Des missionnaires plongés dans la Grande Guerre 1914-1918
Collection L'Histoire à vif
368 pages - juin 2012
29,70€
La Société des Missions étrangères de Paris vient de célébrer en 2008 le 350e anniversaire de sa fondation. La proximité du centenaire du déclenchement de la Grande Guerre semble une invitation à connaître le sort des missionnaires qui furent mobilisés en 1914. Jusqu'à la Première Guerre mondiale, ils partaient en Asie sans esprit de retour. Pour beaucoup de parents, le départ de leur fils représentait un véritable déchirement. Il ressemblait à un adieu. Quitter la mission dont il est chargé pose donc bien des questions à la conscience de chacun des Pères concernés par la mobilisation. Que vont devenir les néophytes qu'il est en train d'évangéliser ? Comment leur expliquer les raisons de son départ ? Est-ce la peine de rejoindre un port et d'embarquer pour un long voyage, puisque l'on parle d'une guerre courte ? Pour connaître les réactions de ces hommes engagés dans un conflit qui va devenir interminable, la correspondance qu'ils ont échangée avec le supérieur ou l'un des directeurs du Séminaire de Paris se révèle précieuse. À travers leurs lettres, le lecteur va découvrir la réalité de la vie de ces missionnaires et aspirants (séminaristes) affrontés à l'expérience du feu ou aux misères de la guerre, exposés à l'exaltation d'un moment ou à l'ennui de longs jours monotones, éprouvant l'attrait d'une nouvelle aventure ou la nostalgie de la mission. Cet ouvrage se présente comme une « histoire des missionnaires en guerre », avec toute leur épaisseur d'humanité, une sorte de « Journal » à cent voix.
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In 2008, ‘La Société des Missions étrangères de Paris’ celebrated its 350th anniversary. Falling just a few years before the centenary of WW1, it is an invitation to investigate the fate of those missionaries who were called up in 1914. Until the Great War was declared, they travelled to Asia without even thinking of a return journey. For many parents, their son’s departure was an agonizing separation, very like an adieu. For those priests who were called up, abandoning their mission was a question of conscience: what would become of the neophytes they were in the process of evangelizing? How could they explain the reasons for their departure? Was it worthwhile travelling to a port and embarking on a long journey, since everyone was talking about a ‘short’ war? To know the reactions of these men embroiled in a conflict that seemed to be interminable, their letters to their superiors or to directors of the Seminary in Paris are a precious source. Through their correspondence, the reader discovers the real lives of those missionaries and seminarians who found themselves facing the experience of fighting and the horrors of war, exposed to the exaltation of a single moment or the tediousness of long, monotonous days, feeling the appeal of new adventure or nostalgia for their mission. This ‘history of missionaries at war’ - a sort of ‘diary’ written in a hundred voices - reveals all their rich humanity.
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In 2008, ‘La Société des Missions étrangères de Paris’ celebrated its 350th anniversary. Falling just a few years before the centenary of WW1, it is an invitation to investigate the fate of those missionaries who were called up in 1914. Until the Great War was declared, they travelled to Asia without even thinking of a return journey. For many parents, their son’s departure was an agonizing separation, very like an adieu. For those priests who were called up, abandoning their mission was a question of conscience: what would become of the neophytes they were in the process of evangelizing? How could they explain the reasons for their departure? Was it worthwhile travelling to a port and embarking on a long journey, since everyone was talking about a ‘short’ war? To know the reactions of these men embroiled in a conflict that seemed to be interminable, their letters to their superiors or to directors of the Seminary in Paris are a precious source. Through their correspondence, the reader discovers the real lives of those missionaries and seminarians who found themselves facing the experience of fighting and the horrors of war, exposed to the exaltation of a single moment or the tediousness of long, monotonous days, feeling the appeal of new adventure or nostalgia for their mission. This ‘history of missionaries at war’ - a sort of ‘diary’ written in a hundred voices - reveals all their rich humanity.
- Dimensions : 135x215x20
- ISBN : 9782204096881
- Poids : 490 grammes
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