[1] He was a member of the Association catholique de la jeunesse française as a young man.
[2] In 1940, at a meeting of young Catholics in Aix-en-Provence, he expressed his intention to fight back against the German invaders, adding that the real battle consisted in resisting against the totalitarianism of the Hitlerian ideology.
[2] Six months later, he lost an eye in battle, and his brother Martial was deported to the Dora concentration camp, where he was murdered by the Nazis.
[2] He served as the Union for French Democracy member of the National Assembly for the 3rd district of Eure from 1958 to 1980.
[2][3] He was then appointed Secretary of State to the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, where he served for nine months between 1980 and 1981.