Remembering the Venerable Robert Schuman
Social Catholic, French Prime Minister, Father of European Unity
In June of 2021, Pope Francis declared the great French-Catholic statesman Robert Schuman (1886-1963) as Venerable, thereby marking the Church’s recognition that he lived a life of heroic virtue. In so doing, Francis also advanced Schuman on the path toward canonization. Although relatively few American Catholics know much about him, I think we should recognize him as among those Catholics who have the most to teach us about how we should be responding to “the signs of our times” in which the future of international relations is on the table. For that reason, I expect to revisit his life and work in future posts. For my present purposes, I want to introduce him concisely to allow interested readers to also take a look at a video on his life, which is included below to illustrate both his life and legacy.
[Wikipedia]
Robert Schuman exemplified the kind of political1 participation to which the Second Vatican Council would subsequently call Catholics through its articulation of “the apostolate of the laity.” According to this model, Catholics participate in modern societies to infuse the spirit of the gospel, which Shuman did by building peace, unity and a spirit of social friendship. Although few of us will hold high national office or shape international affairs like Schuman, the both the Council and Catholic Social Doctrine would recognize our participation in society and in the political process as integral to our apostolate of “bearing the fruit of charity for the life of the world.”
Shuman’s work indeed bore abundant fruit, by contributing significantly to almost eight decades of peace on the European continent, an achievement that followed directly from his firm commitment to Catholic social teaching. Indeed, like earlier modern social Catholics starting with Bishop Wilhelm E. von Ketteler, Schuman’s example contributed to the deepening of the Catholic social tradition as it was certainly well-known to the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council.
He was, however, not simply a politician, but a politician marked by a deep life of prayer, such that some likened him to a monk. Indeed, in response to a friend who asked why he hadn’t joined a monastery, he said he tried, but the bishop said he would do more good working in society as a layman. Between 1942-44, while hiding from the Nazi’s, he had lived in a monastery as a monk. He had been raised by his pious mother after his father died when he was a child. Upon the death of his beloved mother during his 25th year, a friend wrote to prevent him from leaving the path in law that he had chosen and joining a monastery. His friend Henri Eschbach wrote:
Everything is not, and should not be, over for you on this Earth. Your duty, difficult but at the same time benign, forbids you to let yourself be completely absorbed by this grief. You must remain a lay person because that way you will be more successful in doing good, which is your only preoccupation. It’s my opinion that the saints of the future will be saints in suits.
It seems his friend was not only bold, but a prophet, very much anticipating the vision of the Second Vatican Council of Catholics working as leaven in the world to reveal the Church as an efficacious sign “of a very closely knit union with God and of the whole human race” (Lumen gentium: Dogmatic Constitution of the Church, no. 1). Unfortunately, that vision has been largely forgotten and it is more easy to see “postliberal” Catholics in public life working to undermine Schuman’s vision for a democratic world than to find those exemplifying an authentically Catholic one. As our world teeters on the brink of a dark future, the example of Schuman and the authentic social doctrine of the Church offer an alternative path, for those willing to follow it.
The Vatican News service presents the following summary of Schuman’s political apostolate as one of apostolic mission and service to his nation, and to the human family.
Schuman: Politics as Mission and Service
Robert Schuman (1886-1963) was a French Catholic committed to politics – understood as a mission and a service, and as an act of obedience to God's will – who lived in prayer and was nourished by the daily Eucharist. He was arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo from 14 September 1940 to 12 April 1941. He managed to escape and lived in hiding until the end of the war, taking refuge mainly in convents and monasteries. At the end of the war, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly of France in 1945 and 1946. As a member of parliament, he took on important roles in the French government: Minister of Finance, Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Justice, becoming a moral point of reference for the country and working for the creation of a common system of economic and social growth. Together with Konrad Adenauer and Alcide De Gasperi, he is considered one of the founding fathers of a united Europe. Their work led to the Treaty of Rome of 25 March 1957, which established the European Economic Community. In 1958 he was elected by acclamation as the first President of the new European Parliament. The following year he was struck down by a severe form of cerebral sclerosis. Unable to continue his work, he was appointed honorary president of the European Parliamentary Assembly. He died in Scy-Chazelles (France) on 4th September 1963, at the age of 77.
As I indicated above, I keep this introductory post on Schuman short so readers can take a look at the following video. It provides an excellent introduction to the man, to his faith, and to the legacy of peace and social friendship that he bequeathed to Europe and beyond. This gift was the fruit of his deep Catholic faith, a faith shaped to enable a fruitful apostolate in the modern world through his early participation in social Catholicism, including through the student organization Unitas while at the University of Bonn, and through L'Union Populaire Catholique while a young lawyer in Metz.
As I have already noted, this precious legacy is now under grave threat today, and it seems that many inspired by a “postliberal” distortion of Catholicism are intent on “burning it all down.” For those who want to see an alternative that actually follows from the Catholic faith, and therefore aligns with the discernment of the magisterium,2 the following video will be of interest.
*** Be sure to click the arrow in the black box marked “Watch on Youtube” at the lower left corner below, not the red one in the center of the blue screenshot.***
*** Be sure to click the arrow in the black box marked “Watch on Youtube” at the lower left corner above, not the red one in the center of the blue screenshot.***
In the United States, it is very common to hear things like “not to be political, but…” or “let’s not get into politics,” which seems to reflect a conflation between the word partisan—which reflects a moral disorder—and the realm of politics which calls for the highest virtues. For Robert Schuman, on the other hand, politics was understood in the classical sense of participating in the affairs of cities or states, from the Ancient Greek πολιτικά (politiká). In the Catholic tradition, political participation is where we exercise the highest moral virtue of justice regarding the common good, ordered to the highest theological virtue of love of neighbor as part of our love of God. This is why Catholic Social Doctrine calls for our vibrant participation in the political process, and even thinks the fate of the human family depends upon us doing so.
See Dei Verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, no. 10.3, which reads as follows. “It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God's most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contrib,ute effectively to the salvation of souls.” [Emphasis added]