Y.C.W. Leads Against Collaboration
LONDON, November 20. (By Beam Wireless)
(From “The Advocate’s” London Correspondent)
Reports from France state that strong resistance to the attempted deportation of Jews from Unoccupied France came from Catholics. It is reported that every Catholic family in Lyons sheltered Jews threatened with deportation. Many Jews were assisted in escaping to Switzerland by priests and identity cards and passports were provided. In Toulouse, Jewish children were given sanctuary in Catholic schools.
A fierce attack upon the Church was made in the Paris “Oeuvre,” by Marcel Deat, the French Fascist leader who urges stronger collaboration with the “Axis.” “Many Catholic prelates and priests,” he says, ”are profoundly convinced that National Socialism represents the most dangerous and pernicious form of anti-religion.”
It is interesting to note that the “Jocists,” or Young Christian Workers, whose founder, Canon Cardijn, was recently arrested by the Nazis in Belgium, are described as the “ringleaders” in the forces resisting collaboration with the Nazi regime.
SOURCE
French Catholics shelter Jews (Advocate, Thursday 26 November 1942, page 5)