¹ Jean-Claude Poulain and Émile Poulat, two worker priests, were first to devote serious attention to the movement with Les prêtres-ouvriers (Paris: Éditions de Minuit, 1954). The first attempt at a synthesis of crucial primary documents in English was Petrie, John, trans. The Worker Priests (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1954)Google Scholar. Émile Poulat returned to the field with Naissance des prêtres-ouvriers (Tournai: Casterman, 1965). The 1980s saw a new wave of interest with Cole-Arnal, Oscar, Priests in Working Class Blue (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1986)Google Scholar and Leprieur, François, Quand Rome condamne. Dominicains et prêtres-ouvriers (Paris: Plon/Le Cerf, 1989)Google Scholar. In the last twenty years, the publishing house Karthala has been at the forefront of efforts to understand the movement, with publications including: Suaud, Charles and Viet-Depaule, Nathalie, Prêtres et ouvriers: Une double fidélité mise à l’épreuve 1944–1969 (Paris: Karthala, 2004)Google Scholar; and Cavalin, Tangi and Viet-Depaule, Nathalie, Une histoire de la mission de France: La riposte missionnaire 1941–2002 (Karthala: Paris, 2007)Google Scholar.

² Rousso, See Henry, The Vichy Syndrome: History and Memory in France since 1944, trans. Goldhammer, Arthur (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1991)Google Scholar: Halls, W. D., Politics, Society and Christianity in Vichy France (Oxford: Berg, 1995)Google Scholar and Paxton, Robert O., Vichy France: Old Guard and New Order, 1940–1944 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1975)Google Scholar, esp. 149–165.

³ Emil Bondu was conscripted into the STO in Frankfurt between 1943 and 1945. Roger Breistroffer was in the STO in the Paris region in 1944. Bernard Cagne fought with the Maquis in 1944 (see Suaud and Viet-Depaule, Prêtres et ouvriers, 29–32).

⁴ See Francis Gayral, “Quelque notes histoire PO,” in Courrier PO (avril 2022), 10. Bousquet was among those who served as clandestine chaplains during World War II (see Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 59) and wrote Hors des Barbelés (Paris: Spes, 1945), which remains one of the best depictions of life under the STO.

⁵ Rerum Novarum, Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Capital and Labor; available at https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_15051891_rerum-novarum.html.

⁶ Rerum Novarum, Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII.

⁷ See for example Paul Misner, Catholic Labour Movements in Europe: Social Thought and Action 1914–1965 (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press of America, 2015).

⁸ For Sangnier, see Gearóid Barry's fascinating study The Disarmament of Hatred: Marc Sangnier, French Catholicism and the First World War, 1914–45 (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012). Another useful source is Madeleine Barthélemy-Madaule, Marc Sangnier 1873–1950 (Paris: Éditions du Deuil, 1973). Interestingly, Jean Vinatier, a worker priest himself, was the long-time president of an association dedicated to the appreciation of Sangnier.

⁹ Barthélemy-Madaule, Marc Sangnier, 121–122.

¹⁰ For Sangnier's efforts to promote reconciliation with Germany see Peter Farrugia, “French Religious Opposition to War, 1919–1939: The Contribution of Henri Roser and Marc Sangnier,” French History 6, no. 3 (September 1992): 279–302. For Sangnier's embracing of the Popular Front, see Barthélemy-Madaule, Marc Sangnier, 271 as well as Paul Christophe, 1936: Les catholiques et le front populaire (Paris: Les É ditions Ouvrières, 1986), 25–32. With respect to the diversity of the RUP see Peter Farrugia, “Mésentente Cordiale: Anglo–French Collaboration in the Rassemblement universel pour la Paix,” Synergies RUI no. 4 (2011): 105–116.

