Paul Rémond

Paul Rémond

Jules-Narcisse-Paul Rémond (born September 24, 1873 in Salins-les-Bains , † April 24, 1963 in Nice ) was a French Roman Catholic clergyman, bishop and archbishop.

life and work

origin

Jules-Narcisse-Paul Rémond, uncle of the historian and political scientist René Rémond , grew up as the eldest of 7 children of a family of lawyers in the Jura department , first in Salins-les-Bains, and from 1880 in Besançon . The family had numerous clergymen in the past, including a blessed martyr of the Revolution (André Angar, 1759–1792). Rémond's mother was a relative of Louis Pasteur's .

priest

Rémond studied Lettres in Besançon, graduated in 1894 with a license , added a year of German studies at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg and did military service in the infantry, which he left as a reserve lieutenant. In 1895 he entered the French seminary in Rome , where he obtained a doctorate in theology in 1899 and was ordained a priest on July 30 of the same year in Besançon. From 1900 to 1906 he was chaplain in Belfort , then school chaplain of the Victor Hugo high school in Besançon. He made a name for himself as a brilliant intellectual and successful preacher and was appointed cathedral chapter in 1914 .

Officer in World War. Military bishop in Germany

During the entire First World War , Rémond did military service, first as an infantry captain, then with the rank of major. His bravery earned him numerous awards and membership in the Legion of Honor . From 1921 to 1929 he was military bishop ( titular diocese of Clysma ) of the Rhine Army ( Armée française du Rhin ) in the occupied Rhineland , based in Mainz and an area of ​​activity that extended to the Ruhr area . He maintained good relations with the bishops of Mainz , Trier , Limburg , Cologne and Munster , as well as with Nuncio Pacelli, who later became Pope Pius XII. Since he was also responsible for Lebanon and Syria , he made a trip there in 1927. As Pius XI. At the end of 1926 condemned the right-wing extremist Action française under Charles Maurras , which had numerous supporters in the army, Rémond stood firmly behind the pope and published the book L'Heure d'obéir (The Hour of Obedience) in his defense in 1928 .

Bishop of Nice

In 1930 Rémond was appointed Bishop of Nice . For 33 years he developed an intense and predominantly beneficial activity, always in good agreement with the authorities, namely with his friend, Mayor Jean Médecin . One of the planned highlights, the 35th World Eucharistic Congress scheduled for September 1940 in Nice , was canceled at the last moment due to the war (and could only take place in Barcelona in 1952 ). In radio speeches in 1939, Rémond called Germany “the sin of the world” and in 1940 Hitler and Stalin “two gangsters”. Hitler in particular seemed to him possessed by the devil ( possédé du demon ).

Between Vichy and Resistance

During the time of the Vichy regime, he was officially loyal, allowed himself to be invited by Pétain to his villa in Villeneuve-Loubet , did not comment publicly on the persecution of the Jews and in 1941 expelled the Gaullist Dominican Raymond Léopold Bruckberger (1907-1998) from the diocese . The last public bow to the regime was dated September 22, 1942. From the occupation of Nice by the Italians in November 1942 and by the Germans in September 1943, he actively supported the circle around Moussa Abadi (1907–1997) and Odette Rosenstock (1914 –1999), with whose help 500 Jewish children were rescued. For this he was entered in 1991 in the list of the Righteous Among the Nations from France . In November 1943, with the prestige of his popularity, he defended himself in front of his Resistance priest Alfred Daumas (1910–1997) and obtained his release. For the collaborators he became sufficiently an enemy figure to be considered a Gaullist at the moment of liberation and to be celebrated triumphantly by the people. Pius XII. appointed him in 1946 as papal assistant to the throne and in 1949 as archbishop ad personam , but not as cardinal. In 1951 he was promoted to Commander in the Legion of Honor , leaving him alone among the French bishops.

Further work and death

Even after the Second World War , Rémond was republican, patriotic, close to the people, critical of capitalism, critical of communism and social. His attempt to establish a Catholic daily newspaper ( La Liberté ) failed in 1947 after two years of publication. He initially promoted the movement of the workers' priests , but banned it in 1951. In 1960 he met President De Gaulle in Nice , whom he had supported since 1958 and who valued him. He died in high regard in 1963 at the age of 89 and was buried in the Sainte-Réparate Cathedral, where a plaque commemorates him. In Nice, the Paul Rémond Boulevard is named after him. His motto was: Sicut bonus miles Christi ( To be a good soldier of God).

Works

• Historique du 54e Régiment territorial d'infanterie pendant la guerre 1914–1918 . Berger-Levrault, Nancy 1920.
• Mandement et lettre pastorale de Monseigneur Paul Rémond, évêque de Clisma, aumônier inspecteur de l'armée du Rhin, au clergé et aux fidèles de l'aumônerie militaire pour le saint temps de carême 1922 (Bulletin de régieux des catholiques français dans 1 . Supplement).
• Ce qu'il faut répondre aux objections de l'Action française. Conseils d'un évêque à des prêtres . Paris 1927.
• L'heure d'obéir. Réponse aux difficultés d'Action française . Paris 1928.

literature

• Ralph Schor: Un évêque dans le siècle. Monseigneur Paul Rémond, 1873–1963 . Serre, Nice 1984, 2002.

Web links

• Information on Paul Rémond in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
• Literature by and about Paul Rémond in the SUDOC catalog (Association of French University Libraries)
• Short biography , in French, with picture.
• Entry in catholic-hierarchy.org