Abstract
From the late nineteenth century onwards, concerns about men’s piety and the alleged incompatibility of masculinity and religion increasingly pervaded Catholic discourse. In order to counter that criticism, the Catholic clergy was willing to develop initiatives to improve and display men’s religious involvement. These Catholic initiatives have received little scholarly attention, and this article therefore focuses on the Leagues of the Sacred Heart for men, an all-male Catholic movement. More specifically, it examines the Belgian Leagues, one of the most successful branches of this male apostolate, and analyses the practices and discourses they adopted to attract a large membership. Focusing on this appeal to men, the article sheds new light on the importance of demonstrative Catholic masculinity and the uneasy fit between a hierarchically structured Church and the ideal of (male) democratic equality.
In 1934, the German Abbot Bonifaz Wöhrmüller concluded the introduction to his new book Mannhaftes Christentum (‘Masculine Christianity’) with ‘“Ecce viri” See, what kind of men! What masculine men!’ These exclamations captured perfectly the aim of his work, which was to refute the assumption that Christianity was unmanly and not fit for the ‘most masculine of men’. 1 Although men’s religious involvement had already been a subject of interest in earlier periods, concerns about men’s piety and the alleged incompatibility of masculinity and religion increasingly pervaded Catholic discourse in, for example, France, Belgium and Germany at the end of the nineteenth century and – even more intensely – at the start of the twentieth century. 2 To counter the criticism, the Catholic clergy developed strategies to improve and display men’s religious involvement. 3 Demonstrative all-male activities and movements, stressing their ‘masculine’ character, were to remove the stain of a ‘feminized’ Catholicism and counterbalance women’s numeric preponderance. Wöhrmüller’s ‘Ecce viri’ therefore put into words what male-only activities also aimed at communicating: by demonstrating the compatibility of religiosity and ‘masculinity’, these new initiatives intended not only intend to display ‘masculine’ Catholicism, but also the ‘masculinity’ of Catholicism. 4
In their emphasis on men’s involvement, the Catholic projects resembled well-documented Protestant initiatives such as ‘Men and Religion Forward Movement’ and ‘Muscular Christianity’ that aimed at redefining manhood in a religious manner and making religious involvement (more) attractive to men. 5 In contrast to Protestant Christianity, however, the specificities of Catholic manliness has received only scant attention, even though the evolution of the Catholic Church from the late nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century has been the subject of much research. A focus on all-male initiatives might therefore shed new light on a period characterized by an allegedly ‘male’ decline in Catholic church attendance.
This article will study the strategies employed by the Leagues of the Sacred Heart for men. More specifically, the focus is on the Belgian Leagues, one of the most successful branches of this male apostolate, although references will be made to similar Catholic initiatives in other countries. The success of the Leagues of the Sacred Heart as a men’s movement might seem unusual for two reasons. Firstly, in contrast to other male-oriented initiatives, the Leagues did not try to appeal to men by means of activities that were considered appealing to men (such as sports), a strategy that other male-oriented Christian initiatives seemed to follow. 6 Instead, they concentrated on the Holy Communion, a long-standing Catholic practice that – as it was combined with confession – men were notoriously unenthusiastic about. Secondly, the Leagues developed within the context of the Sacred Heart devotion that had been tainted with ‘effeminate’ associations for centuries. Still, the Leagues seemed to have hit upon a successful formula, and hundreds of thousands joined its ranks. The following paragraphs examine how this Catholic all-male movement attracted such a large number of men by analysing its practices and discourses. After a short discussion of the late-nineteenth century origins of the Leagues and their early development, the focus moves to the interwar period, when the movement blossomed. These were years of expansion for the Leagues at an organizational level, but also of increasing tension amongst Belgian Catholics in the political sphere – tensions that left their mark on the Leagues’ discourse as well.
