Priests in Secular Employment

Arnal Oscar L: Priests in Working-Class Blue- the history of the worker-priests (1943-1954) (NY Paulist Press 1986)

This account is written as a piece of history written in Canada long after the event by an academic who was barely born in 1943 when the events began which he describes. His sources were the survivors among the priests themselves and the Hiearchy that judged them.

"... the central guiding conviction was that of Christ's incarnation ... Throughout the years of their apostolate the notion of incarnation was the thread that joined together the evolving strands of their tortuous and varied pilgrimages. A large number of the missionary apostolates and their supporters advocated a crusading proselytising notion of incarnation which they called conquęte (conquest). They were out to win over the proletariat from paganism materialism and Marxism." [Quote p 115]

" ... a collective apologetic had been developed by the Mission de Paris ... First they adopted the 'imitatio Christi' or Nazareth viewpoint which was based on the quiet years of Jesus' labor as a carpenter. Further ... priests working full-time were living testimony of the church's commitment to the 'virtues of work' ... they were convinced that a priestly presence at the factory extended 'the offering the mediation the intercession and the expiation' of the Mass into the work milieu. [Also] the idea of the church's supernatural incarnation and the notion that the proletariat must be encountered where it was 'above all at work'." [Quote p 121]

"Prayer itself in so many ways the antithesis of activity was also an integral part of the life chosen by the worker-priests. They felt the need to communicate with God in the midst of assembly-line toil. 'My work and its orientations have given to ;me my interior life' testified one ... " [Quote p 135]

In 1952 when matters were coming to a head between the pretres-ouvriers and the Hierarchy Msgr Ancel a French Bishop

"... stated the issue clearly. ; Should a priest adopt a partisan stance and become involved in a tempral 'engagement'? His unequivocal answer was 'No!' and that opinion was shared by the church's episcopal leadership. Indeed it is still echoed by the highest ecclesiastical authorities with respect to priests holding public office. Papal objection to clergy in he Nicuraguan government is perhaps the most widely publicised example of this objection ..." [Quote p 140]

"In France itself the worker-priests have returned with full force. The movement has expanded to over nine hundred a full three per cent of the nation's Catholic clergy. All the initial obstacles placed before them by the hierarchy have been removed ... "[Quote p 173]