Catholic congregations in France
However, nuns are not canonically part of the clergy, and strictly speaking, monks who have not received holy orders are lay people.
Hincmar, monk of Saint-Denis and later archbishop of Reims, was the great theologian, and a staunch defender of orthodoxy against Scot Erigene.
[7] Faced with the disintegration of royal power and Carolingian institutions in West Francia, Cluny sought to escape the dubious authority of simoniac bishops.
Bernard of Clairvaux played a key role in the birth of the Cistercian Order, and in his desire to respect the spirit of the Rule of Saint Benedict, his reform reintroduced manual labor and strict poverty.
[9] This need for reform also led to the creation of Mendicant orders, notably the Franciscans around 1210 and the Dominicans around 1215, who chose a life of poverty and preaching; they set up their convents in the heart of towns to be close to the faithful.
At the same time, in Rome in 1524, Saint Cajetan de Thiene and Mgr Pietro Carafa, later Pope Paul IV, founded an order of regular clerics: the Theatines.
In 1611, Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle founded the Congregation of the Oratory of Jesus and Mary Immaculate in Paris, with the same aim as the oratorians of Saint Philip Neri.
Together with Saint Louise de Marillac, he was also behind the founding of the Daughters of Charity in Paris in 1633, dedicated to serving the sick and poor.
Saint John Baptist de La Salle, from 1680 in Reims, wanted to provide education for the poor, and laid the foundations for what was to become the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
The Consulate, in the organic articles appended to the 1801 Concordat, confirmed the abolition of all ecclesiastical establishments (except cathedral chapters and seminaries).
The decree of 18 February 1809 allowed the reconstitution of women's hospital congregations simply by approving their statutes, as their prohibition had caused too many difficulties in caring for the sick.
The monarchs who had expelled the Jesuits were no longer in power, and Pope Pius VII proceeded with the universal restoration of the Society by promulgating the decree Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum on 7 August 1814.
The law of 2 January 1817 required congregations to be recognized by statute to acquire real estate and annuities, and to receive gifts and legacies.
The decree of 31 January 1852 called for women's religious congregations "dedicated to the education of youth and the relief of the poor" to be given the means to obtain legal recognition.
[10] Under the French Third Republic, the anticlerical movement, while remaining fairly tolerant of the secular clergy, pursued a policy of eliminating congregations.
On 29 March 1880, two decrees were signed by Charles de Freycinet, President of the Council, and Jules Ferry, Minister of Public Instruction, to expel the Jesuits from France once again, and to require other congregations to request authorization within three months, on pain of dissolution and dispersal.
As most decided not to apply for authorization out of solidarity with the Jesuits, at the end of the short deadline, unauthorized congregations (Benedictines, Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, Carmelites, Franciscans, Assumptionists, etc.)
However, the Bloc des gauches' victory in the legislative elections of May 1902 brought Émile Combes to power, allied with Jaurès' Socialists, whose government waged a fierce anti-clerical battle.
In the spring of 1903, Combes sent the Chamber fifty-four applications for authorization for male congregations, submitted by more than nineteen hundred and fifteen houses.
[12] At the same time, Combes forwarded to the Senate the requests of six "hospitable, missionary and contemplative" congregations of men, five with favorable opinions, which would remain tolerated: the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John of God, the trappists, the Lérins Abbey, the White Fathers, and the Society of African Missions, one with a negative opinion: the Salesians of Don Bosco.
However, on 2 June 1924, the new President of the Council, Édouard Herriot, announced the resumption of the expulsion of congregations, the abolition of the embassy to the Holy See and the application of the law of separation of Church and State to Alsace and Moselle.
In response to these threats, two months later the League for the Rights of Religious Veterans (DRAC) was founded by the Benedictine François-Josaphat Moreau, and in October the Jesuit Paul Doncœur published an open letter to Herriot entitled "For the honor of France, we will not leave".
On 9 June 1940, Georges Mandel authorized the return of the Carthusian monks and their installation in France, although it remained illegal under the 1901 law.
[17] Catholic writer Paul Claudel wrote in his diary on 5–7 July 1940:[18] "[...] France is delivered after sixty years under the yoke of the anti-Catholic radical party (professors, lawyers, Jews, Freemasons).
[19] In the 28 June 1940 issue of La Croix, Mgr Saliège, Bishop of Toulouse, wrote:[20] "[...] For having driven God out of the school, out of the nation's law courts, for having put up with unhealthy literature, the white slave trade, for the degrading promiscuity of workshops, offices and factories, Lord, we ask your forgiveness [...] What use have we made of the victory of 1918?
[21] The bishops' contact was Jacques Chevalier, head of the government's Department of Public instruction, who issued a series of laws and decrees in September 1940.
Furthermore, article 16 of the law of 1 July 1901 required a request for authorization from the State, meaning that in practice a congregation had to be recognized by the Conseil d'État.
The circular of 26 February 1942 sets out the ten articles on worship recognized by the Republic, including the requirement that all Catholic congregations be placed under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
The law abrogated article 16, which required authorization on pain of being "declared illicit", and put an end to the hunt for religious organizations.
However, the deputies of the French Republic voted to abolish all aid and subsidies to denominational schools, without going back on the authorization of congregations: the laws of 3 September 1940 and 8 April 1942 were confirmed in 1945.
