French Missionaries and Latin American Catholicism in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

French Catholicism inspired one of the most ambitious missionary movements in the history of Roman Catholicism in the nineteenth century. French missionaries went to Latin America to build a new Church. In France, new missionary societies were founded for this task. Older, established religious societies were renewed in order to participate in the missionary movement of the day. French missionaries travelled across the globe establishing a network of missions linking the continents to France, and France to Rome. The missionary revival constituted the leading edge of religious renewal sweeping Europe and France during the nineteenth century.The Latin American Church was especially receptive to French religious currents. Latin American religious leaders were preoccupied with internal struggles and absorbed with social and political conflicts. They disposed of few resources and of limited energy for evangelization and religious renewal within their newly-formed nations. The French were anxious and able to supply what was needed in Latin America. The French saw the missionary challenge as a struggle against secularization and liberalism, even though that battle was far from over within France itself.