¹¹ Fonsegrive, under the pseudonym Yves Le Querdec, wrote a number of novels that provide a wider context for the worker priest movement (see Charles Talar, “The Novelist and Social Catholicism: George Fonsegrive's Le Fils de l'Esprit,” Journal of Modern and Contemporary Christianity 1, no. 1 [2022]: 43–60). Bidault was a key figure in efforts to settle a range of issues between the Vatican and the French government at precisely the moment when the worker priests were causing consternation in Rome (see Bernard Berthod and Pierre Blanchard, “Les rapports diplomatiques entre la France et le Saint-Siège Wladimir d'Ormesson et le nonce Paolo Marella, 1953–1957,” Chrétiens et Sociétés XVIe-XXIe siècles 6 [1999]: 81–105; https://doi.org/10.4000/chretienssocietes.6942).

¹² Wilbert R. Shenk, “Encounters with ‘Culture’ Christianity,” International Bulletin of Missionary Research 18, no. 1 (1994): 12.

¹³ Shenk, “Encounters with ‘Culture’ Christianity,” 12. See also the useful timeline “Histoire – Mission de France” at https://missiondefrance.fr/histoire/.

¹⁴ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 55.

¹⁵ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 56–57. Significantly, Cole-Arnal points out that Godin, Daniel, Suhard, and the theologians present at Lisieux lacked one critical element in that they had not – like some of the young men who would form the vanguard of the worker priest movement – lived the life of the worker and so were not necessarily prepared for the further step of engagement represented by the assuming of leadership in unions (see 60–61).

¹⁶ See Suaud and Viet-Depaule, Prêtres et ouvriers, 27–53, for detailed biographical notes and charts.

¹⁷ Interview with Henri Barreau, December 11–13, 1979. In his notes Oscar Cole-Arnal remarked that Barreau laughed at this question and then added in parenthesis that this was a common response to this query in many interviews.

¹⁸ Interview with Maxime Hua, May 9, 1979.

¹⁹ I have deliberately chosen this phrase, most often remembered as one of the slogans immortalized in the artwork of May 1968. For an exploration of second-generation worker priests in May 1968, see Gerd Reiner Horn, “Red Priests in Working-Class Blue,” in The Spirit of Vatican II: Western European Progressive Catholicism in the Long Sixties, eds., Gerd Reiner Horn (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 66–67.

²⁰ Henri Perrin, Priest and Worker, trans. Bernard Wall (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1964), 110.

²¹ Perrin, Priest and Worker, 121.

²² Typed report by Cardinal Liénart (emphasis added). Cited in Dominique Fontaine, “En Jésus Christ: Un Dieu libérateur dans l'histoire des prêtres ouvriers” (Mémoire de maîtrise: Institut Catholique de Paris, 1981), 5.

²³ François Vidal, who worked in the Marseille region, believed factory labor was “the decisive step” in their apostolate. Henri Perrin saw the entry into the factory as “a necessary condition for reform and progress” as well as a needed bulwark against clericalism and “caste mentality” (see Interview with François Vidal, June 2, 1983 and Henri Perrin, Itinéraire d'Henri Perrin [Paris: Seuil, 1958], 143–144, both cited in Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 76).

²⁴ See “Michel Favreau” in Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail (hereafter ANMT), 1993, 002/002, “Fonds Bob Lathouraz.” As John Petrie notes, the biography of Favreau written by a fellow worker priest was only approved for publication after deletion of all reference to the negligence of the employer in maintaining vital equipment (see Petrie, The Worker Priests, 20).

²⁵ Fontaine, “En Jésus Christ,” 29–30.

²⁶ Fontaine, “En Jésus Christ,” 30. See Genesis Chapter 3 for the Biblical account of the origins of work. For more on how the worker priests influenced perception of the dignity of work, see Michèle Bonnechère, “La contribution des prêtres-ouvriers à la lutte pour la dignité dans le travail,” Le Droit Ouvrier no. 826 (May 2017): 273–289.

²⁷ For an excellent account of how the nouvelle théologie of Chenu and others problematized the sacred/secular divide and allowed a space for committed believers to speak on public issues such as capitalism and democracy, see Sarah Shortall, Soldiers of God in a Secular World: Catholic Theology and Twentieth Century French Politics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2021).

