Beginning to restructure the institutional church: Canadian social catholics and the CCF, 1931-1944.(Cooperative Commonwealth Federation)(Essay)

Following the formation of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation in the early 1930s, prominent Archbishops in Quebec issued episcopal directives against participating in and voting for the party. Re-examining how the Church opened to the CCF and offered limited acceptance by the mid-1940s reveals broader implications for the development of Roman Catholicism in Canada. During the Depression-era, much of Roman Catholic social and political thought was being reframed within a neo-Thomist tradition that influenced the development of social Catholicism in Canada. Since the platform of the party reflected the aspirations of many social Catholics, they in turn challenged how the institutional Church engaged economic and political questions particularly with respect to instructing the laity. This article argues that accommodation between the Church and the CCF was largely the product of social Catholicism influencing episcopal decisions and was part of the broader forces of secularization and Canadianization beginning to restructure the institutional Church.

Apres la formation du CCF au debut des annees 1930, des archeveques du Quebec ont emis des directives interdisant aux fideles de participer d ce parti et de voter pour ses candidats. Le reexamen de la facon dont l'Eglise, au milieu des annees 1940, s'est ouverte au CCF et a fini par l'accepter, au moins moderement, revele des implications plus vastes au niveau du developpement du catholicisme au Canada. A l'epoque de la Depression, une grande partie de la pensee sociale et politique catholique commenfait a etre reformulee au sein d'une tradition neo-thomiste qui a influence le developpement du catholicisme social au Canada. Comme la plate-forme electorale du parti refletait les aspirations de beaucoup de catholiques sociaux, ceux-ci ont a leur tour remis en question la facon dont l'Eglise institutionnelle abordait les questions economiques et politiques, en particulier dans son enseignement aux laics. Cet article soutient que l'influence du catholicisme social sur les decisions episcopales a rendu possible cet accord entre l'Eglise et le CCF, et qu'elle s'inscrit dans le mouvement plus general de secularisation et de canadianisation qui commencait alors a restructurer l'Eglise institutionnelle.

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The economic crisis of the 1930s brought the moral and economic foundation of capitalism into question. To express these concerns, liberal Protestants organized through religiously-based groups such as the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order (FCSO), joined secularly-rooted groups akin to the League for Social Reconstruction (LSR), and politicized through new parties such as the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF). Leaders like J.S Woodsworth, T.C. Douglas, and S.H Knowles revived the spirit of reform fostered by the Social Gospel, which helped inspire the creation of the CCF in 1932. Coupled with this religious influence, the CCF united agrarian radicals, organized labourers, and urban intellectuals into a nation-wide movement featuring a strong western base. Following the Calgary conference in 1932, the party's initial comprehensive statement of principles was expounded a year later in the "Regina Manifesto." (1) These early pronouncements were markedly radical, aiming, notably, to eliminate capitalism. However, despite these early ambitions, the programme of the CCF came to embrace a social democratic vision, which sought to reform capitalism through democratic institutions and market structures. Through this pursuit, argues historian Walter Young, the party endeavoured to enshrine Protestant principles within the country's parliamentary framework. (2) Many liberal Protestants articulated an alternative to capitalism and liberal order through membership in the CCF, as well as groups exemplified by the FCSO and LSR, in response to the conditions of the Depression. (3)

Although this connection between liberal Protestantism and the CCF has been stressed in much of the historiography, less attention has been given to the Roman Catholic Church's relationship with the party. (4) Soon after the CCF's formation, the institutional Church resisted this new, self-defined, socialist party, which was rooted in a Protestant form of Christian radicalism and framed in the social evolutionary language of Karl Marx and Herbert Spencer. Since prominent Archbishops in Quebec issued episcopal directives against participating in and voting for the party during the 1930s, the question here is how the Church opened to the CCF and offered limited acceptance by the mid-1940s. Emphasized within this literature is how a sustained dialogue between Murray Ballantyne, editor of the Beacon, the English-language weekly newspaper in the Archdiocese of Montreal, and Henry Somerville, editor of the Catholic Register, the weekly publication in the Archdiocese of Toronto, tried to convince the hierarchy to remove these restrictions. Both journalists believed that the CCF's response to the crisis in the economic, social, and political order was compatible with their understanding of Catholic social thought. Even amidst the vestiges of sectarianism in Catholic-Protestant relations elsewhere in the country, both men felt that Catholics ought to be free to offer support for a political party. In their estimations, the party's vision was not only acceptable under Church teachings, but, more importantly, represented a genuine Christian response to the Depression.

This article reassesses the developments offered within this historiographical interpretation in order to grapple with their broader implications for the development of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. During the Depression-era, much of Roman Catholic social and political thought was being reframed within a neo-Thomist tradition that influenced the development of social Catholicism in Canada. Inspired by the thought of French philosophers Jacques Maritain and Emmanuel Mounier, personalism is a belief in the absolute value of the human person, an affirmation of individual spirituality as part of unity in the mystical body of Christ, and the exaltation of private conscience. Social Catholicism rooted in personalism, then, focused on lay activism, personal commitment, and community, instead of clericalism, conformity, and institutionalism. (5) A new dimension is added to the prevailing historiography by looking at how social Catholic engagement with the party was a dialogical process: dialogue between social Catholics and the party was one force helping to pacify the radical platform of the CCF. Since the platform of the party reflected the aspirations of many social Catholics, they in turn challenged how the institutional Church engaged economic and political questions particularly with respect to instructing the laity. This article focuses primarily on the latter aspect of this dynamic: accommodation between the Church and the CCF was largely the product of social Catholicism influencing episcopal decisions and was part of the broader forces of secularization and Canadianization beginning to restructure the institutional Church.

Examined here are three stages that explore why the Quebec Archbishops placed, the English-Canadian Archbishops resisted, and, finally, both removed strictures against the CCF between 1931 and 1944. First, anathemas issued by the Quebec hierarchy against the CCF were opposed by social Catholics searching for new answers to the economic and social crisis of the Depression; second, a more cautious response by members of the English-Canadian hierarchy rendered these Archbishops reluctant to infringe upon the political liberty of their faithful; and finally, despite a conflict in these approaches, acceptance of the CCF came at the behest of influential social Catholics and consultation between national hierarchies. By negotiating conciliation between the hierarchy and the CCF, social Catholics operated in conjunction with broader processes of secularization and Canadianization affecting the institutional Church. Secularization is a complex and multifaceted development, but one of its central dynamics is organized religion's loss of monopoly in intellectual and social life. Ceding the right to civic decisions, in this case support for a political party, from the locus of clerical control to the decision-making capacity of individual lay Catholics was one attempt by the institutional Church to adapt to this condition. (6) Differentiation in this specific sense hastened Canadianization. (7) This process pushed Canadian prelates to act more collegially, rather than speak to issues of national significance on a local level, as the institutional Church incorporated English- and French-Canadian hierarchies into a national episcopal body. (8)