Paris1972-Versailles2003

The Catholic Church in France is an integral part of the Catholic Church. It brings together all the Christians in France who recognize the authority of the Pope and constitute the most important religious community of the French population. Intimately linked to the monarchy between the advent of Clovis and the end of the old regime(absolute monarchy), it plays a considerable role in the history of France, both religious and political. I like to tackle this subject, a serious one perhaps my most serious post so far in my blog, I go around the world of travel to see things but more important to see culture, architecture and history, The Catholic Church is one major institution that should have more in my blog, Do see my posts on the many monuments related in my blog, Of course, this post will be in my black and white series, no pictures, Therefore, here is my take on the Catholic Church in France !!! Hope you enjoy it as I.

Roman Catholicism was the state religion of France beginning with the conversion of King Clovis I (year 496) until the French revolution, when the Church’s relationship with the State was radically redefined. Christianization of the Franks was the process of converting the pagan Franks to Catholicism during the late 5C and early 6C. It was started by Clovis I, with the insistence of his wife, Clotilde (visigoth Christian from what is today Spain) , and Saint Remigius, the bishop of Reims. However, the close connection between the French monarchy and the Catholic Church began during the reign of Charlemagne (768-814), who was the first to receive a papal coronation in the year 800.

In the 8C, the Christianization of Francia was finished. The geography of the parishes was established in fact, based on considerations of Saint Augustine and the Gelase I and Grégoire the Great, Étienne II (Stephan) recalled the functions of protectors of the Church and temporal representatives of God on earth that kings had and emperors, while reaffirming the superiority of the spiritual over the temporal; These were the Popes, The baptism of Clovis had already invested the royalty with a sacred dimension but Etienne II designated Pepin as new David governing the frank people who are an elected people, In a way, the central Middle Ages of the Church of France began with the establishment, in 989, of the Pax Dei during the Council of Charroux. This peace of God was relayed by Cluny and its Benedictine order which were the leaders of a monastic, intellectual and cultural reform from the 10C of considerable importance. At the liturgical level, the Gregorian chant, noted by means of neumbs, had become the norm within the Kingdom of France. Again, Cluny played an eminent role. In the 11C, the Gregorian reform deployed in France encountered resistance from royal power, much less among other feudal people and none in Normandy under the aegis of a William the conqueror in accordance with the popes.

Many orders were born on French soil: the order of Grandmont (1076), the Cistercian order ( 1098), the order of Fontevraud ( 1101), the order of the Trinitarians ( 1194), the Order of the Prémontrés (1120), the order of the temple ( 1129) and the order of the preachers (1215), the order of the Mercédaires (1218) but also of the characters which marked their time such as Pierre l ‘ Hermit, Suger de Saint-Denis, Pierre le Venerable, Pierre Lombard and Saint Louis. Christian secular fraternities also abounded at that time; Whether they were professional or made up of penitents or charitables. New practices were born in France such as the Rosary instituted by Dominique de Guzmán in 1208. The creation of modern states in which the influence of papacy, very important in the 12C and 13C decreased significantly. On the political field, this results in the confrontation of the King of France Philippe le Bel and Pope Boniface VIII who seek to assert the absolute primacy of their power. These conflicts initially led to the installation of the papacy in Avignon and then in 1378, to the great west schism. The Bologna Concordat (1516) enters the fact that François I had arranged the monopoly of the appointment of the bishops of his kingdom; It also brought France into the era of Gallicanism. Theologians emitted criticism of religious practice, the behavior of the clergy and the positions of the Church leading to deep upheavals and the birth of Protestantism. After the first successes of Lutheranism, a second wave of Protestant preachers spread, in France, under the influence of Jean Calvin, the Catholic Church reacts by the holding of the Council of Trent specifying its dogmas, in particular concerning revelation, redemption, Eucharist and Mariology. At the same time, the Jesuit Order was created and played an important role in the counter-reform. In France, the opposition between Catholics and Protestants led to a civil and fratricidal war, contrary to the most basic Christian virtues. Conflicts succeeded itself from 1562 until 1598, where the edict of Nantes brought a relative tolerance.

