INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONGRESSES OF CATHOLICS. — Held successively in Paris (1888 and 1891), Brussels (1894), Fribourg in Switzerland (1897), and Munich in Germany (1900), the international scientific congresses of Catholics originated with a suggestion by Canon Duilhé de Saint-Projet, put into practice, discussed, and transformed at the Second Congress of the Catholics of Normandy (December 1885). Thus, one moved from a section on scientific apologetics within a general, though regional, congress to the idea of a special international gathering of Catholic scientists, subsequently and more appropriately defined as an international scientific congress of Catholics. In it, competent Catholics were to undertake to present the established results in their own field of study and to set-
CONGRESSI SCIENTIFICI DEI CATTOLICI - CONGRUA
thus placing the theologians in touch with the current state of the experimental sciences and of historical criticism.
Of the numerous meetings of the committee that organized and promoted the congresses until his death (1896), the leading figure was Msgr. Maurizio d'Hulst, rector of the Catholic Institute of Paris. After a journey to Rome (January 1887), he obtained a laudatory brief from His Holiness Leo XIII (20 May 1887) for the future congress, postponed from Easter 1887 to April (8–12) 1888.
It took place in Paris under the presidency of Msgr. d'Hulst himself, with 1605 participants, one third of whom were foreigners. While, broadly speaking, properly theological questions were omitted, 87 papers were then admitted for public reading at the general meetings or in the sections (religious, philosophical, juridical, historical, mathematical, physical and natural, and anthropological sciences); 79 of them, together with the speeches and discussions, were published, at least in summary form, in the Compte rendu of 1891 (1401 pages).
If this first congress was a success, considering the difficulties that had to be overcome, the following ones achieved even greater success and had differing profiles, also in the number and designation of their sections. The second congress (Paris, 1–6 April 1891; president, Msgr. Freppel, bishop of Angers) had 2494 participants, among them 1656 Frenchmen; the third (Brussels, 3–8 September 1894; president, Dr. L. Scherr, of the University of Louvain), 2528; the fourth (Fribourg, 16–20 August 1897; president, Baron Giorgio von Hertling, of the University of Munich), 3007; the fifth (Munich, 24–28 September 1900; president, Alberto de Lapparent, of the Catholic Institute of Paris), 3367. The speeches and papers reproduced or summarized in the respective Compte rendus (Akten in the case of Munich) numbered 131 for the second congress, 137 for the third, 200 for the fourth, and 260 for the fifth; the authors were predominantly French at the Paris congresses and German at the Munich one. To the languages used (French, and only rarely Latin) were added German, English, Italian, and Spanish in the papers presented at Fribourg and Munich. A sixth international scientific congress of Catholics, scheduled for Rome in 1903, did not take place.
By refuting through facts the alleged opposition between science and the Catholic faith, the five congresses brought Catholic scientists, including those from different nations, closer together; secured a fairer appreciation of their scientific work both among non-Catholics and among Catholics, who were sometimes ignorant and distrustful; and contributed to scientific progress through new research and results in their respective disciplines.
BIBLI: Congrès scientifique international des catholiques tenu à Paris du 8 au 13 avril 1888, Paris 1889; Compte rendu du Congrès scientifique... à Paris du 1er au 6 avril 1891, there 1891; Compte rendu du troisième Congrès... à Bruxelles du 3 au 8 septembre 1894, Brussels 1895; Compte rendu du quatrième Congrès... à Friburgo (Suisse) du 16 au 20 août 1897, Fribourg 1898; Akten der fünften internationalen Kongresses katholischer Gelehrten zu München vom 24. bis 28. September 1900, Munich 1901; A. Boudrillart, Vie de mer d'Hulst, I, 3rd ed., Paris 1921, pp. 528–61; H. Finke, Internationale Beziehungen der Görres-Gesellschaft, Cologne 1932, pp. 15–19. Augusto Pelzer