²⁸ Jean Olhagary, Ce mur il faut l'abattre (Biarritz: Atlantica, 1999), 79.

²⁹ “La Responsable du Groupe (note, 1946).” Cited in Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 76.

³⁰ Guillaume Cuchet, “Nouvelles perspectives historiographiques sur les prêtres ouvriers (1943–1954),” Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'histoire 3, no. 87 (2005): 182.

³¹ Michel Lemonon, Maurice Combe, Robert Pacalet, Jean Gray, Yves Garnier, and André Chauveneau were among those who served as delegates while Jo Lafontaine, Francis Vico, Jo Gouttebarge, and Henri Barreau assumed more senior positions with Barreau eventually rising to become the secretary of the CGT's largest and most militant metallurgical federation (see Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 87).

³² Interview with Henri Barreau, December 11–13, 1979.

³³ See Jean-Baptiste Durosellle, “The Turning Point of French Politics,” Review of Politics 13 (January 1, 1951): 302. Duroselle emphasizes the importance of the May 4 strike action at the Renault factory in Boulogne-Billancourt.

³⁴ This is a quote from the worker priests’ Green Book October 5, 1953, cited in Poulain and Poulat, Les prêtres-ouvriers, 236.

³⁵ Mary Kate Holman, “‘Like Yeast in Dough’: The Church–World Relationship in the Evolving Thought of Marie-Dominique Chenu,” Theological Studies 81, no. 4 (2020): 789.

³⁶ Shortall, Soldiers of God in a Secular World, 221–222.

³⁷ Interview with Bernard Chauveau, May 11, 1979.

³⁸ Interview with Marie-Dominique Chenu, May 15, 1979.

³⁹ Tangi Cavalin, “Partir sans esprit de retour: les missionnaires au travail, d'utopie missionnaire en hétérotopie ouvrière,” Cahiers d'histoire. Revue d'histoire critique 133 (2016): 75. One significant rupture was with Jacques Loew, who rejected the idea that union and political activism “were primordial.” (Interview with Jacques Loew, September 9–24, 1980). See also André Piet, “La méthode sacerdotale des prêtres ouvriers” in François Vidal Dossier, Oscar Cole Arnal Papers [hereafter OCA].

⁴⁰ Temoignage chrétien, 3 juin 1949, cited in Jean Vinatier, Le Cardinal Suhard (1874–1949) L’évêque du renouveau missionnaire en France (Paris: Éditions du Centurion, 1983), 429.

⁴¹ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 109–110.

⁴² Cavalin, “Partir sans esprit de retour,” 75.

⁴³ As Dominque Fontaine points out, the worker priests rejected this distinction between temporal and spiritual salvation because “it is within this process of ‘purely human liberation’ that the liberation brought by Jesus Christ must be realized” (Fontaine, “En Jésus Christ,” 59 [emphasis added]).

⁴⁴ “Project de Directoire pour les prêtres travaillant en usine” (1951) in Archives de la Mission de Paris [hereafter MDP] cited in Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 141. A measure of the negativity elicited by these two documents is provided by marginalia on a copy of the draft of the directoire. An anonymous commentator wrote “Ancel = Napoleon” at the top of the page (see ANMT, 1993, 002/002).

⁴⁵ “Letter from Bernard Chauveau, n.d.” ANMT, 1993, 002/002 (emphasis added).

⁴⁶ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 90. Jacques Loew was more cautious in his attitude to this organization. He believed that many of the worker priests had an insufficient grasp of economic realities to be able to resist Communist blandishments and he held that fundamental structural change was not the responsibility of clergy but of lay people (Interview with Jacques Loew, September 9–24, 1980).

⁴⁷ The ministry at Sacré-Coeur was an important precursor of the worker priest movement, launched by Fils de Charité, Georges Michonneau. In 1946, Michonneau's Paroisse, communauté missionnaire (Paris: Éditions du Cerf, 1945) suggested that it was not necessary to divorce work among the laboring class from the parish (see Pierre Pierrard, L’Église et les ouvriers en France, 1940–1990 [Paris: Hachette, 1991], 175).

