TURINAZ, CHARLES-FRANÇOIS. — Bishop, born at Chambéry on 2 February 1838, died at Nancy on 19 October 1918. In Rome he obtained degrees in theology and canon law at the Collegio Romano.
For some time secretary to Cardinal Billet, he taught theology at the seminary in his native city. Appointed bishop of Tarantasia in 1873, he was transferred on 30 March 1882 to the sees of Nancy and Toul. In 1891 he proposed an episcopal commission with the aim of achieving, on a strictly religious basis and above every political division, an understanding among all priests and all the faithful, both in order to support the governmental authorities if they were willing to guarantee religious peace, and to resist those same authorities if they decided to pursue an anti-Catholic policy. T. reaffirmed this proposal in April 1892 with the publication of the pamphlet Sauvons la France chrétienne! Appel aux catholiques, aux libéraux sincères, aux honnêtes gens de tous les partis. His appeal met with indecision on the part of the episcopate, but not with uncertainty on the part of the government, which, aware of the importance of the initiative to form a compact bloc of French Catholics, hastened to suspend his allowances on the pretext that a law of 10 Germinal prohibited bishops from entering into agreements. T.’s attitude was equally energetic in the following years. A “frontier bishop,” he devoted himself greatly to his diocese, promoting the construction of new churches and the strengthening of the faith. His works include: Oeuvres pastorales (2 vols., 1881–90); Les Concordats et l'obligation réciproque qu'ils imposent à l'Eglise et à l'Etat (1888); Projet de séparation de l'Eglise et de l'Etat (1905); Nouvelles atteintes aux droits et aux libertés des catholiques de France (1908). In 1913 he was promoted, while retaining his residential see, to titular archbishop of Antioch of Pisidia.