Book Series Bibliothèque de la Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique, vol. 116

The Controversy on Integralism in Germany, Italy and France during the Pontificate of Pius X (1903-1914)

Claus Arnold, Francesco Tacchi, Giovanni Vian

  • Pages: approx. 194 p.
  • Size:156 x 234 mm
  • Language(s):English, French
  • Publication Year:2024


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  • ISBN: 978-2-503-60490-9
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The controversy on Integralism in Italy, France and Germany, in a comparative perspective, on the basis of new material from the Vatican Archives.

BIO

Claus Arnold is Professor of Medieval and Modern Church History at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz.
Francesco Tacchi is a post-doctoral Fellow in History of Christianity and the Churches at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

Giovanni Vian is Professor for the History of Christianity and the Churches at Ca' Foscari University of Venice.

Summary

In the years after 1900 the autonomous activity of the Catholic laity in politics, culture and society was opposed by ‘integralists’ in theological circles, in the laity as well as in the clergy, and last not least in the Roman Curia. The integralists favoured a strict confessionalism and hierarchical control over all fields of Catholic life. Pope Pius X enforced this position in Italy and in France by solemnly condemning the autonomist Christian Democracy of Romolo Murri and the ‘Sillon’ movement of Marc Sangnier. In Germany, however, compromises with the Roman authorities were possible on all fields of contention: concerning the interdenominational character of the Christian trade unions, the independence of the Centre Party from the hierarchy and also during the controversy about the ‘Catholic belles-lettres’. Finally, in the papal encyclical ‘Singulari quadam’ (1912) the interconfessional Christian trade unions were at least ‘tolerated’. The present volume analyses these struggles in a comparative perspective and, by evaluating the entire accessible archival documentation, it reconstructs for the first time the respective internal decision-making processes of the Roman Curia. The result of this entire research is a profiling of three important European Catholicisms in the controversy on integralism. This conflict had a decisive bearing on the long-term positioning of French, German and Italian Catholicism within their respective national societies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface

I. The German Controversy on Integralism and the Making of the Encyclical ‘Singulari quadam’ (Francesco Tacchi)

II. Between Social Catholicism and Integralism: the ‘network’ of Giuseppe Toniolo (Giovanni Vian)

III. Authority and Integralism in Pius X. The Conflict over the Christian Democratic ‘Sillon’ and the Doctrine of Priestly Vocation by Joseph Lahitton (Claus Arnold)

IV. Appendix of Documents on the Condemnation of the ‘Sillon’

Indices