The fascist leader, Benito Mussolini, came to power as Italian Prime Minister on 31 October 1922. Many Catholics in Italy had supported his rise. So too did many Catholics in Belgium and France, lamented YCW lay co-founder, Fernand Tonnet, in the movement magazine, La Jeunesse Ouvrière, in July 1924.
“We haven’t mentioned this previously,” he explained in an article signed by “Fernet,” a nom de plume he often used.
Initially, “we felt that it was not such a burning issue,” Tonnet continued, a reasonable position for a Belgian young workers’ magazine. Nevertheless, “just between us, I often felt quite angry at the articles in our papers in praise of fascism and its leaders.”
Now, however, the “escapades” of a “good professor who had become a super-nationalist” stirred Tonnet to action.
“Cristi!” he exclaimed in shock, “Christ!” after the said professor visited the Italian leader, even presenting him with a “symbolic gift of a splendid truncheon… made of chocolate with a carved silver handle!”
Worse, a series of recent articles in the French Catholic paper, “La Croix” had been “rather sympathetic to Fascism.” The paper had previously reported on the behaviour of the fascists during the 1921 elections when Mussolini was first elected to the Chamber of Deputies. But now it had finally begun to protest against what was happening.
“This took me aback!” Tonnet noted. “These were people [i.e. the fascists] who had organised gangs of tramps from all over the world, militarised them and who pitted them against workers’ and social projects organised by the communists, the socialists and the ‘democratic priests’ of Italy.
“People from those three groups have been attacked, set on fire, knocked down and killed… and yet our good newspapers of France and Belgium [La Croix] remained silent… They have not breathed a word about this, unless it was very discreetly…
“Now, however, that the fascists are attacking not just democratic priests, but other priests, archpriests, as well as chapels and processions, suddenly people say they’ve gone too far….
“Well, in our view, the fascist methods have not changed,” he insisted. “But we say that if our neighbour is a Bolshevik and an Apache comes to knock him out, we need to state that the person responsible is an Apache, without waiting to become victims ourselves.”
In this context, it’s perhaps relevant to note that, while we certainly wouldn’t use the term in the same way today, in early 20th century French, the word “Apache” more or less corresponded with the English term “outlaw.”
“That’s the meaning of justice and loyalty,” Tonnet added. “Moreover, by acting in this way our Catholic reputation would gain.…”
“The people behind fascism are simply daring and intelligent adventurers, who have taken advantage of the troubles in their country to seize power,” he claimed. “They are ambitious people dripping with impatience to take over.”
They are “people who jumped ship and woke up one fine morning, patriotic as hell,” he wrote, in a clear reference to Mussolini, who had abandoned his previous socialist convictions to become a hyper-nationalist.
“Their main ideas are the fight against the working class, and against Christianity. Beyond that, there is nothing in fascism,” Tonnet deplored.
“When they claim that they have saved their homeland and that since their rise to power factories are operating and the shops well-stocked, ask them where the capital for these factories came from. You know the answer, i.e. from the adventurers of international finance,” he continued.
How to respond to this? he asked.
“For us, Christian workers, our attitude towards fascism is dictated to us, imperatively dictated by our social doctrine, which imposes on us the same obligation of harmony, love and peace towards all, friends… false friends, as well as enemies,” Tonnet explained.
“We have not hesitated to choose between the fascist method, which recruits people through terror and the established method of the Catholic apostolate, which attracts hearts through the sparkling purity of Christian virtues.
“Even though we have not studied theology or at university studies, we have not hesitated,” he added in a veiled but clear critique of those Catholic academics and seminary professors who had supported fascism.
“We claim… and history is there to prove it in every chapter… that those who have used violence to gain power have rarely improved once in charge.
“It is important, however, to be cautious and far-sighted, and we intend to take up the question again in future articles. The considerations hastily set out here are simply intended to attract the attention of our comrades.
“We are not saying to our comrades: ‘Roll up your sleeves… we’re going to fight…’ We say to them: ‘A particular method will only be rolled back by propagating a different method.’
“Make friends, fraternal friends among your fellow workers, lift up their hearts and souls. Show them the Christian ideal… because the working masses who turn away from Christ… who desert the parish church, are easy prey to fascism.
“Yes, this is work for you, comrades, an ideal for your working class hearts, a mission for your leisure time… You’re not going to back down… are you, you 16, 18, 20 year olds? Study, read, discuss, learn to speak in public… pray… then go and spread the truth among your comrades,” Tonnet advised.
“If you do this, the aspiring fascists of our country will not dare to try their method on a powerful working class possessed of a dignified and calm strength.
“They will remain hidden in the deserted shadows of their premises and their leaders, writers and journalists who fought the war in the trenches of Le Havre or Paris, will never dare to clash with the working class,” Tonnet concluded.
It’s a compelling piece of writing in which the YCW leader does not hesitate to criticise the failures of other Catholic leaders and intellectuals.
It’s even more impressive when we know, as we now do, that Fernand Tonnet would later lose his life in the struggle against fascism and nazism, dying at the Dachau concentration camp 21 years later on 2 February 1945.
And it has even greater meaning today, perhaps, as we witness the rise of new forms of fascism around the world.
Stefan Gigacz
READ MORE
La Jeunesse Ouvrière, juillet 1924, pp. 76-78 (Fernand Tonnet Website/Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
Fernand Tonnet (Joseph Cardijn Digital Library)
PHOTO
Mussolini leads March on Rome 1922 (Picryl)