⁴⁸ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 92–93.

⁴⁹ “Communiqué de l'Archévêque de Paris” cited in Marie-Claude Badiche, Maurice Badiche, and Martine Sevegrand, Des Prêtres-ouvriers insoumis en 1954: Le “Groupe Chauveau” 1957–2011 (Paris: Karthala, 2015), 46.

⁵⁰ “Letters of support,” ANMT B, 1997, 038/0063, “Manifestation du 5 mai 1952.” Many of the dozen or so letters included in this dossier began “I am only a. . .” before expressing solidarity with the worker priests.

⁵¹ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 148.

⁵² “Notre action – le cas Desgrand,” Section syndicale CFTC (1953), 1–2 in MDP (1953); see also “La Trahison des dirigeants de FO et de la CFTC,” France Nouvelle September 5, 1953, 5; and “Déclaration de Travailleurs Chrétiens sure les grèves d'Aout 1953,” 1–4 in MDP.

⁵³ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 148.

⁵⁴ L'Humanité April 3, 1953, 5. Cited in “Cause Tessier Barreau,” April 24, 1953, in OCA, Dossier Barreau.

⁵⁵ “Cause Tessier Barreau,” 11–12.

⁵⁶ “Cause Tessier Barreau,” 19–20.

⁵⁷ This feeling went beyond France. Time magazine noted that “to many a watchful prelate it has looked as though the worker-priests were more converts than converters. Two of them were arrested in last year's Communist-inspired riots against General Ridgway. . .[and] others burst into print from time to time with letters to the Communist press criticizing Catholic labor-union policies as not militant enough.” The piece also recalled Cardinal Pizzardo's statement that the movement had had “a negative influence in the formation of young priests” which rendered it very dangerous (see “Religion: No More Prêtres-Ouvriers?” Time, Monday, September 28, 1953; available at https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,818923,00.html).

⁵⁸ Albert Ancel, “Réunion des Prêtres-Ouvriers de Lyon, chez son Em. Le Cardinal Gerlier s.d.” Centre National des Archives de l’Église de France [hereafter, CNAEF] 7CE4299, “Problèmes posés par les prêtres-ouvriers (1953–1954),” 1.

⁵⁹ “Problèmes posés,” 2, 3.

⁶⁰ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 149.

⁶¹ The idea that the condemnation was imposed from without quickly took root in France. As Berthod and Blanchard have observed, the worker priest affair, which began as a strictly ecclesiastical matter, “did not remain on this level. Very rapidly the intellectual and political realms took interest in it. . . .The political realm saw in it interference by the Holy See in the foreign affairs of France and a pretext to question the laicity of the State” (Berthod and Blanchard, “Les rapports diplomatiques”).

⁶² The most scathing assessment of Pius XII's Papacy in John Cornwell's, Hitler's Pope: The Secret History of Pius XII (London: Viking, 1999). A more balanced assessment is provided by Frank J. Coppa, The Life & Pontificate of Pope Pius XII: Between History & Controversy (Washington, DC: Catholic University Press of America, 2013). For a tighter focus on the Cold War, see Peter C. Kent, The Lonely Cold War of Pope Pius XII (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2002).

⁶³ Count Wladimir d'Ormesson was a French aristocratic with moderately right-wing leanings, who served as the French Ambassador to the Vatican during the Vichy regime and then again from 1948 to 1956. For a good account of the challenges faced by d'Ormesson and his perceptive observations of the key players in Rome, see Sophie Gauthier, “Au Plaisir de Dieu, Au Service de L’état: L'ambassade près le Saint-Siège de Wladimir d'Ormesson au prisme de son journal, 1948–1956” (thèse doctorale, École des Chartres, 2018); available at https://www.chartes.psl.eu/fr/positions-these/ambassade-pres-saint-siege-wladimir-ormesson-au-prisme-son-journal-1948-1956.

