc Catholique, the Jesuit fathers in Les Ktudcs and in their Dossiers de l'Action Populaire, with a perfect combination of suavity and firmness...

...They are the unconscious victims of a vast intrigue, inspired by Cardinal Ceretti and M. Briand, financed from the coffers of the police and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, directed by democrats, pacifists, and other enemies of l'Action Franchise, and favored at Rome by German diplomacy, all-powerful now as during the war, and whose end is to depose Charles Maurras as head of the Nationalist party...

...But why need one insist upon the support and comment, full of respect, that the instructions of the Pope have found in the religious press and by the acts of the episcopate...

...And Cardinal Gasparri concludes: "To affirm that one receives and accepts from the Church only those lessons which concern faith and morals is neither a coherent statement nor a sufficient safeguard, so long as one remains under the influence and direction of chiefs who, in their writings, have shown themselves poor masters of Christian morals and doctrines...

...they take cognizance of and condemn, in itself and in its consequences, a false and dangerous doctrine which is that of the chief leaders of l'Action Franqaise...

...Most valuable of all, however, is the testimony of our archbishops and bishops who, in one form or another, have echoed the voice of the I Inly Father, and repeated the old, old declaration: "Roma locuta est, causa finita est...

...In it we find fresh and striking proof of your pastoral solicitude, and of the paternal care of Your Most Reverend Eminence for souls, especially for those of our youth, so ceaselessly menaced today...

...According to these journals, the Archbishop of Bordeaux and the Pope himself have been deceived and misinformed...

...Some, like Robert Comilleau in le Petit Democrate, have done so energetically and indignantly, congratulating the religious authority on putting an end to a scandal that had lasted ovcrlong...

...To add any comment of one's own would be presumption...

...Under the title: Reply to a Question from a Group of Young Catholics on the Subject of l'Action Fran-c,aise, the Archbishop of Bordeaux, on August 25, 1926, published an extremely weighty document...

...It is evident to us that Your Eminence has been misled upon our position by malevolent enemies of our cause...

...On the contrary, it must be repeated, strongly and assuredly, that what the Pope did, with the full conscience of his responsibility, and even with the risk of making a belated pronouncement, was to inform himself thoroughly, to study all that could throw light upon the circumstances, and to take no resolution which was not conformable to truth, to fitness, and to timeliness...

...To confine myself to but one example, but an authoritative one, Cardinal Dubois, Archbishop of Paris, in la Semaine Religieuse of October 9, declares that the pontifical intervention gives to the episcopal action of His Imminence, Cardinal Andrieu, an authentic consecration and a universal application, that "it is the head of the Church who is speaking," and that the duty of every Catholic is to obey as a faithful son, unhesitatingly and without discussion...

...On the other hand, one is not, as Your Eminence points out clearly—equally at liberty to follow blindly the directors of l'Action Frangaise in matters which regard faith or morals...

...Pius XI, in person, has condescended to explain his decision and to repel the strange motives attributed to it...

...The documents in question, adds the Cardinal, are exclusively on the doctrinal plane...

...When one remembers that the partisans of l'Action Frangaise have vaunted themselves as being defenders of religion, in fact, the only defenders truly and fundamentally orthodox, and have freely accused republican Catholics of being liberals, modernists, pacifists, and democrats (in their mouths the final reproach) and more or less heretics, it is easy to imagine the sensation such a letter produced, the more so because it emanated from a prelate who has always passed as a most resolute champion of conservative ideas...

...Still others have the air of repeating afresh in these new circumstances, the old formula: that there is an appeal from the Pope misinformed to the Pope better instructed...

...It repeated that 'TAction Franchise, being a school of politics, following M. Maurras's lead, had not the right to make faith and morals an abstraction...

...Rome has found itself forced to intervene again and again and to explain its action clearly, either in order to defend itself against insinuations and attacks that were quite unlooked-for, or to demand from the Catholic disciples of l'Action Franchise a more complete submission than they seemed prepared to offer...

...The incident has acquired too much importance to be passed over in silence...

...It should not be forgotten," he adds, "that when dangers, especially dangers in matters of faith and morals are at stake, the first rule to follow is to keep away from them as far as possible...

