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- Title
The Church Triumphant: Roberto Perin's View from Rome.
- Authors
CODIGNOLA, Luca
- Abstract
This review article examines all of Roberto Perin's publications in the field of Catholic history (1977-2019). The French-Canadian church, French-Canadian nationalism, and Rome's role emerge as his main objects of interest. Perin's originality consists in his sympathetic view of the late nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century French-Canadian ultramontane church leaders and in his systematic use of Roman sources. In Perin's interpretive framework, three elements are of crucial significance. The first is the vital role played by the Catholic Church in expressing and protecting the French-Canadian distinctiveness. The second element is Ultramontanism, which Perin views as an attempt to entrench French-Canadian minority rights in the province of Québec and in the rest of Canada, as guaranteed by the British North America Act (1867). The third is Rome's role. This was of such significance, Perin maintains, that it is appropriate to describe Rome as the "third metropolis of Canada." In the end this role proved to be disastrous, in that by favouring the more compromising faction of the French-Canadian clergy against the Ultramontanes, in the end the Holy See alienated the French-Canadian clergy, favoured the extinction of the Catholics' religious and linguistic rights in the Canadian West, and decisively eroded French-Canadian and Catholic rights in Canada. Throughout his writings, Perin's own personality has played a decisive role. First, in his courageous choice of the church as his topic of research in the midst of the Quiet Revolution. Second, in his appreciation of the firm morality of his ultramontane protagonists, as opposed to the more compromising attitudes of their opponents. Third, in the unwavering consistency of his interpretation; the few changes in his vocabulary mainly reflect his attention to current events, but do not alter its substance.
- Subjects
PERIN, Roberto; CATHOLIC Church; CHRISTIAN leadership; ULTRAMONTANISM; PAPACY
- Publication
Historical Studies, 2020, Vol 86, p7
- ISSN
1193-1981
- Publication type
Article