Father Marie-Alain Couturier, O.P. and the Refutation of Anti-Semitism in Vichy France

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Father Marie-Alain Couturier, O.P. and the Refutation of Anti-Semitism in Vichy France

Robert Schwartzwald

This chapter is part of: Leonard H. Ehrlich et al. 2004. Textures and Meanings: Thirty Years of Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Robert Schwartzwald is also concerned with France, through a study of the career of Father Marie-Alain Couturier (1897-1954), whose exemplary refutation of anti-Semitism stands in sharp contrast to the historical strain that Busi traces. Father Couturier’s commitment to spiritual and intellectual liberty led him to work with artists for their genius, not their religion. As his life and the century progressed, he came to realize that “a culture of anti-Semitism [was] central to France’s own undoing: this and not some presumed Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik conspiracy, is at the heart of the moral bankruptcy that leads to the collapse of the Third Republic.” Schwartzwald follows the evolution of Father Couturier’s views from their early rural origins, through his involvement with the Action française and his rejection of it in the face of its collaboration with Hitler’s demands. Father Couturier arrived in New York City in January 1940 and spent the war years in North America. In Quebec in the early 1940’s, Schwartzwald writes, “Couturier was particularly effective in helping shift sympathies among Catholics away from Vichy to the Free French by insisting upon the Nazi travesty of Christian principles.” And in New York, having suffered rejection by his Dominican brothers, he still refused to succumb to the diminishment of prevailing stereotypes. Father Couturier maintained his Christian integrity by recognizing the potential fascist or racist in each of us and by acting in accordance with his choice of justice over authority and audacity over security. His life stands in sharp contrast to the ideologies of anti-Semitism that preoccupy the other essays in this section.

Description

Robert Schwartzwald is also concerned with France, through a study of the career of Father Marie-Alain Couturier (1897-1954), whose exemplary refutation of anti-Semitism stands in sharp contrast to the historical strain that Busi traces. Father Couturier’s commitment to spiritual and intellectual liberty led him to work with artists for their genius, not their religion. As his life and the century progressed, he came to realize that “a culture of anti-Semitism [was] central to France’s own undoing: this and not some presumed Jewish-Masonic-Bolshevik conspiracy, is at the heart of the moral bankruptcy that leads to the collapse of the Third Republic.” Schwartzwald follows the evolution of Father Couturier’s views from their early rural origins, through his involvement with the Action française and his rejection of it in the face of its collaboration with Hitler’s demands. Father Couturier arrived in New York City in January 1940 and spent the war years in North America. In Quebec in the early 1940’s, Schwartzwald writes, “Couturier was particularly effective in helping shift sympathies among Catholics away from Vichy to the Free French by insisting upon the Nazi travesty of Christian principles.” And in New York, having suffered rejection by his Dominican brothers, he still refused to succumb to the diminishment of prevailing stereotypes. Father Couturier maintained his Christian integrity by recognizing the potential fascist or racist in each of us and by acting in accordance with his choice of justice over authority and audacity over security. His life stands in sharp contrast to the ideologies of anti-Semitism that preoccupy the other essays in this section.

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Published	Published By
Aug. 1, 2004	University of Massachusetts Amherst
Citation
Schwartzwald R. 2004. Father Marie-Alain Couturier, O.P. and the Refutation of Anti-Semitism in Vichy France. In Leonard H. Ehrlich et al. 2004. Textures and Meanings: Thirty Years of Judaic Studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst