War and Religion

In this book, Vesna Drapac offers an engaging survey of Parisian Catholic life from the European Crisis of the late 1930s to the end of the Nazi Occupation in 1944. Drawing on a wide range of previously unexplored archival sources-parish bulletins, diocesan archives, records of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, and devotional materials-Drapac provides the first comprehensive examination of parochial life. She discusses the nature of Catholic loyalty to the Vichy regime and the range of religious responses to the ordeal.

War and Religion differs from standard surveys of French Catholicism under the Nazi Occupation in that it rejects the stereotype of the vast majority of Catholics as silent, accommodating, and ineffectual. It transcends the narrowly political question of the extent of individual or institutional Catholic collaboration and resistance. Its chief concern is the role of religion in the lives of practicing Catholics and how it gave them a model for exercising Christian belief and social responsibility. In bringing together diffuse material, Drapac recreates the Catholic mind in these turbulent years and places Catholic traditions and devotions at the center of the discussion. She discovers many parishioners of different complexions who were united in a spiritual and social union around their parish.

The book makes an important contribution to the debate about the nature of resistance and the preconditions necessary for the successful defense of core values and national identity in the face of a powerful ideological enemy. Drapac concludes that there was not just one legitimate Catholic response to the Occupation and that it is the versatility and range of Catholic responses that is most distinctive.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Vesna Drapac is a lecturer in history at the University of Adelaide in South Australia.

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK:

""""Thought-provoking and agreeably written . . . . The author plays the role of defending counsel against Church critics with considerable skill and with a sharp eye for inconsistency in their comments, which will cause a number of otherwise judicious historians to wince at their own occasional lapses.""""--Times Literary Supplement """"A work of scholarship based on extensive research in Parisian archives, Drapac's book is also a well-written study that raises issues of general importance about the responsibilities of church leaders and Catholics in times of crisis. . . .""""--America

""""A thoughtful alternative reading of the behavior of the Catholics of Paris during the German occupation of the city in World War II. . . . [Drapac] has combed through huge amounts of material in the archives of the archdiocese of Paris, besides those of many parishes, and of many Catholic organizations in Paris, material not studies by other authors. She goes through reports of pastors, records of many Catholic groups and programs, texts or summaries of sermons and other talks, and personal accounts of the war years, noting everything somehow related to the question of Catholic thoughts about the war, the occupation, the Vichy regime, and more broadly about Christian citizenship, patriotism, and human responsibilities. . . . A very instructive book, providing much food for thought about the ideas, motives, and character of the rank and file of practicing Catholics and priests in occupied Paris.""""--Church History