International Scientific Congresses of Catholics

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESSES OF CATHOLICS. - Held successively in Paris (1888 and 1891), in Brussels (1894), in Fribourg in Switzerland (1897) and in Munich in Germany (1900), the international scientific congresses of Catholics originated from a suggestion of the canon Duilhé de Saint-Projet, put into effect, discussed and transformed at the second Congress of the Catholics of Normandy (Dec. 1885). Thus the transition was made from a section of scientific apologetics in a general but regional congress to the idea of a special and international gathering of Catholic scientists, defined later and more precisely as the international scientific congress of Catholics. In it competent Catholics were to set out to expound the results established in their own field of study and thus to bring theologians up to date on the current state of the experimental sciences and of historical criticism.

Of the numerous meetings of the organizing and animating committee of the congresses until his death (1896), the leading figure was Msgr. Maurice d'Hulst, rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris. After a journey to Rome (Jan. 1887) he obtained a flattering brief from His Holiness Leo XIII (20 May 1887) for the future congress, postponed from Easter 1887 to 8-12 April 1888.

It took place in Paris under the presidency precisely of Msgr. d'Hulst, with 1605 adherents, of whom a third were foreigners. Having in principle omitted properly theological questions, 87 papers were then admitted to public reading in the general assemblies or in the sections (religious, philosophical, juridical, historical, mathematical, physical and natural, anthropological sciences); 79 of them, with the speeches and discussions, were published, at least in summary, in the Compte rendu of 1891 (1401 pages).

If this first congress was a success in view of the difficulties to be overcome, the following ones succeeded better and with a different physiognomy from one another, also in regard to the number and the qualification of the sections. The second congress (Paris, 1-6 April 1891, president Msgr. Freppel, bishop of Angers) counted 2494 adherents, among them 1656 French; the third (Brussels, 3-8 Sept. 1894, president Dr. L. Scherr, of the University of Louvain) 2528; the fourth (Fribourg, 16-20 Aug. 1897, president Baron Georg von Hertling, of the University of Munich) 3007; the fifth (Munich, 24-28 Sept. 1900, president Albert de Lapparent, of the Catholic Institute of Paris) 3367. The speeches and papers reproduced or summarized in the respective Compte rendus (Akten for Munich) were 131 for the second congress, 137 for the third, 200 for the fourth, 260 for the fifth; the authors were mostly French in the Paris congresses, German in that of Munich. To the languages used (French, and rarely Latin), German, English, Italian and Spanish were added in the papers of Fribourg and Munich. A sixth international scientific congress of Catholics, planned for the year 1903 in Rome, did not take place.

Confuting by facts the alleged opposition between science and the Catholic faith, the five congresses brought Catholic scientists closer together, even those of different nations, procured a more just appreciation of their own scientific work both among non-Catholics and among Catholics, sometimes ignorant and distrustful, and contributed to scientific progress with new research and results in the respective disciplines.

Augusto Pelzer