Carnets du Journaliste Catholique Alexandre Delmer (1860-1889), Tome III: 1867-1869 Edited by Marie-Thérèse Delmer

Abstract

456 BOOK REVIEWS Carnets duJournaliste Catholique Alexandre Delmer (1860—1889), Tome IH: 1867-1869. Edited by Marie-Thérèse Delmer. [Bibliothèque de la Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique, Fascicule 79] (Brussels: Editions Nauwelaerts ; Louvain-la-Neuve: Collège Erasme; Leuven: Universiteitsbibliotheek . 1994. Pp. 721. Fr.b. 1600.) This third volume of the carnets ofAlexandre Delmer (1835— 1915) covers three years of his editing the foreign affairs section, "Bulletin politique," of the daily Journal de Bruxelles and his writing for the weekly Courrier de Bruxelles. The text is from eight of A. Delmer's notebooks and provides a look at the life of a Belgian Catholic who recorded his daily activities in more than sixty-four notebooks, much ofit in shorthand. His granddaughter's editing is meticulous and her footnotes help to illuminate references made by A. Delmer. As in the earlier volumes, Delmer reveals not only his views on the political questions of the day but also his personal worries and activities. Thus the reader learns of his religious practices (e.g., confessions and communions, retreats, visiting the poor), of his leisure activities (e.g., riding horseback, playing dominos, reading Balzac, Bossuet, and Victor Hugo), of the difficulties in his professional life (e.g., keeping a coherent, uniform viewpoint in the newspaper), and of his family, friends, and business associates. Catholicism is the essential element in the life of this journalist, and he is conscious of his responsibility as a Catholic journalist. He views journalists not as shepherds but as "watchdogs who police the herd and keep the wolves away" (p. 316). More than once he expresses regret that he lives in a country offreethinkers. In the newspaper and in the political Association conservatrice, he advocates electoral reform (and, in particular, universal suffrage) as a means to counteract the liberal Belgian government which he perceived to be both anti-Christian and anti-national. Unafraid to express publicly his political views, he is more hesitant about his religious views. He wrote: "In matters of religion, we can only conform to the decision of our pastors [i.e., bishops]" (p. 356). Thus as the controversy over the infallibility of the Pope emerges at the end of this volume, Delmer, although sympathetic to Dupanloup's position, believes that Catholic journalists should refrain from theological speculation and that they should wait for the decrees of the Vatican Council and then wholeheartedly submit to them. In this volume as in the previous two, there are extensive indices (about seventy-five pages) ofpeople, associations, and newspapers mentioned in these three years. Since there is no introduction to this volume, the introductory biography in Volume I is indispensable for providing a context for this volume. Volume III continues the detailed observations of this conscientious Catholic journalist and ends with the opening of the Vatican Council. The next BOOK REVIEWS 457 volume will cover the momentous political and religious events of 1870 and 1871. M. Patricia Dougherty, O.P. Dominican College ofSan Rafael Chrétiens dans la première guerre mondiale. Actes des Journées tenues à Amiens et à Péronne les 16 mai et 22 juillet 1992. Edited by NadineJosette Chaline. [Histoire religieuse de la France, 4.] (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf. 1993. Pp. 201. 135 F.) The religious history of World War I in France has in the past focused on the importance of the war in mitigating the church-state conflicts that were so much a part ofprewar politics. Although two ofthe essays in this collection deal with the interplay of politics and religion in wartime, most concentrate instead on the beliefs and practices of ordinary soldiers, chaplains, and civilians . The authors call on a variety of sources—diaries, letters, newspapers, literature—to illuminate the experiences of their subjects, and a number of them make excellent use ofimages as well. The holy cards, photos, and stainedglass windows reproduced in this book make it a rich visual source for anyone interested in the cultural history of World War I. In her introduction Nadine-Josette Chaline notes both the religious revival that accompanied the outbreak of the war and the religious doubts that were sometimes provoked by the havoc that followed. Although the essays are not...