Catholicism

The idea that Catholicism is one of the important social and political forces in France has long had currency among French political analysts. Siegfried's attitude has already been indicated. Other modern or near-modern analysts such as Albert Thibaudet, Jacques Fauvet, and Francois Goguel have also recognized the political importance of French Catholicism. For Albert Thibaudet, social Catholicism formed one of the six "ideological families" into which the France of the 1930's was divided. For Jacques Fauvet, the MRP, as a political instrument of the Church, forms one of France 's key political forces.

Like other groupings within the French nation, French Catholicism is in many respects similar to a large household in a local community. Catholic groups have a political location much as a house has its own address. Members of Catholic groups are aware of being in a "family' and of having certain fixed relationships with one another. Just as each house has its own building plan, so Catholicism has a basic structural scheme which must be understood.

To be Catholic a group must have a publicly-affirmed link to the ecclesiastical nucleus of French Catholicism. This link can be established in several ways; the simplest is for a group to call itself officially "Catholic." By this act it is telling the world that it is prepared to accept completely the discipline which the Church requires of it. Or a group can show its Catholicism simply by designating officially an ecclesiastical advisor for questions on which the Church reserves a right to speak. Some groups without any of these formal ties to the Church must also be included here because of their universally recognized "Catholic inspiration." Among these the most important are the MRP, the CFTC, and the review Esprit.

At first glance the structure of French Catholicism seems impossibly complicated. It includes multitudes of individuals, each one with unique motivations and attachments, but it also includes the apparently monolithic Jesuit order. Room must be found somewhere under the roof of French Catholicism for religious orders and priests, close to the directives of the Hierarchy, and also for groups with only the most tenuous connections to Catholicism, such as Esprit.

Some groups, notably the MRP, are primarily designed for political action, while others, such as Catholic Action or the religious orders, claim to stay aloof from partisan battles. And among the groups with a political orientation there are extreme rightists such as Cite Catholique, moderate if not extreme leftists, and a whole gamut in between. Can such differences be reconciled under the banner of Catholicism or any other single principle?