The great century saw the rise of the French School of Spirituality and the affirmation of Gallicanism which opposed king Louis XIV and a part of the bishops of France to the Pope. The inclinations of episcopal semi-independence were themselves tempered by submission to the king of divine law, the only master in his kingdom after God as explained by Bishop Bossuet (aka Eagle of Meaux , preacher and spiritual counselor to Louis XIV) in his work « the politics drawn from Holy Scripture ». The 17C was also wanted to be the continuator of the French School of Spirituality including François de Sales, Cardinal Pierre de Bérulle and Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort with the latter treatise on true devotion to the Blessed Virgin are three great representatives. The cult of the saints reached its peak: their intercession was recognized as close and effective and the most popular were both the saints healers such as Saint Sébastien and especially Saint Roch, and the great national saints such as Saint Martin and Saint Louis. The French, whose vast majority were peasants, also addressed themselves in Saint Fiacre and Saint Vincent. But it was to the Blessed Virgin aka Virgin of Mercy and Our Lady of the Rosary, she became the first of the Holy Patrons of France following the wish of king Louis XIII in 1638. The King also offered sets symbolizing the crown and the lily of France to the statue representing the Blessed Virgin in the Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Basilica of Paris. A National Day and the tradition of prayer for France was established. This period was also fruitful in saints: François de Sales , who created the order of the Visitation and whose introduction to devout life was an immense success, Vincent de Paul, Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort, Jean Eudes, Claude La Colombière and Marguerite-Marie Alacoque ,with the last three helping the spread of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. New religious orders were founded: Society of the Oratory of Jesus, the Sulpicians, the sisters of the Child Jesus and the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

During the French revolution, by1794, France’s churches and religious orders were closed down and religious worship suppressed. The Church was reorganized, the process of selecting upper clergy through election was instituted and the clergy became state employees, ties with Rome were severed, and the Church became secondary to, and reliant on, the secular state. The Church was split between those who gave their allegiance to the new French Republic and those who refused to do so, and subsequent violence between revolutionaries and clergy supporters saw widespread bloodshed, and destruction of many Catholic sites. (Here you can dealt further into knowing why the Church is not as strong today not by conviction but imposed restraints) , As of August 11, 1789, the tithe was deleted, thus depriving the clergy of part of its resources. On November 2 of the same year, on the proposal of Talleyrand, bishop of Autun, the property of the clergy became national goods which will be sold by lots to fill the state deficit. They were often bought by the bourgeoisie which had the important funds which allow to buy back quickly. On February 13,1790 the wishes of religion were abolished and the religious orders suppressed except, provisionally, the hospital and teachers’ houses. The civil constitution of the clergy of 1790 created, in France, a constitutional church in which the ecclesiastics had to take an oath of loyalty to the Constitution. Pope Pius VI condemned this oath in April 1791 which made priests quasi-functionaries. Another of the consequences of the Civil Constitution of the Clergy was the election of bishops by the priests of their dioceses instead of the previous mode of appointment by political power with confirmation by the Pope. In 1801, Napoleon Ier established the Concordat, by which the State subsidized not only Catholicism (recognized as the religion of the majority of French), but also Judaism and the Lutheran and Calvinist branches of Protestantism. The Concordat, by creating official relations between the French State and the Papacy, forced the Church of France to reorganize its hierarchy and the territoriality inherent in it. The requirement made by the first consul to compose an episcopate as he pleased has to have both refractory bishops in exile and the constitutional bishops still in place. On August 15, 1801, Pope Pius VII promulgated two decisions to allow this reorganization: the brief Tam Multi demanded the resignation of the bishops instituted by Rome, while the brief post Multos Labores demanded that of the elected bishops. This direct intervention of pontifical authority constitutes an act of great importance since it reintroduces the papacy as a source of the canonical institution, which puts an end to the principles of the Gallican church. Of the 81 refractory bishops still alive in 1801, 38 refused to resign to the Pope and thus gave birth to the separate small church. In May 1809, Napoleon Ier decided to annex the pontifical states to the French Empire and forced the sacred college to reside in France. Subsequently, also knowing that the pope had not decided as to the possible disability of his marriage to Joséphine de Beauharnais, thirteen of the twenty-seven cardinals did not appear at the marriage of the Emperor with the Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, April 2, 1810, which took place at the Palais du Louvre. As a reprisals, Napoleon removed their vehicle, their servants, made them expel from their residence and prohibit any sign that could identify them as a cardinals. The fate of “black cardinals”, helped by local faithful, lasted until 1813. The charter of 1814 reinstated Catholicism as a state religion while maintaining freedom of worship; The same year, the imperial catechism was abandoned.