⁶⁴ “Rome le 13 mai 1954 note confidentielle,” 10–11 and 4, in Archives Georges Bidault, Archives Nationales [hereafter AN] 457AP/103. The Pontiff's state of mind was all the more relevant given the fact that, since the death of Mgr. Luigi Malione in 1944, there had been no Secretary of State (see Jean-Dominique Durand, “Un diplomate sans secrétaire d’État: le journal de Wladimir d'Ormesson, ambassadeur de France près le Saint-Siège (1948–1956),” Mélanges de l’École française de Rome, Italie et Méditerranée 110, no. 2 [1998]: 629–630).

⁶⁵ Lecourt was “held in high regard by the Ambassador but also by Mgr. Domenico Tardini, the pro-Secretary of State.” Lecourt's “permanence at the centre of conversations, until 1957, demonstrated his skills, his human qualities and his respect for the opinions of other political organizations” (see Berthod and Blanchard, “Les rapports diplomatiques”). The other two “friends in Paris of whom d'Ormesson spoke were CFTC executive Alfred Michelin and a Mgr. Marguerite,” who was eventually unmasked as Mgr. Jean Villot, the Auxiliary Bishop of Paris at the time (see Antoine Wenger, Le cardinal Villot, 1905–1979 [Paris: Desclée de Brouwer], 1989).

⁶⁶ Berthod and Blanchard, “Les rapports diplomatiques.” For a useful account of the negotiations in their entirety, see Robert Lecourt, Entre l’Église et l’État, concorde sans Concordat (1952–1957) (Paris: Hachette, 1978).

⁶⁷ “Letter from Vladmir d'Ormesson, April 9, 1953,” 7 in AN 457AP/103.

⁶⁸ “Note confidentielle remise le 8 avril 1953 à M. Tardini” in 457AP/103. The Loi Marie and Loi Barangé of 1951 had already “provided respectively credits for the education minister to award to the most deserving pupils attending either state or private secondary schools, with priority for the former, and allocated a special amount at the treasury for parents with children attending state or private school (1,000 old francs per child per term)” (see David L. Hanley, Anne P. Kerr, and Neville H. Waites, eds., Contemporary France: Politics and Society Since 1945 [Milton Park Oxon.: Taylor & Francis, 1985], 276–277). However, a more comprehensive agreement on educational reform eluded negotiators until the birth of the Fifth Republic in 1958.

⁶⁹ For insight into the educational question and how conversations about European cooperation further complicated matters for the MRP, see Marco Duranti, The Conservative Human Rights Revolution: European Identity, Transnational Politics, and the Origins of the European Convention (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), esp. 290–320. For an overview of the vexed question of laicity, see Jean Baubérot, “Laicity,” trans. Arthur Goldhammer in The French Republic: History, Values, Debates, eds., Edward G. Berenson, Vincent Duclert, and Christophe Prochasson (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012), 127–135. The evidence provided by these sources directly contradicts Georges Bidault's own testimony that he had little to do with worker priests (Interview with Georges Bidault, May 18, 1979).

⁷⁰ “The Bishops’ Letter to the Worker-Priests,” (January 19, 1954) in Petrie, The Worker Priests, 172–175.

⁷¹ See Roger Deliat, Vingt ans O.S. chez Renault (Paris: Les Éditions ouvrières, 1973), 134–139; Interview with Jean Olhagary, June 13, 1979; Interview with Césaire Dillaye, May 14, 1979; Interview with Henri Barreau, December 11–13, 1979.

⁷² “La Déclaration du Cadinal Liénart,” Semaine Religieuse de Lille (January 10, 1954) cited in Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 150. As it turned out, Liénart did not entirely disappoint. For example, he allowed Bernard Tiberghien to continue working at the docks of Lille, reasoning “quite loyally, I can make this fit, as it corresponds to the formula of three hours per day: 6 × 3 = 18. You will no doubt rarely work more than 18 hours per week. Thus, I allow you to go there. It is part-time work” (see René Poterie and Louis Jeusselin, Pretres-ouvriers. 50 ans d'histoire et de combats [Paris: Harmattan, 2001], 133).

