 |
|
I have lived long enough to give an account of the practice that has guided me so far." Michel de Montaigne, "Of Experience".
Recently I visited sites associated with the history of the Jewish community in Berlin. It was in Berlin that Moses Mendelssohn (1729-86) initiated the Jewish Haskalah (Enlightenment) movement, and wrote several works of philosophy in the German language. His grave was destroyed with the Jewish cemetery in 1943. One can view the College for the Science of Judaism. This edifice housed significant students and teachers, including Regina Jonas, Germany's first woman rabbi (died at Auschwitz in 1944), Leo Baeck, Martin Buber, Solomon Schlechter and Abraham Joshua Heschel. Amongst the all too many sites associated with the tragedy of the Nazi regime is the same grassy plaza that covers the former cemetery. Here stood also the Jewish home for the aged, that served as a collection point for Berlin Jews deported to Auschwitz. Such poignant memories moved me to revisit the Abbé Pierre memoir, and will perhaps excuse reflecting on a book now past its use-by date as regards writing a review.
Abbé Pierre (Catholic priest, b. Lyons 1912) is well-known for the Emmaus communities that in France and abroad have provided shelter for the homeless poor. Shortly before the publication of his personal testimony Abbé Pierre was named in the French press for seeming to lend support to the revisionist views of Roger Garaudy regarding the holocaust. In a letter of support of his friend Garaudy, Abbé Pierre suggested that the number of the holocaust victims could be a matter for discussion. Following the eventual criticism of Cardinal Lustiger, Abbé Pierre, active in the resistance in WW 2 and in assisting Jews to escape, wrote a retraction. In the memoir he refers to "the tornado of spring 1996 and of the hurt done through a tragic misunderstanding." Whether or not the memoir was intended to dispel any misconceptions arising from the Garaudy affair, Abbé Pierre shares with the reader the spiritual and theological outlook that supported a life of active social involvement. In an anecdotal fashion we gain as well a fascinating and sometimes intimate view of events in France and the Church from WW2 to Vatican 2 and beyond.
Abbé Pierre joined the Resistance as a young diocesan priest. He was confronted by the urgent need to lead the Jews of Grenoble to safety. His trips back and forth to the Swiss frontier nearly cost him his life in a glacier accident, and eventually he was betrayed to the Gestapo by a civil servant friend beholden to the enemy. Escaping to Algiers he met General de Gaulle and at the Liberation was elected a member of the French National Assembly. One morning he was summoned to an attempted suicide. A truly desperate man asked Abbé Pierre for help. He was offered only the opportunity to work for others more desperate than he. So the Emmaus movement began and now comprises 350 groupings in 38 countries.
Abbé Pierre's memoir is structured as a spiritual reflection on ultimate human and spiritual values. He can write that his life of active social involvement is sustained by the habit of contemplation acquired as a monastic seminarian. He declares that the Eternal God is love, and that the key unlocking the Kingdom of Heaven to every person lies in the struggle to love in the face of poverty and injustice. From his reported encounters with civil authorities and the rich ones of this world, it is clear that in the struggle for justice, the Abbé would have been a formidable opponent. Long before Emmaus was born, Abbé Pierre, newly arrived in Algiers, was commissioned to announce on the radio the long awaited Vatican message of support for the French priests active in the Resistance. However he added to the official text a highly critical comment on the long delay in official support. Next day de Gaulle complimented him on the "neutrality" of his announcement.
In his memoir, the Abbé emerges a man of the Church. Some of us in our youth first heard his name, perhaps inaccurately, as associated with the "priest worker" movement in France. Those familiar with the theological stature of Henri de Lubac s.j. will be interested to learn that, over many years, it was to de Lubac that Abbe Pierre turned for spiritual direction. Abbé Pierrre met all the Popes from Pius XI to John Paul II, except for John Paul I, and he was quite close to Cardinal Tisserant. He has interesting stories to report of each of these. He pens chapters on the greatness and abjection of the church, on the caricatures of God and the caricatures of belief. A touching chapter on his experience of forgiveness concludes the book.
Abbé Pierre’s memoir merits a mention to a wider circle of readers than those who might take up the book for themselves. His life spans almost the entire twentieth century. He has experienced the tragedy of war and occupation, has shared in efforts of church people to help the Jews, has been touched by the spiritual awakening of the church in the years leading up to the Vatican Council. Over many decades he has actively confronted the uneven distribution of the goods of the earth, and he has a voice in the context of the movement of peoples. His name will endure in the Emmaus communities.
_______________________
Alan Moss is lecturer in Biblical Studies, School of Theology, McAuley Campus
