Francisco de Paula Vallet y Arnau

Francisco de Paula Vallet y Arnau

Francisco de Paula Vallet y Arnau SJ (born June 14, 1883 in Barcelona , † August 13, 1947 in Madrid ) was a Spanish Roman Catholic clergyman, Jesuit and founder of the order. He is at the beginning of the parish staff of Christ the King CPCR.

life and work

The Jesuit

Vallet grew up in Barcelona as the son of a building contractor. After attending the Jesuit College Casp, he studied in Barcelona without a fixed course goal. When he got into an existential crisis in 1907, he completed Ignatian retreats in Manresa and entered the Jesuit order . During the novitiate in Gandia , he began an intensive evangelization campaign in the area and in Valencia . After he was ordained a priest, he was sent to the tertiary in Manresa in 1920 and commissioned to hold retreats.

The retreat

In order to make the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises a powerful instrument of popular piety, Vallet shortened it from four weeks to five days, without sacrificing the substance. Due to his charismatic personality and his tireless commitment, he succeeded in getting more than 12,000 people in Catalonia to take part in his retreat between 1923 and 1927. From this arose the idea of ​​reforming society through its complete transformation into a Catholic Church through the retreat. Efforts in the direction of a churchization of the public had originated simultaneously in Spain from Opus Dei and in France under the catchphrase of the "social rule of Jesus Christ" ( Henri Ramière ) and had in 1925 on the encyclical Quas primas of Pius XI reached by Marthe de Noaillat . guided. The Action française , which was forbidden by the Pope in 1926 as too politically forbidden , had similar efforts. Finally, from 1922 onwards, the also from Pius XI. under the name Katholische Aktion against the lay movement promoted, which later fought him as too conservative.

Uruguay, Spain, France

In 1927 he decided to found a work of parish retreats and resigned from the Jesuit order. In 1928 he founded the congregation of the parish workers of Christ the King (Latin: Congregatio Cooperatorum Paroesialium Christi Regis ). Since he refused to preach in Spanish (instead of Catalan), he was not incardinated by any Spanish bishop in his diocese and in 1929 had to move with his followers to Uruguay , where he, with the support of Bishop Tomás Gregorio Camacho of Salto (1919-1940) continued the work of the retreat, which in 1929 and 1931 could feel supported by the encyclicals Mens nostra and Quadragesimo anno . In 1932 he returned to Spain, but could not stay there and in 1934 he moved to France, where Bishop Camille Pic (1932–1951) accepted him in Valence and assigned him to the House of Nazareth for spiritual exercises in Chabeuil . In 1943, Vallet added Christ the King's parish workers to the parish staff of Christ the King (founded in Spain in 1938 by Vallet's sister).

Death in Spain

As a strictly Orthodox dogmatist, Vallet came into conflict in France with the modernist tendencies of the Catholic Church there. His affection for the Vichy regime was his undoing in 1944/1945, and he had to move to Franco's Spain , where in 1945 he opened the Casa Cristo Rey house in Canillejas (Madrid), which was moved to Pozuelo de Alarcón a little later . He died of a heart attack in 1947 at the age of 64. According to his own information, a total of 100,000 people took part in his retreat. His religious community received papal recognition in 1979 from Pope John Paul II . The abbey Saint-Joseph de Clairval in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain , founded by Augustin-Marie Joly OSB (1917-2006), emerged from it.

Works (posthumous)

• Reglas de los Cooperadores Parroquiales de Cristo Rey . Garayo, Pamplona 1972.
• Epistolario (A) Colección Guinart . Garayo, Pamplona 1975.
• Unión y verdad. Antología de textos del P. Vallet . Casa de San Giuseppe, Rome 1975.
• Fuentes de un carisma . Cooporadores Parroquiales de Cristo Rey, Madrid 1976.
• Livre de prières, de chants et d'exercices spirituels de Saint Ignace de Loyola utilisé dans les retraites données selon l'esprit et les normes du TRP François de Paule Vallet . Without location 2014.

literature

• Philippe Barbier: Le Père Vallet. En mission avec les exercices de saint Ignace pour les hommes adultes . Ed. Saint-Paul, Versailles 1996.
• Maurice Conat: Le Magicien du Règne. François de Paule Vallet 1884–1947 . Maison Saint-Joseph, Caussade 1967. 2nd edition 2003 under the title: L'apôtre du Règne. François de Paule Vallet, 1884-1947 .
• Jean-Jacques Marziac: Le Père François de Paule Vallet, Fondateur des Pères CPCR Un grand convertisseur du XXe siècle. Compilation d'articles de revues et de chapitres de livres . Maison d'exercices spirituels St Joseph, Caussade 1995.
• Antonio Sospedra Buyé: Fa cincuanta anys. Assaig històric sobre el naixement de l'Obra dels Exercicis Parroquials del P. Vallet . Balmes, Barcelona 1975.
• Antonio Sospedra Buyé: Per carrers i places. La premsa de Catalunya i l'obra dels exercicis parroquials del P. Vallet . Barcelona 1977.
• Antonio Sospedra Buyé: El padre Vallet (1883–1947) . A. Sospedra DL, Barcelona 1995.

Web links

• Information on Francisco de Paula Vallet y Arnau in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
• Literature by and about Francisco de Paula Vallet y Arnau in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Biography , Spanish, illustrated
• Brief description , Spanish, with picture