LORIN, HENRI. - French Catholic sociologist, b. in 1858, d. in Paris on 19 Nov. 1914. He devoted himself to the Œuvre des cercles catholiques d'ouvriers, which arose after the war of 1870-71 under the impulse of Count de Mun and the Marquis de la Tour du Pin, then extended his collaboration to the Union internationale catholique d'études économiques et sociales and to the International Association for the Legal Protection of Workers. Especially notable was his contribution to the solid establishment of the "Semaines sociales de France." For a certain period (1905-13) he was almost its incarnation, as president and principal speaker.
He united in himself vigor of spirit, power of logic, firmness of convictions, boldness of views, and together a kind of enthusiasm, warmth, sound optimism, elevating the whole soul. Relatively late he set about publishing his essays, which had remained in a rather fragmentary state. Among other things he insisted on the relevance of fraternity in the Catholic doctrine of society; on the profession as a natural and at the same time organized grouping in its place among institutions; on democracy within the profession itself and on the dynamism of the trade-union idea. His method is scientific in its procedure, because, before judging and reforming facts, one must know them with perfect objectivity of the means of observation; and it is Catholic in its inspiration, because it would be of no use to know the facts if one were not then to judge them and, after the judgment, rectify them with appropriate action in conformity with Christianity.
Of L. see especially the Comptes rendus of the Semaines sociales (Paris 1905 ff.); Le mouvement syndical ouvrier et catholiques sociaux (ibid. 1903); L'organisation professionnelle et le code du travail. Études sur les principes du catholicisme social (ibid. 1907); L'idée individualiste et l'idée chrétienne. Étude sur le fondement du droit chrétien (ibid. 1910). Some selected pages in the Anthologie du catholicisme social en France (by J. Megret and P. Badin [ibid. 1948], pp. 141-50).
Bibliography
Ferruccio Pergolesi