Belgian Leagues of the Sacred Heart
Chronology
The Leagues of the Sacred Heart stemmed from the worker-oriented initiatives that the Catholic Church developed as a response to the ‘social question’. Above all, they developed at the end of the nineteenth century when working-class men in particular came to the attention of the Belgian Catholic Church after a series of strikes in Wallonia (1886), under the influence of Rerum novarum (1891), and the introduction of universal male suffrage (with plural votes for some men) in 1893. 7 In order to decrease social tension and improve the workers’ situation, the various projects aimed at making them more pious, for – so the reasoning went – without the ties of religion the workers wasted their money on pleasurable pursuits while they also cultivated feelings of greed, envy and resentment. 8
More particularly, the all-male Leagues developed out of a ‘movement of perseverance’ for working-class men who had taken part in a religious retreat. These gatherings were organized from the 1890s in towns such as Charleroi, Lier, Alken and Ghent in order to ensure the moral health of the workers and to strengthen them against the ‘pernicious’ influence of anticlerical Socialism. To make sure that these men lived up to their good intentions once they returned home, the participants were encouraged to join a movement of perseverance where they would find comfort and religious support. Some of these movements were called the ‘Leagues of the Friends of the Sacred Heart’ (Bond van de Vrienden van het Heilig Hart) and were affiliated with the Apostolat de la Prière, a devotional movement in honour of the Sacred Heart that had been created in France and which was introduced in Belgium in the 1860s. 9
However, in 1909, the Belgian archbishop Mercier encouraged these Leagues not to focus solely on those workers who had taken part in religious retreats, but to engage the whole male population. In his opinion, men’s observance of the Sacraments was declining, and the priests had been complaining that they were losing – what they believed to be – ‘the most important part’ of the laity, ‘the menfolk’. 10 In the following years, the movement’s name changed to the ‘Leagues of the Sacred Heart’ and its target group broadened. Prior to World War I, the Leagues developed primarily in the provinces of Antwerp and the Dutch-speaking part of Brabant. They survived the years of warfare, and thrived especially from the 1920s. This success captured attention and provoked enthusiasm in Western-Flanders, and soon the first inquiries for West-Flemish Leagues were being made. Limburg quickly followed in their footsteps (first the mines, then the rural parishes), whilst in East-Flanders the Xaverians began to cooperate with the Leagues. 11 The Leagues flourished, developed a mass character, and built up a firm central organization in the hands of the Jesuit order. The centralization also implied an institutionalization and even though the Leagues remained parish-centred, a central office was installed in Mechelen (in 1923) that coordinated their publications and communal actions. However, it primarily coordinated the activities of the Flemish Leagues, as the movement was particularly successful and well organized in Dutch-speaking Flanders. In the more secular context of the francophone Walloon parishes, the Leagues developed a little more slowly and never achieved the level of success they had in Flanders. 12 This lower rate of popularity has to be linked to the socio-religious differences that paralleled the linguistic divide. Industrialized Wallonia had an anticlerical tradition and Catholic practice was primarily maintained by a conservative bourgeois elite, and neglected by anticlerical socialist workers. Rural Flanders on the contrary, was predominantly Catholic and proved to be an excellent environment for Christian democracy and a Catholic organizational network. 13
Nonetheless, Leagues developed in Wallonia as well, spurred on by Archbishop van Roey, who in a meeting with his deans in 1927 had declared that he regarded them as ‘an outstanding movement of our time’, and wanted them to be installed in every parish (if no similar men’s movement existed already). 14 In 1930, shortly after the Eucharistic Congress of Mechelen, the archbishop encouraged the creation of the Leagues in the francophone part of his diocese and supported the installation of a central office (in Brussels) for all the Walloon Leagues. However, according to the files of the Leagues, he was the only bishop of a francophone diocese who offered his ‘immediate support without reservations’; all the others had to be won over. Mgr Rasneur, the bishop of Tournai, even declared his opposition to a League of the Sacred Heart in his diocese. Discontented about the Leagues which Father Guns – on his own initiative – had created in the Tournai diocese, the bishop announced that it sufficed to revive the confraternities of the Holy Sacrament. Nevertheless, the bishop gave in around 1937, when he realized that the confraternities did not meet his expectations and the Leagues were the ‘movement of the future’. By 1940, there existed approximately 380 Leagues with 45,000 members, a small number in comparison with Flanders (310,000 members in 1939). Even so, they were perceived as being a success, as four out of five of their members had not been accustomed to attending the Holy Table. 15
Both the Walloon and Flemish members had the same two obligations: they had to attend a monthly Communion and had to dedicate their day to the Sacred Heart in a (daily) morning prayer. 16 Still, the Leagues’ leaders were convinced that on a religious level ‘far more and greater difficulties’ had to be conquered in Wallonia than had been encountered in Flanders, due to the influence of socialists and freethinkers. 17 What is more, they also believed that the Walloon members sought special treatment. First of all, the methods, while basically the same, had to be adapted to the ‘special Walloon mentality’. Secondly, the Walloon office had to appear completely independent from the Flemish office, and finally, more so than in Flanders, the zeal of the pastors and promoters had to be revitalized from time to time as ‘[our] Walloon brothers happily start with enthusiasm, but steadfastness is not their strength’. 18 The indication that the Walloon office had to appear independent delineates the limits of the intra-national cohesion of the Leagues. The comment parallels the tension between Flanders and Wallonia that intensified in the interwar period due to the various laws concerning the official use of French/Dutch in Belgium. The linguistic question did not fail to extend its influence into devotional movements too. 19
Characteristics
International Character
The Belgian Leagues were not unique: the development of men’s movements in honour of the Sacred Heart was an international phenomenon. All-male branches of the Apostolat de la Prière were created in France, Canada (Ligue des Hommes), the United States, Haiti, Germany (Männerapostolat), Poland, Spain, Ireland, and other countries. 20 France was a trendsetter for what would become the Leagues’ most typical characteristic. Men’s Communion, was ‘invented’ in France and the first reparatory Communion was held in Toulouse in 1875. Still, as far as the popularity of this group Communion was concerned, the Belgian case was considered exemplary. 21 Furthermore, the success of the Belgian (male) Leagues of the Sacred Heart became a benchmark, and in 1912 the French Messager du Sacré Coeur stated ‘What was possible in Belgium, should be achievable in France’ even if it implied ‘more difficulty’ and took ‘more time’. 22 For the Belgian Leagues of the Sacred Heart, men’s Communion developed into a monthly obligation. However, this was not necessarily the case in all other branches: in Canada, the United States and in France it was not obligatory to attend Communion every month, only a few times a year. Consequently, the character of the Leagues could vary according to the national context. Whereas it was primarily a devotional movement in Belgium, in Montreal its leaders also engaged in job-hunting and tried to bring Catholic employers and employees in contact with each other. 23 In Belgium’s neighbouring countries, the organizational structure of the all-male apostolate also differed widely. Although France had taken a leading role in its creation, the French branch of the movement apparently did not rise above the local level: it consisted solely of some (small) parish- or city-based centres in the interwar period. There was no uniformity: the various nuclei had different names and their members did not have the same obligations or a central periodical. 24 In Germany on the contrary, the Männerapostolat was just as successful as the Leagues were in Belgium. Circulating a monthly periodical, the movement in 1933 could boast 800,000 members who honoured the same obligations, including the monthly Communion. 25
Eucharistic Focus
The Belgian Leagues’ monthly reparatory Communion perfectly answered the call of Pius X’s Communion decrees (1905, 1910) that supported, among other things, frequent Communion. 26 Moreover, by focusing on Communion, the Leagues promoted a Catholic practice that the clergy considered important for measuring ‘church loyalty’. Church statistics indicated a decline in Catholic practice (the compulsory Mass attendance and Easter Communion) in Belgium from the second half of the nineteenth century. 27 Truancy was described as a male inclination. Unfortunately, the division into more detailed statistics was based on class-adherence and not on the gender of the participants, and therefore it is hard to substantiate the statement. 28 Nonetheless, the ‘narrative of feminization’, the account of women’s growing preponderance, is, as Mark Edward Ruff has noted, in itself an interesting story to analyse. 29 What is important is that the clergy believed that they were losing an important part of the laity and were willing to engage in the battle over men’s souls. Men were considered an important target: not only did they hold central positions in society, but because of their key role as head of the family they could influence their household members. It would not take long before their wives and children would follow their lead. The ecclesiastical hierarchy had the same concern for male religiosity. Pope Leo XIII displayed a particular interest in men’s religious involvement in his letter to the Belgian bishops on 21 July 1899, and in his complaint about their neglect of Communion on 10 January 1900. 30 Similarly, the Belgian bishops and diocesan clergy emphasized the importance of men’s observance of the Communion. Mgr Heylen, the Bishop of Namur, for instance stated: ‘If things go wrong on earth, it is, alas! because men – en masse – have deserted the Holy Table’. 31 The Leagues of the Sacred Heart however, explicitly stated that they were not mere Communion Leagues, but contributed to the devotion to the Sacred Heart, the burning and bleeding heart of Jesus as a symbol of his love for mankind. The Leagues’ all-male monthly Communions were devised as a public reparatory act for the Sacred Heart, as atonement for society’s sins. 32
A Devotion ‘For Men’
Presenting the Sacred Heart devotion as a men’s devotion implied fighting ‘feminizing’ prejudices that had tainted the cult’s image for centuries. This criticism lingered on in the nineteenth century as the popularity of the cult increased. In 1865, for instance, the French devotional periodical Le Messager du Sacré Coeur – which was widely read in Belgium – dedicated an article to the so-called ‘insulters of the Sacred Heart’. In this text H[enri] R[amière] criticized the works of the French historians Jules Michelet and Hippolyte Taine who had denounced the attraction of the cult of the Sacred Heart on women
33
and called it ‘feminine’, that is, synonymous with ‘emotional’ and ‘sentimental’.
34
In 1898, there were still allusions to the theme, as seen in a manual for the promoters of the Apostolat de la Prière which was quoted in an article of the Messager du Sacré Coeur. In this text it was explicitly stated that: for too long, the devotion of Jesus’ Heart, derided by the impious, was little understood by the majority of Christians. It was excusable for the pious sex and the priest; but a man of the world, a young man who has left the college benches would never have tried to publicly profess to a devotion that has such a mystic reputation.
35
Displaying ‘Catholic Masculinity’
In developing men-oriented projects, the Catholic clergy not only externalized the importance they attached to male religious involvement, they also emphasized the distinction they perceived between male and female piety. Since they had different bodies and natures, their piety could not be of the same kind (any accusation of effeminacy would imply sliding down the scale of true masculinity). ‘Masculine piety’ had to correspond with the ‘masculine’ psyche and characteristics and – consequently – its definition fluctuated alongside definitions of masculinity. 41 Ideas of ‘masculinity’ therefore also had their effect on the Leagues’ description of the kind of religious involvement and comportment that was considered fit for men, and on the kind of religion that would appeal to men. The following examines how a movement with a Eucharistic focus, tainted by association with a ‘feminized cult’, created an atmosphere in which its members could display their ‘masculinity’ by joining. More specifically, the focus is on the rhetoric and practices – both inside and outside the church building – of the interwar period.
Inside the Church
A Brotherhood of ‘Real’ Men
The Leagues’ promotion of the Holy Communion among their members seems to have built on a threefold ideological basis. First of all, the monthly collective Communion was to express the importance of men’s involvement and symbolize how men were at the centre of parish life. This focus also had a spatial component: as men moved to the focal point, they were expected to take their seat in the centre of the church. This seating arrangement must have appeared rather ambitious. A long-standing complaint of the Catholic clergy had been men’s consideration of other people’s opinion. Generations of Belgian preachers saw their male parishioners – afraid to be called sanctimonious – grouping together near the church porch during Mass. Nonetheless, as various parish reports indicate, the Leagues largely succeeded in their ambition of persuading men to attend a monthly Communion, prominently seated in front of the altar and hence visible for all to see. 42
Secondly, the Leagues’ promoted the idea that ‘real’ men went to Communion and thereby personified public atonement for society’s sins. As laymen, they had duties as Catholic fathers and potential voters, and the League’s publications reminded them of these obligations. 43 Their attending the monthly Communion and striding up to the Communion rail had to be regarded from this perspective as well. What these men demonstrated while going to Communion was how they, as fathers, as citizens, and as husbands, took up their responsibilities and observed – as the representatives of society – this Catholic practice as a reparatory act. 44 They were performing their ‘men’s’ duties while going to Communion, their ‘religious’ and ‘masculine’ identity was one and the same. Besides, the ‘masculine’ character of this Catholic practice not only lay in its public reparatory meaning, but it also had to become visible in men’s behaviour in their performance of the act. The participants had to go to Communion at a ‘masculine pace’, that is, row by row. Their manner had to radiate respect: their hands should not hang clumsily below their stomachs, but had to be folded high above their breast. 45 In short, these men had to create the impression that they were proud and eager to take Communion in Christ’s honour. The monthly collective Communion was their opportunity to show themselves as good Christian men, the embodied refutation of the assumption that ‘religion only suits women’. 46 Moreover, as they were regularly reminded of the courage it took to stand up for one’s religion and to publicly demonstrate one’s piety, going to Communion could be turned into a brave act, a truly ‘masculine’ thing to do. 47
Men were addressed in their ‘common manhood’
48
when performing this Catholic practice. This rhetoric also supported the third ideological strain of the collective Communion, the creation of a sense of ‘unity’ and ‘brotherhood’. Accordingly, Father Meeus, the national director of the Leagues, remarked on the target audience of the movement: The League appeals to all classes. In this perspective, the League offers a great number of priests, who – today – on many a field, are hindered in their apostolate by the differences in opinion among Catholics, a sought-for opportunity to gather a part of their flock.
49
In this respect it is important to note that the Leagues were explicitly apolitical and could, therefore, group those who had differing political opinions and create a much desired concord among parishioners. 52 The interwar years were a time of political discord among Catholics, as more conservative Catholic politicians – predominantly representing the nobility and bourgeoisie – faced the aspirations of the Christian-democratic current that had gained traction after World War I. This current, from the 1920s on, was represented in organizations such as the Farmers’ League (Boerenbond) and Christian Workers’ Movement (Algemeen Christelijk Werkersverbond). These movements were committed to a variety of political, economic, educational and religious objectives and therefore also participated in ‘Catholic Action’, Pius XI’s call for lay apostolate in the modern world. Whereas this CA-commitment incited intense debates on the de-politicization of these movements, it seems likely that they opened up their members’ minds to a lay religious apostleship – as it was promoted in the Leagues. 53 Nevertheless, political disintegration increased further from 1925 onwards, as Catholic politicians lost voters to the Flemish nationalists who also presented themselves as ‘Catholic’. 54 Furthermore, one of the major challenges in the 1930s, came from the anti-democratic Rex party that had developed out of the Catholic Action movement and won its seats in the 1936 elections primarily at the cost of Catholic politicians. However, one year later – after the unlikely accord between the Flemish nationalists and the Belgian-national Rexists had become public, and archbishop Van Roey had declared Rex a ‘threat to country and church’ – most Catholic voters turned their back on the increasingly fascist movement. 55
In this time of discord, the focus on Communion in the Belgian Leagues’ all-male mobilization could create harmony and diminish tensions. For the Catholic Church that held on to its hierarchical structure and honoured class differentiation and an attendant ‘solidarity’, it was a means to create equality among men. 56 As Margaret Livinia Anderson has indicated (in her study on Germany) Catholics were only equal at the ‘Communion rail’ and at the ‘voting urn’. 57 The Eucharistic devotion, promoted by Rome, 58 therefore enabled a discourse of ‘brotherhood’. However, this egalitarian concept does not imply that the Catholic church encouraged ideals of ‘fraternity’ as expressed in Liberalism and Socialism, by which political authority was invested in the ‘autonomous and self-constituted male citizen’. 59 Catholic teachings did insist on differentiation and avoided every suggestion of the people’s autonomous power. 60 The equality displayed at the Communion rail, was ideally the externalization of a male bond firmly rooted in and supported by a hierarchically-structured Catholicism.
Behind the Scenes
In spite of all the symbolic weight that could be attached to the collective Communion, the Leagues’ records hint also at more earthbound reasons for insisting on the group character of the monthly Communion. Most of them alluded to ‘men’s psychology’. Apparently, the Communion was a group activity because the leaders were convinced that men were afraid of people’s opinions, and needed the support of their fellow-members in order to honour this monthly obligation. Likewise, the League’s members had to be seated together during the League’s Mass, preferably in the centre of the church or at least on the men’s side, so they would not ‘feel alone’. Besides, the communal character of the monthly Communion could have another advantage as well: ideally, the number of men involved displayed the impact of the movement, impressed the other churchgoers, and eventually attracted new members. 61 As it turned the solemn ritual into a parade of those involved in the movement, one commentator even called the Communion the ‘most powerful predication of the month’. 62
Since the Communion was regarded as such an impressive and edifying example, it was crucial to make sure that the League’s members would all go to Communion during their League’s Mass and not beforehand. To guarantee their participation, the priests were reminded to organize the confessions, monthly Communion, and Mass of the League of the Sacred Heart properly and, as was emphasized insistently, adjust them to men’s psychology. ‘Men want to be treated as men’, not as children, so they were told. Consequently, the invitation to the monthly Communion had to be handed to them by men and not by children. The League’s Mass had to be held on the same day every month, otherwise the members would not know when to attend and for a ‘men’s movement, that would be fatal’. Men’s confession had to be sufficiently planned as well: due to the success of the movement there could be hundreds or even a thousand men who wanted to go to confession before the monthly mass of the League of the Sacred Heart. The parish priests were advised to keep their confessionals open the day before the group Communion until late at night: ‘Let’s not forget men are afraid of daylight’. They were also encouraged to engage unfamiliar priests from a nearby cloister or parish to hear men’s confession. ‘One has to take into account men’s psychology’, so the reasoning went, ‘otherwise a lot of them would rather not go to confession, even if there would be no question of mortal sins’. 63
Outside the Church
The Leagues not only engaged in rituals inside the parish church, the unity among the male parishioners was cultivated at other sites as well. Fraternal ideas, for instance, also permeated the discussions on the so-called winter feasts. Intended to improve the moral and religious knowledge of the Leagues’ members (e.g. via plays or movies), these gatherings offered members the opportunity to get to know each other, and therefore – ideally – paved the way for brotherly sentiments. ‘It is a meaningful result’, so one commentator remarked, ‘if the fraternization among the classes, obtained at the Communion rail, can be transferred to our party halls’. All elements of dissonance had to be carefully avoided, in particular statements that could hurt the political feelings of some. 64
This emphasis on the apolitical character of the Leagues also influenced the temporal ban that the central board imposed upon the public appearances of the movement. The Leagues’ participation in activities such as pilgrimages, flag dedications, inaugurations of Sacred Heart statues, consecrations of towns, speaking-choruses, processions, celebrations of Christ the King, and wakes, was forbidden in the last three months before and one month after the elections. The members were, after all, voters and the leaders feared that their mass-gatherings might be interpreted falsely. 65 Furthermore, to maintain men’s enthusiasm for these outdoor activities, the leaders advised against exaggerating the number of public appearances. Ideally, every League would be called upon only once a season 66 to attend these demonstrations where ‘the combatants of the powerful Christi-army, come more closely, more fraternally, in touch’. 67 As this quotation already indicates, the rhetoric and practices outside the church building were tinged with martial metaphors. Regarded as public demonstrations of loyalty to Christ the King, their leader and captain, 68 these outdoor activities offered the members the opportunity to symbolically represent a ‘soldier of Christ’. 69 In the adaptation of these soldierly metaphors and emphasis on community and leadership, the Leagues resembled other (e.g. Fascist and Socialist) movements of the interwar years, which have been described as a period of flags, uniforms and mass meetings. 70 Nonetheless, this martial imagery also followed up – rather smoothly – on the metaphors that had already permeated the nineteenth-century discourse of the Apostolat de la Prière, the Leagues’ indirect precursor. 71 Still, the military tone was far more prominent in the Leagues of the interwar years than in that ultramontane movement, since it was expressed and rejuvenated in public enactments of martial ideology, such as the League’s marches and flag dedications. Yet again, the Leagues’ leaders referred to men’s ‘nature’ when discussing this martial input: in their opinion men ‘liked order and a certain military spirit’. 72
The public demonstrations of these all-male groups suggest that the organizers not only considered it important to engage men, but also explicitly wanted to show off their involvement. Exclusive male initiatives would illustrate the ‘masculine’ character of Catholicism to the onlookers, both to its supporters and its opponents. And they did make an impression: these men-only initiatives were noted by the press and praised highly in Catholic publications and reports.
73
These commentators referred to the number of men involved, their piety, discipline, ‘masculine’ comportment, and to the surprised reaction of the onlookers. For instance, as the Leagues travelled to Rome in 1925, their pilgrimage amazed the Italian audience. With their singing, praying and waving of flags, these men apparently outshone other pilgrims. L’Osservatore Romano (29 August 1925) emphasized that this was a pilgrimage of an apostolic movement that had been created ‘exclusively among men and in all layers of society’.
74
As this group paid a visit to Saint Peter’s they were ordered by the Fascist government to keep their flags rolled up until they arrived at the basilica. The moment they entered Vatican territory the flags were unfurled (Figure 2), the members fell into line and before long the first notes of the Leagues’ song were heard: O Jesus’ Heart, we are your sons: Powerful in will, strong in numbers. That is what we are, and what we will show, everywhere!
75
Mass attended by the League of the Sacred Heart (Bondsblad, June 1939, 5. Courtesy Kadoc- K.U.Leuven). The Leagues of the Sacred Heart on the steps of Saint Peter’s in Rome (S.n., Naar Rome, 35. Courtesy Kadoc- K.U.Leuven).
All-round Catholic Men?
Membership of the movement went beyond participation in mass gatherings, for the Leagues also tried to influence the everyday life of their members via the obligatory daily dedication. According to the central board, this – individual – morning prayer was ‘short’, ‘masculine’ and ‘striking’, and therefore fit for ‘men’, who were not really into long prayers. 79 Yet again, the members were reminded to perform this task ‘as a man’, that is with ‘sincerity and faith’. 80 Ideally, this prayer would encourage individual members to pass the day in a Christian way and turn them into confident Christian men. 81 True members followed the League’s rules in all aspects of their lives and behaved as good members would do. 82 Still, if necessary, they could be put back on track by the clergy during confession, indissolubly connected to the monthly practice of Communion, and regarded as an important means of control, especially on the sexual and procreative level. Depicted as a ‘powerful bank against Malthusianism’, this focus on confession fitted the Catholic hierarchy’s increased emphasis on marital procreation, which had been triggered by a fall in birth rates. 83
Although we can identify the purpose of the Leagues’ activities, their success on an individual level is rather difficult to pinpoint. We do have some indications, however, that contemporaries believed that the Leagues could stimulate a more Christian way of life. Most of this information stems from documentation of cases that fell short of the ideal. Various letters have been preserved in the archives, mostly anonymous, denouncing behaviour that was considered unfit for a member of the Leagues. One letter, written by the wife of a member, began as follows: ‘my husband is a promoter of the League of the Sacred Heart … that is all very nice, he goes to church every day, but he has an ugly flaw, as most men do’. In the following lines she continued to denounce her husband’s all too familiar dealings with other women and concluded that she hoped the Leagues would address the matter in their sermons. 84 Although it might seem peculiar that she appealed to the Leagues’ central board in order to influence her husband’s behaviour, she did not stand alone. A similar letter reached the board on 17 January 1938. Introducing herself as a ‘mother and wife of a Christian family’, the writer gave a description of her husband, now a promoter of the League, who had become ‘more gentle’, although his ‘inclination towards other women’ had not lessened particularly. Likewise, the author hoped that the Leagues would address this matter in their periodical, the favourite read of her husband. 85 Both letters indicate that these women believed that the Leagues’ teachings might actually change their husbands’ behaviour, as they had already done in other ways.
The Leagues’ Limits
Ideally, the monthly Communions of the Leagues and their public demonstrations were a parade of the piety of the common, ‘average’, man. These men, and especially the workers, were men whose (physical) ‘masculinity’ – contrary to that of the priests – could not be questioned: they had their muscles and offspring to show for it. 86 Still, the Leagues had to fight the rumour that the movement engaged ‘strange fellows’ and married men who did not fulfil their marital duties – the influence of confession was definitely not generally agreed upon. In an article published in a periodical for priests in 1931, the Jesuit Father De Clippele warned against too easy judgements; he believed that those men who had entered the Leagues were ‘honest simple people: middle-class men, peasants, and good workers’, the higher classes were only rarely involved. 87 His comments document the limits of the League’s popularity: the movement did not succeed in mobilizing the upper classes. According to the notebooks of one of the League’s members, this lack of success had to be linked to the ‘individualism’ that reigned among those who by birth, education or financial situation believed themselves to be above the crowd. 88 The idea of ‘community’ and ‘unity’ among Catholic men – symbolized in the collective Communion – apparently did not charm all classes.
As the Leagues’ mobilization power had its limits, so did their ideas on equality. Not only behind the scenes, where the Leagues’ leaders differentiated between members and discussed the non-practising men of Wallonia or the piety of men of the countryside, 89 but also on the daily organizational level. Members were ranked according to their engagement, into categories denoting ‘ordinary member’ – ‘promoter’ – ‘honorary member’, while the difference between laymen and the clergy was also emphasized by the latter wearing a toga instead of a ‘clergyman’ (a black suit), a dress code that accentuated their clerical state rather than the physical manliness they shared with the Leagues’ members. 90
Still, the tone of the evaluation reports was a positive one. The commentators lauded the success of the Leagues by referring to the high number of men who signed up, to their sense of discipline and loyalty, and to their ability to maintain solidarity beyond political and linguistic divides.
91
Nonetheless, the central board of the Leagues was well aware that there was a limit to their influence – public performance did not necessarily imply a complete change of heart. As one commentator remarked in 1931: Most of the men have already experienced such a renewal in their minds by joining a movement that is radically and solely religious. They always keep harping on about that and they are proud of it. But this step is the final step for them; you will not get them any further. And if you have worked them up for a long time, thinking that you have brought them a little further, then at some occasion or the other, they confirm that they have not yet understood the more elaborate and high ideas you have tried to imprint on them.
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‘Ecce viri’
In a little book entitled The Holy Communion of Men, published by the Leagues of the Sacred Heart, the Jesuit Father Jules Lintelo addressed a reproach that had been directed at the religious orders in France several years before. ‘We ask them to turn our children into men, and they only teach them how to go to Communion’. Lintelo criticized this opposition between men and ‘Communicants’ and turned the question around: are there any men apart from those who go to Communion? In his opinion, this Catholic practice was an ideal means by which to form men of character and valiant Christians. 93 The importance this Jesuit Father attached to this Catholic practice for the formation of Catholic men was echoed in the organization of the Belgian Leagues’ Communion. Gathering their members once a month, the Leagues demonstrated the compatibility of men and piety and their monthly Communions were depicted as the ‘consolation’ and ‘pride’ of the clergy. 94
The creation of the Leagues of the Sacred Heart in Belgium, France, and other countries therefore indicates how the comments on the compatibility of masculinity and religiosity were not only countered by words. The Leagues’ organization of men’s Communion and pilgrimages illustrate how important it became to demonstrate men’s religious involvement, and how impressive it could be to involve men en masse. In organizing these group Communions and the attendant parades of Catholic men, the Leagues, and similar male-oriented projects in other countries, illustrate the importance of visually ‘proving’ the appeal of religion on men. They were an embodied ‘Ecce viri’!
Footnotes
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Prof. Patrick Pasture, the editors and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on a previous version of this article and the Special Research Fund of the KU Leuven and Research Foundation Flanders for their generous support.