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Handout #274 |
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Christian Resistance |
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The Cahiers du Temoignage Chretien (Notebooks of
Christian Resistance) appeared from November 1942 onwards in Lyons. The
title of the first was 'France, be careful not to lose your soul'. The Cahiers
were important pamphlets of between 16 and 64 pages, with an average
print-run of 30,000 copies each. In May 1943 some shorter texts appeared in
a higher print-run entitled Courrier francais du Temoignage chretien
(French Courier of Christian Witness).
Christians and the united Resistance Front We know that attempts are going on to unite the forces of resistance effectively. These initiatives give us an occasion to specify the position of Christians with specify the position of Christians with regard to a united front for the Resistance. Of Course we are talking of Christians who have understood. Speaking as Christians, we are fully aware of the transcendence of our message. It would be intolerable for Christ to be placed in a human organization on the same level as some leader or other being prepared to bring his party into a wider Christian organization. Christ transcends parties and provisional plans. But it would be equally inadmissible if one excused oneself from involvement in the drama which is shaking the world on the pretext of the transcendence of Christianity. Christianity is transcendent, but not the Christian. The Christians of France are French. Christianity, far from giving them a dispensation from obligations which are purely French, adds to these obligations those which are peculiar to the state of being a Christian. That is why the Christians of France can take their place in Resistance movements like all other French men and women. Moreover, we know that there are many of them. They have the duty, here as everywhere else, to make the voice of their Christian conscience heard, they have the duty, here as everywhere else, not to accept anything that runs contrary to Christianity. We say that when they are members of a particular organization (with the exception of 'Christian Witness ),they are as Christians. Since France is still at war, and no Frenchman has the right to consider himself demobilized, it is natural for them to perform their patriotic tasks in the ranks of these organizations, in the same way as others do. Courrier Francais du Temoignage Chretien 2,July-August 1943. |
