Lenten Conferences

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File:Conference Notre-Dame Lacordaire.jpg
Lacordaire giving his Lenten conference, at Notre-Dame de Paris (watercolor from 1845)

The Lenten Conferences (French: Conférences de Carême; also called Notre-Dame Conferences) are the sermons given each year, on the five Sundays of Lent, during the office of Vespers celebrated in Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris. Founded in 1835 on the initiative of Frédéric Ozanam (who himself suggested the name "Conferences") with Lacordaire as the first speaker, they immediately attracted crowds. The conferences evolved over the years. From the brilliant exercise of sacred eloquence which in the 19th century gave great prestige to the "Holder of the pulpit of Notre-Dame", they took on, after Vatican II, a pluriform and more interactive aspect.

Since 2019, they have reconnected with the single preacher. The Lenten conferences today are for all those who come to listen to the speaker. In addition, the broadcast by France Culture, Radio Notre-Dame, KTO broadens this perspective: the speakers address believers and non-believers alike.

History

The foundation of the missions, a prelude to the Conferences

File:Paulin-Guérin, Mgr de Quelen Archevêque de Paris.jpg
Hyacinthe Louis de Quélen (1778–1839), Archbishop of Paris

Mgr Hyacinthe-Louis de Quélen, coadjutor bishop of Mgr Alexandre Angélique de Talleyrand-Périgord, succeeded him on his death on November 20, 1821 in the episcopal see of Paris. From the beginning of his episcopate, he encouraged the foundation of the Missionary Society of France, established at Mont Valérien. The principle of the mission consisted of the notion that a body of missionary priests should stay in the parishes for about two months, to preach “exercises” twice a day and to hold a permanence of confession. The mission ended in apotheosis with the sacramental communions.

On October 28, 1821, Bishop de Quélen presided over the opening in Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, as well as in three other surrounding parishes. This pastoral initiative was troubled by numerous incidents fomented by anticlerical disruptors supported among others by the liberal newspaper Le Constitutionnel.[1] The last diocesan missions in the parishes took place in December 1823 at Saint-Merri, Saint-Jean-Saint-François and Notre-Dame-des-Blancs-Manteaux. They continue, in only two places until 1830, in Sainte-Geneviève and Mont Valérien where the missionaries are established, but the public withers.

In 1833, Bishop de Quélen gave the reason for this interruption in a memoir addressed to Pope Gregory XVI in which he denounced the activism of the anticlericals and the timidity of the authorities in enforcing order.[2]

A request from Catholic students

In January 1833, three students from the Faculty of Law in Paris, Frédéric Ozanam, Le Jouteux and Montazet, asked in the form of a petition for the organization of religious conferences. This request, although well received by the Archbishop, did not lead to any decision.[3]

In January 1834, Frédéric Ozanam, accompanied by Lallier and Lamache, reiterated their request to receive: teaching “which came out of the ordinary tone of sermons” and which dealt with “questions which then preoccupied young people, in particular the relationship of religion with contemporary society”.[4] They proposed Father Lacordaire as preacher, Bishop de Quélen granted their request but called on seven different preachers for each station: Dupanloup, Pététot, James, Annat, Veyssière, Thibaut and Dassance. The originality of the conferences consisted in identifying a contemporary problem, but the predictors charged by the archbishop to deal with it, do not manage to leave the form of the agreed sermon.[5]

Lacordaire's lectures at Collège Stanislas

Although he was called upon for these first conferences, Abbé Lacordaire recused himself because he did not agree on the principle of the plurality of preachers, which had the disadvantage of dividing up teaching and losing its consistency. He got down to a series of lectures that he gave at the Collège Stanislas' chapel and which met with great success. This success arouses jealousy in the clergy; and surprise about the tone of the lectures. On April 14, 1834, Lacordaire had to interrupt his conferences at the request of the archbishop and under pressure from the government.[6]

The Archbishop's appeal to Lacordaire

But in 1835, Mgr de Quélen proposed to Abbé Lacordaire the preaching of the next Lent at Notre-Dame de Paris. In the discussion with the speaker, the archbishop accepted that the preacher only entrusted him with the plan of the conferences and not the final text, the outline having however to be examined beforehand by a vicar general. It was Abbé Affre who was chosen by Lacordaire as Bishop de Quélen left him the choice.