The first half of the 20C also saw the birth of new French congregations: Benedictines of the rue Monsieur, Congregation of Sainte-Croix, Marists, Oblates of Marie-Immaculate and Société du Sacré-Coeur de Jesus. After the revolution of 1830 (Trois Glorieuses ) and the power installation of Louis-Philippe I, the Catholic Church arose mainly as legitimist the majority of practicing Catholics with a 90% population baptized in Catholicism was still royalist and the regime of the young Third Republic carried out an anti-cléricale policy, closing Catholic schools as well as convents. Pope Leo XIII, wishing to permanently heal the injuries of the past and strengthen the position of the episcopate battered by the French State, promulgated in 1892 the « encyclipedia in the midst of solicitudes ». Addressed to the episcopate and the clergy of France as well as to French Catholics,it encouraged them to rally. The Law of Separation of State and Church was signed by President Loubet on 9 December 1905. Article one stated that the Republic ensured the freedom of conscience and guaranteed the free exercise of religion with restrictions only in the interest of public order. Article two stipulated that the State neither recognized nor subsidized any religion with exceptions for chaplains in public institutions. Subsequent articles dealt with the disposition and distribution of religious properties to associations and the State. The majority of French citizens remained Roman Catholic, if only in name and by tradition. The law was not negotiated with the Catholic Church and was perceived as an aggressive move against the Church. After several years the Catholic Church accepted and adapted to its new status. On December 13, 1908, during the beatification of Joan of Arc, Pope Pie X recalled, for Catholics, the role of elections, The French diplomatic relations between the French State and the Holy See were restored on May 18, 1921, In 1920, the canonization of Joan of Arc, doubled by the establishment of a national holiday, marked a rapprochement in the French government and the Vatican but it was not until four years so that the latter accepts and negotiated the diocesan associations, not decisive to be in accordance with the republican laws of 1901 and 1905.

On May 3, 1944, Pope Pius XII, recognizing the affectionate and famous worship of which the French honored it, declared Thérèse de Lisieux major patron Saint of France, thus coming to join with the Virgin Mary and Joan of Arc, the Trinity of the great patron saints of the country; gesture to the strong symbolism for French Catholics knowing that a late month was going to take place on the land of the saint, the landing which allowed the liberation of France ! During the first half of the 20C, the Catholic Church was still enjoying a great pre -order within French society; the practice was high, the sacraments (baptisms, religious marriages) were practiced by more than 90% of the population, and the funeral to the church concerned 95% of the after-war graves, the Catholic lay people invest in different fields of social action: this can range from the Foundation of Emmaus, in 1949, by Father Pierre to the Catholic City, including the works and maraudes of the Order of Malta. At the end of the summer of 1968, General de Gaulle, then president, told the new Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal François Marty, that « the Council of Vatican II is the most important event of the century, because we do not change not the prayer of a billion men without touching the balance of the whole planet »

The drop in the number of priests ordinations had already started from the beginning of the 20C, but, at the beginning of the 1970s, French Catholicism was affected by a significant fall in the number of faithful and many French priests left their priesthood by asking for their reduction to the secular State or not, In Lourdes, in 1968, (a huge year in the history of France social conditions) ,the episcopate denigrated the encyclical humanae vitae and made it a very tolerant interpretation Pope Paul VI, in his consistorial speech denounced and reproved the unacceptable liturgical drifts and pastoral care experienced by Catholics as a result of the Council. This period was that of the beautiful years of Catholic action, Catholic agricultural youth (Jac), Christian worker youth (JOC), Christian student youth (JEC), of the affirmation of the CFTC which has mainly become the CFDT in 1964, (unions groups), At the end of the 1980s, France had nearly 38,000 parishes, almost the same figure as the towns. The rural exodus and the lack of priests reduced this number to around 15,000 (2006 figures) in March 2017 is founded the Order of Saint-Rémi, which closely links Catholicism and the particular identity of France such as the evoked Pope John Paul II during his Bourget sermon in 1980, Alongside these main branches of the Church, coexisted that of the Opus Dei which has its own hierarchy thanks to its status of personal prelature. Almost all of the faithful of the Catholic Church in France are attached to the Catholic Church. Clearly in France because of various factors traditionalism is particularly established. Compared to other countries, many chapels “Ecclesia Dei” are present in the territory more or less, according to their statutes, dioceses ; even evolving outside these such as the Saint-Pie-X Fraternity.France also hosts the headquarters of an Ecclesia Dei Institute: the Institute of Bon-Pasteur. In addition, there are a few independent structures which claim to be Catholicism, such as the Gallican Church or the small church (19C), or the sedevacantist churches (20C). The Holy, remarkable members of the Church, have been recognized as patron saints and protectors of France to various epochs ; these are the Virgin Mary, Saint Thérèse de Lisieux , Jeanne d’Arc as Majors, Saint Rémi, Saint Martin ,Saint Louis ,Saint Denis, Sainte Pétronille, and Saint Radegonde as secondary,