...This is the declaration from the Holy Father which he recommends the pilgrims to repeat and to circulate in the largest measure possible...

...It might well, and by insensible degrees, mislead the veritable Catholic spirit, the fervor and piety of our youth, offend the delicacy of its purity both by the written and spoken word—in short, abase the perfection of Christian practice, and still more the apostolate of true Catholic action by which all the faithful, but our younger members especially, are called to labor for the extension and the strengthening of the kingdom of Jesus Christ in the individual, in the family, and in society...

...Cardinal Maurin, Archbishop of Lyons, in a paternal note of his Semaine Religieuse, having expressed a desire that peace should be established and "the affair closed," many attempted to deduce that the entire question was settled...

...Others, such as Francois Veuillot in la Vie Catho-lique, have done it with grave emotion...

...In this, after declaring that the leaders of this journal are free, like all the rest of the world, so far as the choice and diffusion of their purely political ideas are concerned, he reproached them with the gravest errors on the subjects of God, the Church, morality, and sociology...

...Let one rather rejoice to see, once more, the Internal Church of Christ standing aloof from purely political parties and from their excesses...

...In France they have been refuted, as occasion arose, by our religious journalists and writers...

...Regarding this letter, there are some who do not appear to understand what the Pope wished to say...

...On this point, the Church leaves to each one his just liberty...

...But those were not surprised who were aware of the anti-religious convictions of M. Maurice Pujo, editor-in-chief of the journal in question, of M. Jacques Bain-ville, one of its principal editors (who only this year November 24, 1926 THE COMMONWEAL 69 edited a new edition of the licentious and impious Contes of Voltaire, expressing great admiration for them) and above all, the theories of M. Charles Maurras, political director of the journal and acknowledged head of the party—the undisguised admiration of this writer and publicist for the positivism of Auguste Comte, his contempt for "Jewish writings," his wistfulness for the old pagan civilization, his conviction that Christianity has destroyed an essential order of things by suppressing slavery, by preaching such things as the brotherhood of all men, respect for the little ones of the earth, pity for the weak—in short, by promulgating what Maurras in a phrase almost incredible, has termed "the poison of the Magnificat...

...The greatest surprise was felt in that somewhat numerous group of sincere Catholics, who, without having read the books of Maurras and without appreciating what lay at the base of his principles, followed him with enthusiasm, led on by his talents as a writer, his profound hatred of the republic, and by the ardent warfare he has conducted against the ill-omened policy of laicization and against the many culpable words and acts of those who govern us...

...In outlining the discussion which at this moment is stirring the Catholics of France and the old world, I have made known the teaching of the Pontiff and the commentary upon it which he has himself given us...

...They are the contradiction, formal, rigorous and absolute, of our deepest and most sacred convictions...

...This was no less than a letter from Pius XI himself...

...For the sake of greater clearness and objectivity, a recapitulation of the facts may be of some use...

...It added: "We must conclude that it is the duty of good Catholics to be on their guard against that school, rendered doubly dangerous by the prestige which the chiefs in question enjoy...

...Your Eminence points out one danger, all the graver in the present case because it is more or less directly, but not always perceptibly, related to Catholic faith and morals...

...On September 25, in the course of a reception to the Franciscan tcrtiaries of France, and in the presence of representatives of every region and of every class in the country, he took occasion to pronounce, on the subject of his letter to Cardinal Andrieu, words that leave no shadow of doubt, and of which the Osservatore Romano, two days afterward, gave this official and authentic resume: The Holy Father wishes it known by all that he wrote this letter impelled solely by his awareness of the formidable, crushing, yet at the same time consoling responsibility laid upon him for the souls of all...

...We are rejoiced that voices, even outside France, have been raised to warn them and put them on their guard...

...With great reason, Your Eminence enumerates and condemns (in published matter, not only of distant date) certain manifestations of a new religious, moral and social system, on the subject, for example, of God, of the Incarnation, of the Church, and upon Catholic morality and dogma generally, principally in their necessary connection with political matters which are logically subordinated to morality...

...The supreme head of the Church, in moderate, but no less clear and decisive terms, approved the condemnation of l'Action Fran-Qaise and made it his own...