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  • Le Saint-Siège et l’organisation politiques des catholiques français aux lendemains du Ralliement, 1890–1902 by Martin Dumont
  • Thomas Kselman
Le Saint-Siège et l’organisation politiques des catholiques français aux lendemains du Ralliement, 1890–1902. By Martin Dumont. [Bibliothèque d’Etudes des Mondes Chrétiens, No. 1.] (Paris: Champion. 2012. Pp. 555. €50,00. ISBN 978-2-7453-2378-1.)

With the “toast of Algiers” at a banquet for the French navy in 1890, Cardinal Charles Lavigerie set in motion a process that was intended to reconcile the Catholic Church with the French Third Republic. Although historians such as Xavier de Montclos and Adam Sedgwick have studied the origin and disappointing results of this “ralliement,” no scholar has probed as deeply as Martin Dumont into the political maneuvers involving French Catholics and the Vatican as they struggled to break the bonds linking the Church to monarchy.

Dumont draws on an enormous variety of archival sources to tell his story, but pays particular attention to the correspondence between Cardinal Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro (Pope Leo XIII’s secretary of state) and Domenico Ferrata, Eugenio Clari, and Benedetto Lorinzelli (papal nuncios in Paris between 1890 and 1902). From this dossier we learn of the constant and close involvement of the Vatican with French politics and of the limited power that Rome had to shape events in the face of competing interpretations of papal directives. Leo XIII and Rampolla urged Catholics to accept the Republic and to create institutions that would lead to success for Catholic candidates; they were willing to chastise those who held back such as the monarchist Pierre Chesnelong, whose Union de la France Chrétienne tried to define a policy of “neutrality” rather than fully accept republican institutions. But what kind of Republic did Rome envision? Should Catholics work toward the creation of a “Catholic Republic” in which the Church would play a leading role? Or should they defend themselves on the basis of common rights held by everyone? Etienne Lamy emerged as the most prominent defender of Catholic participation on the basis of “droit commun,” but others consistently challenged him—such as the ex-monarchists whose positions were defended in La Croix, the leading Catholic newspaper of the day that was published by the Assumptionists. Dumont traces this internal conflict as it played out in the press, in religious congregations, [End Page 370] and in elections. In one fascinating case treated in depth, a committed monarchist was defeated by the “abbé démocrate” Hippolyte Gayraud, whose candidacy was pushed by the Vatican and openly supported by the local clergy. Dumont’s analysis of this election in Brittany illuminates the complexity of the “ralliement,” for although Gayraud was clearly a “rallié,” his support from the clergy, who threatened to withhold the sacraments from those who would not vote for the “candidate of the Pope” (p. 373), raised the issue of clerical interference in politics and thus contributed to the resurgence of anticlericalism that marked the closing years of the century. Dumont notes as well the importance of the Dreyfus affair, in which La Croix and many French Catholics aligned themselves with the antisemitic movement, as another source of the republican resistance to the “ralliement.” But Dumont’s explanation for its failure focuses much more on internal Catholic conflicts than on republican hesitancy.

Dumont’s study puts Catholic politics in the 1890s under a microscope, producing a work that is full of detail about the events and personalities of an important decade in French history. He does not, however, place the “ralliement” in a broader perspective, leaving the reader to wonder how this story might relate to the development of Church-state relations over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. How should the Catholic Church respond to liberal political regimes and to modern social conditions more generally? Dumont’s study shows us how deep divisions within the Church in answering this question were a crucial element in the failure of Leo XIII’s attempt at reconciliation. Reading Dumont’s book brought to mind the challenges faced by Pope Francis as he seeks to guide a Church whose members deeply respect papal authority...

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