The observation drawn is that almost 15% of the French priests ordered in 2019 are therefore traditionalist or, at least, “traditional” with the Saint-Martin community totaling nine ordered from the seventy-eight diocesans. The number of Catholics in France is not precisely known: indeed, the collection of denominational information is prohibited during the national censuses, and this information therefore comes exclusively from polls. The Catholic Church does not provide figures for the total number of baptized in France. According to estimates, they are between 42.8 and 45.4 million, or 67.6 to 71.7% of French people since the 1990s, there is a significant increase in the number of adult baptisms, which approaches five thousand annually, Finally, per year, it should be noted that in France, 80% of funerals are celebrated by the Catholic Church, In 2012 officiated just under 7,000 priests under the age of 75. 80 to 90 priests are ordered each year when it takes eight times more to compensate for the number of deaths. There are also 1689 foreign priests in the dioceses of France; They are largely from the countries of sub-Saharan Africa to compensate for the small number of priests, the laity are more and more numerous to provide services in the parishes, Since the 1990s, the diaconate has been handed over by honor selection,: The number of ordinations of deacons is of the same order as that of priests, around 90 per year despite its decline, Catholicism is still present in French society through family associations and various commissions, committees or Catholic parliamentarians, and keep a role in the political, social and ethical field. It has been claiming this participation in recent decades, after Vatican II has underlined the possibility of traditional ideas.

It is estimated that 63-66% of the population identify as Catholic, 7-9% identify as Muslim, 0.5-0.75% identify as Jewish, 0.5-0.75% identify as Buddhist and 0.5-1% identify with some other religion. As of latest pub, 2017 , The U.S. government estimates the total population of France at 68.1 million (midyear 2021). According to a January 2020 report released by the government-appointed Observatory for Secularism, based on a poll conducted in cooperation with polling company Viavoice, approximately 47 percent of respondents identify as Catholic, 3 percent Muslim, 3 percent Protestant, 2 percent Buddhist, 1 percent Jewish, Paris has been predominantly Catholic since the early Middle Ages, though religious attendance is now low. A majority of Parisians are still nominally Catholic.The vast majority of private schools in France are religious, with around 85% of all schools Catholic. A Roman Catholic is a Catholic who is a member of the Roman rite. There are many Catholics in the East who are not Roman Catholics, such as Maronite Catholics, Ukrainian Catholics, and Chaldean Catholics. Pope Boniface VIII proclaimed the canonization of Saint Louis in 1297; he is the only French king to be declared a saint. Louis IX is often considered the model of the ideal Christian monarch. Clement V was the French Pope from 1305 to 1314 who, in choosing Avignon, France, for the papal residence where it flourished until 1377, became the first of the Avignonese popes. During the first period, from 1309 to 1376, six successive popes resided in Avignon: Clement V, Jean XXII, Benoit XII, Clement VI, Innocent VI , and Urban V.

The official Catholic Church of France : https://eglise.catholique.fr/

The official Vatican Holy See : https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/en.html

The official Vatican News journal : https://www.vaticannews.va/en.html

There you go folks, a needed post indeed, glad its done in my blog, See the wonders of my belle France in its monuments of all , a sublime ride into history of Europe and the World too. Again, hope you enjoy this post on the Catholic Church in France as I.

And remember, happy travels, good health, and many cheers to all !!!!

ps. Bear in mind the huge work gathering above was secure by books, magazines in my library with most of the notes coming from wikipedia.