Taming the Action - I

Exactly 85 years ago, in September 1926, Pope Pius XI began to make public his careful move to extricate the Church in France from the complex matter of the Action française (the "French Action"), the all-encompassing movement guided by Charles Maurras - the final stages in a matter that had been simmering in the Sacred Halls for nearly two decades. In a response to a letter written by the Archbishop of Bordeaux, Cardinal Andrieu, to the youth of his diocese, in which several aspects of the movement were condemned, the Pope made clear that he was on the Cardinal's side against the totalizing view of a political movement - and much more was to come from Rome in the following months, as we will see in the next posts of this series.

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LETTER

To the most eminent Cardinal Andrieu, Archbishop of Bordeaux, whose letter is approved and praised.

Dear Son, greetings and apostolic blessing.

We have gladly read the response of Your Eminence to the group of young Catholics who questioned you on the matter of the "Action française". We have found in it a new and high testimony of the pastoral care and fatherly vigilance of Your Eminence for the good of souls and, particularly, of youth, threatened ceaselessly in our days. Your Eminence indicates, in fact, a danger that is as grave in this case as it touches, more or less directly, and without it appearing so, upon the Catholic faith and morals;

it could unwittingly cause the deviation of the true Catholic spirit, the fervor and the piety of the youth, and, in writings as in words, offend the frailty of their purity; in a word, it could lessen the perfection of Christian practice and, even more, the apostolate of a true "Catholic action", to which all the faithful, the youth most of all, are called to aid actively for the extension and the consolidation of the kingdom of Christ in individuals, in family, and in society.

It is thus very appropriate that Your Eminence leaves aside purely political questions, as for instance the form of government. On that, the Church leaves to each one his own just liberty. But he is not equally free, on the other hand, Your Eminence rightly remarks, to blindly follow the rulers of the "Action française" in matters related to faith and morals. Your Eminence rightly lists and condemns (in not only ancient publications) the signs of a new religious, moral, and social system, for instance regarding the notion of God, of the Incarnation, of the Church, and, generally, of Catholic dogma and morals, mainly in their necessary relations with politics, which is logically subordinated to morals. In substance, there is, in these manifestations [of Action française], traces of a rebirth of Paganism, to which is linked the Naturalism that these authors have placed, unconsciously, we believe, as so many of their contemporaries, in the public schooling of this modern and secular school, poisoner of youth, against which they themselves fight often so ardently.

Always anxious in the light of the dangers appearing from all parts to this dear youth, particularly from these detrimental tendencies, even if inspired by a good that undoubtedly is the praiseworthy love of country, we are pleased with the voices that, even outside of France, have arisen to caution and warn about it; we also do not doubt that all these young people will listen to your voice of Bishop and of Prince of the Church; in it and with it, they will listen to the very voice of the common Father of all the faithful. It is with this trust that We heartily grant to you, as well as to your Clergy and your faithful, the Apostolic Blessing.

Granted in Rome, next to Saint Peter's, on September 5, 1926, the fifth of our Pontificate.

Pius PP. XI