middle classes, and have worked to this end in factories,
mines, transport and constructional engineering, sharing with their falow-layworkers the same pay and hazards.
These French priest-workers are no wide-eyed idealists. Many of them, coming themselves from working-class homes, are able to confront their ecclesiastical superiors planning evangelism from the outside with the argument: 'We do not need to be sent into that world. We belong there and only ask to be left there to witness to the faith.' Nor have they tried to 'refute Marxism' with naive counter-slogans, though the French Communist Press has seized upon the episcopal ban on their activities as an admission of defeat by the Church in its supposed campaign of anti-Communist infiltration. In their own words, the priest-workers are neither 'tourists nor spies.'
Nevertheless, the possible effect upon the priests of living in this 'Marxist atmosphere' has irrefutably had a bearing upon the Papal attitude to the apostolate, and one in part responsible for the decree from Rome that, the initial 'epoch of experience' over, their activities should henceforth be regu- lated. Cardinal Feltin, Cardinal Suhard's successor as Arch- bishop of Paris, who went with two other Cardinals on a delegation to consult the Pope about the application of this instruction, subsequently rebuked the authors of Les Pretres Ouvriers for becoming 'exclusively militants of temporal actibn' and for having 'tampered with the faith in the priest- hood as they have received it from the Holy Spirit and from the Church. Although, as late as December, 1953, he had spoken of the innumerable instances known personally to him of people hiving been converted through the priest- workers, Cardinal Feltin yet condemned the publication of this book on the grounds of its 'fragmentary and partial' documentation and called for the last time upon members of the apostolate to submit to the authority of the Holy See.
at the same time announcing the decision to 'continue researches into the evangelisation of the working world' by means of priest-workers who had affirmed their obedience to Rome, parish priests and the faithful Christian laity among the proletariat.
In conformity particularly with the last sentence of this communique is the work today of the Mission de France, whose 280 priests are engaged in special tasks of evangelism among the `dechristianised' masses both in urban and rural areas, but who do not go into the factories as workers or join the trade unions. Their new seminary, the medieval abbey of Pontigny in the rural seclusion of the Yonne department, was between the wars the scene of many recondite literary conferences arranged by Paul Desjardins, presided , over by Charles du Bos, and attended (among others) by Lytton Strachey, G. G. Coulton, Andre Malraux, Roger Martin du Gard and Andre Gide.
Thus, though the present position is confused, certain facts emerge clearly. Two-thirds of the priest-workers properly so-called, men who work in factories and have joined trade unions, are continuing this apostolate in defiance of the Papacy and the French bishops; the remaining third are doing the Some experienced Catholic observers point to the pressure brought to, bear upon the French episcopate by centralising influences (integrisme) in Rome, and cite as a foretaste of sanctions to come against the recalcitrants the trenchant tone of Cardinal Feltin's 'final' warning and the recent suspension in Marseille of two of their number from celebrating the sacraments. Others, seeing as a source of greater disquiet to the Holy See -the political developments in Italy and the `deviationise activities of certain Roman Catholics in the United States, foresee little radieal change in the situation in France, at least within the lifetime of Pope Pius XII.
But it would surely be as imprudent as it would be chancy to make guesses about the future of the priest-workers in a country so different from our own. Perhaps something which concerns us too may already be learned from their apostolate. On January 13, 1943, the late Cardinal Suhard, confirming kir the Mission de Paris that its primary purpose was the conver- sion of pagans, pointed out that its indirect aim was 'to show the Christian community that it, too, has to adopt a new attitude' towards a world in need. The implication was that this would take a long time.
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