LORIN, HENRI. - French Catholic sociologist, b. 1858, d. in Paris on 19 Nov. 1914. He devoted himself to the Work of Catholic Workers’ Circles, which arose after the war of 1870–71 under the impetus of the Comte de Mun and the Marquis de la Tour du Pin, and later extended his collaboration to the International Catholic Union of Economic and Social Studies and to the International Association for the Legal Protection of Workers. His contribution to the solid establishment of the «Semaines sociales de France» was especially notable. For a certain period (1905–13) he was almost its embodiment, serving as president and principal rapporteur.
He combined in himself the vigour of spirit, the power of logic, the firmness of convictions, the boldness of vision, and at the same time a kind of enthusiasm, warmth, and healthy optimism that uplifted every soul. Relatively late in life he set about publishing his essays, which remained in a rather strange fragmentary state. Among other things, he insisted on the importance of fraternity in Catholic doctrine on society; on the profession as a natural grouping and at the same time an organized one in its proper 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, for before judging and reforming facts one must know them with perfect objectivity of observation; and it is Catholic in its inspiration, for it would be useless to know facts unless one were then to judge them and, after judgment, correct them through action appropriate to Christianity.
See especially the Reports of the Semaines sociales (Paris 1905 ff.); Le mouvement syndical ouvrier et catholiques sociaux (ibid. 1903); L'organisation professionnelle et le code du travail. Etudes sur les principes du catholicisme social (ibid. 1907); L'idée individualiste et l'idée chrétienne. Etude sur le fondement du droit chrétien (ibid. 1908). Some selected pages in Anthologie du catholicisme social en France (by J. Megret and P. Badin [ibid. 1948], pp. 141–50).