Abstract
The review Démocratie chrétienne, founded in 1894 by Fathers Paul Six and Gaston Vanneufville, acknowledges as guide the encyclical letter Rerum Nova- rum (1891) and is directed essentially at the clergy whose social formation it is concerned with (300 priests are said to have subscribed in the Nord region). It receives in August 1894 the encouragements of Pope Leon XIII through Cardinal Rampolla. Organ of the Christian democratic creed, close to Fathers Lemire, Naudet, Gamier, the review readily quotes his Lordship Doutreloux, bishop of Liège, Albert de Mun, Léon Harmel, G. Descurtins and Father Dehon ; it attentively follows the Christian democratic labour movement in the Nord, it takes an interest in the various Catholic movements in Europe and the rest of the world ; it often refers to the Belgian model and from 1900 contains a German affairs chronicle. Father Vanneufville, La Croix correspondant in Rome in the 1900's, supplies much information about Italy. Rigorously faithful to the Pope's directives, the review assumes the part of «monitor» for Christian democratic thinking. The review promotes a social doctrine which stresses trade organisation, autonomous workers' unions animated by social study circles and the development of small landed property through appropriate laws and the extension of allotments. It demands in favour of the working-class a protective labour code and a just salary which takes into account the needs of the worker's family. It insists on the necessary moral reform.
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