⁷³ Le Figaro, February 16, 1954, cited in Petrie, The Worker Priests, 45.

⁷⁴ “Rome, 6 mars 1954 note confidentielle,” 2 in AN457AP/103. As one observer has put it, Mauriac “no longer held the same sway with the Christian Democrat leaders of the MRP – Maurice Schumann, Georges Bidault or Pierre-Henri Teitgen – in whom he had placed all his hopes in 1944 for the renovation of French democracy” (“François Mauriac” in Le Dictionnaire biographique Maitron; available at https://maitron.fr/spip.php?article141424).

⁷⁵ “Note confidentielle de WO le 6 mars 1954,” AN457AP/103.

⁷⁶ This is the famous declaration of the 73 (cited in Nathalie Viet-Depaule et al., La Mission de Paris: Cinq prêtres-ouvriers insoumis témoignent [Paris: Karthala, 2002], Annexe 8, 313–314.

⁷⁷ Cited in Petrie, The Worker Priests, 44.

⁷⁸ Dorothy Day, “French Worker Priests and the Little Brothers of de Foucauld,” The Catholic Worker, March 1954, 2, 4.

⁷⁹ Yves Congar, “L'Avenir des Prêtres Ouvriers,” Témoignage Chrétien September 25, 1953, 1. Congar's concern was reflected in the thoughts of the worker priests themselves. One document written after the condemnation of 1954 spoke of how the Church had simultaneously made them Christians and bourgeois in thought and habit. The authors asked “Might there be in our spirit some unconscious but unavoidable consequences, given our past immersion in bourgeois ideology?” (ANMT, 1993, 002/0005).

⁸⁰ Their absence was short lived. In 1965, following Vatican II, prêtres au travail (as opposed to prêtres ouvriers) were permitted once more. Interestingly, some of the theologians who had been influential among the worker priests played significant roles in the work of the Council, most notably Yves Congar. Chenu, after multiple run-ins with authorities, was relegated to a minor role, serving as an advisor to the bishops of Madagascar (see Janette Gray, “Congar and Chenu: Inside and Outside Vatican II,” in Congar and Chenu: Friend, Teacher, Brother [Hindmarsh, SA: ATF Theology, 2017], 16).

⁸¹ La Croix, December 8, 1946. Cited in Petrie, The Worker Priests, 13.

⁸² L'Osservatore Romano, March 5, 1949 and La Croix, March 31, 1949. Both cited in Petrie, The Worker Priests, 15.

⁸³ Frédéric Gugelot, “Le Christ et ses apôtres en banlieue parisienne Les romans sacerdotaux témoins des expériences catholiques des années 1950,” Archives de sciences sociales des religions 165 (janvier–mars 2014), 84.

⁸⁴ Gilbert Cesbron, Les saints vont en enfer (Paris: Le livre de poche, 1955), 7.

⁸⁵ “Eglise et problèmes sociaux dans la France aujourd'hui” (trans. Duilio Morisini, “Dal Sacerdote Docker al sacerdote metallurgico.” Paese Sera November 12, 1953, 2 in ANMT B, 1997, 038/0064, “Lettres des PO à Mgr. Feltin.”

⁸⁶ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 167.

⁸⁷ Maurice Nadeau, “Un Prêtre Devient Ouvrier,” France Observateur, 16 mai 1954.

⁸⁸ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 167.

⁸⁹ Cuchet, “Nouvelles perspectives historiographiques,” 177.

⁹⁰ Cuchet, “Nouvelles perspectives historiographiques,” 177.

⁹¹ One interesting exploration of this link is Michael Löwy and Jesús Garcia-Ruiz, “Les sources françaises de la libération au Brésil/The French Sources of Liberation Christianity in Brazil,” Archives des sciences sociales des religions no. 97 (1997): 9–32.

⁹² “The Medellín Statement, 1968” cited in John W. Murphy and Karen A. Callaghan, eds., Toward a Post-Market Society (New York: Nova Science, 2011), 152–153.