Success, reviews and withdrawal of Lacordaire

File:Lacordaire photography (cropped).jpg
Lacordaire, portrait by Pierre-Louis Pierson

If Mgr de Quelen and the large audience of the cathedral were won over, Thierry Foisset biographer of Lacordaire points out that "the old clergy"[7] did not appreciate either the substance or the form of the rhetoric of Abbé Lacordaire who was reproached for "the theological inaccuracy of his language [...] and to speak of matters of religion in a spirit that is too modern”.[8]

The Lenten Conferences immediately had a great impact. Ozanam noted a little later: “We seemed to be witnessing the religious resurrection of present-day society”.

To address the whole of society, Lacordaire and his friends chose the title, then new, of “conferences” rather than that of “sermons” of Lent. To all his contemporaries, whatever their position, Lacordaire spoke as a witness of the Catholic faith in the major questions posed to human conscience by the evolution of society.

Lacordaire preached Lent in 1837 and informed the archbishop of his wish to retire to Rome to complete his theological training.

"I leave," he said, "in the hands of my bishop this chair of Notre-Dame henceforth founded, founded by him and by you, and by the pastor and by the people. For a moment this double suffrage shone on my head: allow me to put it aside from myself, and find myself alone for a while before my weakness and before God."[9]

Lacordaire will not preach another Lent at Notre-Dame de Paris, however we find him in 1843 for a series of seven conferences on the theme of the effects of Catholic doctrine on the mind.[10]

List of speakers

Since 1835 nearly a thousand lectures have been given. Jesuits and Dominicans will often alternate in these exercises of sacred eloquence: The Dominicans occupy the first quarter of the 20th century (with the interruption of an Oratorian). A special mention must be made of Father Marie-Albert Janvier, who occupied this chair for 22 years, from 1903 to 1924.

A new dynamic

In 2005, the conferences took on a new form. Several speakers, around a table, engaged in a dialogue where the Christian faith and contemporary thought explaining each other on a major social issue. They were followed by the celebration of Sunday Vespers and the Eucharist.

Return to the origins and temporary relocation

In 2019, Monsignor Michel Aupetit, Archbishop of Paris, wished to reconnect with the tradition of a single preacher and kerygmatic and popular preaching.

  • 2019: Guillaume de Menthière, parish priest of Paris and theologian. Theme: "Are we going somewhere? With the Risen Christ make the journey to Emmaus."

Following the fire of April 15, 2019, the Lenten conferences found refuge in the Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois church, which also hosted the offices of the chapter of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral.

Notes

  1. ↑ Limouzin-Lamothe, Vol. I (1957), pp. 135–39.
  2. ↑ Limouzin-Lamothe, Vol. I (1957), pp. 145–47.
  3. ↑ Limouzin-Lamothe, Vol. II (1957), p. 180.
  4. ↑ Limouzin-Lamothe, Vol. II (1957), p. 188.
  5. ↑ Limouzin-Lamothe, Vol. II (1957), pp. 180–81.
  6. ↑ Limouzin-Lamothe, Vol. II (1957), p. 182.
  7. ↑ Limouzin-Lamothe, Vol. II (1957), p. 185.
  8. ↑ Foisset, Vol. II (1957), p. 185.
  9. ↑ Foisset, Vol. II (1957), p. 186.
  10. ↑ Lacordaire, Henri-Dominique (1881). Conférences de Notre-Dame de Paris, Vol. I. Poussielgue, p. 253.

References

  • Foisset, Thierry (1957). Vie du R. P. Lacordaire in R. Limouzin-Lamothe, Monseigneur de Quelen archevêque de Paris, son rôle dans l’Église de France de 1815 à 1839 d’après ses archives privées. Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin.
  • Limouzin-Lamothe, Roger (1957). Monseigneur de Quélen, archevêque de Paris. Son rôle dans l'Église de France de 1815 à 1839, d'après ses archives privées. Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin.
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