{"id":3368,"date":"2017-03-20T05:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T03:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=3368"},"modified":"2017-03-19T23:05:10","modified_gmt":"2017-03-19T21:05:10","slug":"eugene-and-the-history-of-france-napoleon-i-and-the-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/?p=3368","title":{"rendered":"EUGENE AND THE HISTORY OF FRANCE: NAPOLEON I AND THE CHURCH"},"content":{"rendered":"

In order to understand the actions and the charism of Eugene de Mazenod, we need to spend some time understanding the historical and political situation in which he lived and to which he responded.<\/p>\n

In 1802 Eugene\u2019s time of exile ended and Napoleon (who had become ruler in 1799) made it possible for him to return to France to live with his mother.\u00a0Yvon Beaudoin narrates (http:\/\/www.omiworld.org\/en\/dictionary\/historical-dictionary_vol-1_n\/867\/napoleon-i<\/a>\/:<\/p>\n

Napoleon became aware that he needed the support of the Church. He drew up a Concordat with the Holy See which was signed on July 15, 1801 and promulgated April 18, 1802. In virtue of this concordat, the clergy gave up their right to the property they owned, but the state committed itself to see to the sustenance of the bishops and the priests as employees of the state. The government appointed the bishops, but it was the Pope who granted them canonical installation. Priests who had emigrated were allowed to return and the churches were reopened.<\/p>\n

In Eugene\u2019s writings of this period, he never mentions Napoleon by name, but in 1802, he stated his frank opposition to the Concordat and, on this occasion, stated that the Pope \u201csi \u00e8 sporcificato<\/strong>\u201d, that is, he dishonoured himself, stooping to gestures of baseness. (LEFLON, I, Eugene de Mazenod, trans. Francis D. Flanagan, o.m.i., p. 233)<\/p>\n

Upon his return to France in 1802, Eugene had a more accurate view of the situation and the advantages provided by the Concordat. In the course of his trip to Paris in 1805 with a view of obtaining a passport for Sicily, he wrote his father on August 14:<\/p>\n

Tomorrow … is the day of the Assumption, a big feast for many reasons […] There will be horse races; then illuminations and fireworks, for as well as the feast that the whole Church solemnly celebrates, it is also Napoleon\u2019s birthday. Thanks will be given to God too for the success of the concordat, and with good reason; any Catholic with an iota of zeal for the good of religion should join his thanksgiving to those of the Church in France. Religion had been given up for dead in this kingdom; and if the peace accorded to the Church had not enabled its ministers to protect the young, I mean the nascent generation, from the contagion which had affected all age-groups, but especially those we call the children of the revolution, all those of 18, 20 years of age would be ignorant of God\u2019s very existence.<\/strong><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

(Oblate Writings I, vol. 14, no. 10, p. 18-19)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In order to understand the actions and the charism of Eugene de Mazenod, we need to spend some time understanding the historical and political situation in which he lived and to which he responded. In 1802 Eugene\u2019s time of exile … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3368\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eugenedemazenod.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}