⁹³ Gustavo Guttierez, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics and Salvation, trans. Sister Caridad Inda and John Eagleson (New York: Orbis, 1973), 113 (emphasis added).

⁹⁴ Guttierez, A Theology of Liberation, 225–226.

⁹⁵ Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Instruction on Certain Aspects of the “Theology of Liberation” (1984); https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19840806_theology-liberation_en.html.

⁹⁶ Some have seen the connection to liberation theology as tenuous. However, Gerd-Rainer Horn's Western European Theology, 1924–1959, The First Wave (New York: Oxford University, 2008) posits a stronger link.

⁹⁷ Suaud and Viet-Depaule, Prêtres et ouvriers, 16.

⁹⁸ For the former, see for example the contributions of Jean-Marie Marzio, Jean Olhagary, and Jean Desailly in La Mission de Paris, 21–92, 177–283. For the latter see those of Marie Barreau and of Viet-Depaule and Yvonne Besnard in the same work (93–176).

⁹⁹ “Project de Réponse aux Évêques, 15 février 1954,” 1 in ANMT, 1993, 002/002.

¹⁰⁰ Henri Barreau, “Situation des Prêtres ouvriers demeures au Travail,” 3 in ANMT, 1993, 002/002. Even after the reopening of the path of manual labor in 1965, the original worker priests still felt their wounds deeply. A survey of those who had elected not to obey Rome's edict to terminate their manual work and involvement in labor organizations revealed a great deal of pain (see ANMT, 1993, 002/0007, especially the responses of Aldo Bardini, Louis Bouyer, Jean Cottin, Roger Deliat, and Bob Lathuraz).

¹⁰¹ Cavalin, “Partir sans esprit de retour,” 77. For details of their lives after 1954, see Desailly, Jean, Prêtre-ouvrier. Mission de Paris, 1946–1954 (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1997)Google Scholar, and Cagne, Bernard, Prêtre-ouvrier à La Courneuve. Un insoumis de 1954 (Paris: Karthala, 2007)Google Scholar, esp. 177–198.

¹⁰² Emile Poulat perhaps put it best when he claimed that “The worker-priests were sundered in their living flesh. . .assailed at the very root of their religious existence” (see Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 156).

¹⁰³ See Christophe Gracieux, “Les prêtres-ouvriers: Contexte historique,” Lumni Enseignement; available at https://enseignants.lumni.fr/fiche-media/00000000837/les-pretres-ouvriers.html.

¹⁰⁴ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 157–163.

¹⁰⁵ Cole-Arnal, Priests in Working Class Blue, 173. See also Cole-Arnal, Oscar, To Set the Captives Free: Liberation Theology in Canada (Toronto: Between the Lines, 1998), 54–55Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁶ Yves Congar, trans. Loretz, Philip, Dialogue between Christians: Catholic Contributions to Ecumenism (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1966), 32Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁷ The “Trajectoires et Origines 2” (TEO2) survey undertaken by the French National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies and released in April 2023 revealed that “only 25% of French people aged 18–59 declared themselves to be Catholic in 2020, compared with 43% in 2008 according to the Trajectoires et Origines 1 survey” (see Solene Tadié, “Catholicism in France Could Soon Become a Minority but a More Traditional One, Experts Claim,” National Catholic Register; available at https://www.ncregister.com/news/catholicism-in-france-could-soon-become-a-minority-but-a-more-traditional-one-experts-claim). Similar trends are visible throughout much of Europe. Meanwhile, as far back as 2005, experts were noting that “More than two-thirds of Catholics live in the developing world, and population projections clearly indicate that proportion will grow to three-fourths in the next four decades” (see “The Changing Demographics of Roman Catholics,” Population Reference Bureau; available at https://www.prb.org/resources/the-changing-demographics-of-roman-catholics/#:~:text=Growth%20Across%20the%20Developing%20World&text=From%202004%20to%202050%2C%20Catholic,38%20percent%20in%20North%20America).