Recent Publications

Bernard Pitaud PSS, has just published two new works to which we draw your attention. The first is part of a series of publications dedicated to the history of the Society of Saint Sulpice and the Séminaire Saint-Sulpice. It began with a biography of Jean-Jacques Olier in 2017, published by Lessius, and ended with a history of Saint Sulpice in the 19th century, published by Salvator. We now cross over into the 20th century with this new book in which Father Pitaud, former Provincial of the French Province, revisits the affairs that shook the Society during the Modernist crisis...

PITAUD Bernard. Saint-Sulpice et les séminaires sulpiciens au cœur de la crise moderniste : 1900-1930. [Saint Sulpice and Sulpician Seminaries in the Midst of the Modernist Crisis: 1900-1930] Paris: Salvator, 204 p.

Résumé :

At the dawn of the 20th century, the Catholic Church in France and Europe continued to be shaken by the changes taking place in the surrounding society. In France, anticlericalism was on the rise, culminating in the expulsion of religious congregations in 1902. In Rome, the application of modern scientific and critical methods to biblical texts provoked a stiff reaction, culminating in the encyclical Pascendi Dominici gregis, which condemned Alfred Loisy and other "modernists." As a teaching congregation, Saint Sulpice was a potential target of the 1902 expulsions. Involved for over two centuries in all the seminaries of France and even abroad, the Society had to carefully adapt the teaching it imparted to future priests. Through abundant documentation, Bernard Pitaud shows the flexibility and discretion with which the Society sought to adapt to the new circumstances of a tumultuous century.

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The second book is the sixth in a series from New City Press devoted to Venerable Madeleine Delbrêl, the important 20th century French spiritual writer and thinker :

Gilles FRANÇOIS and Bernard PITAUD. L’eucharistie vécue par Madeleine Delbrêl. Le nécessaire constant de notre vie. [The Eucharist Lived by Madeleine Delbrêl. The Necessary Constant in Our Life] Paris: Nouvelle Cité, 2023, 126 p.

Résumé :

Shortly after her conversion in 1924, Madeleine Delbrêl enjoyed going to Mass every day. For her, it was a matter of course. She found in this sacrament a primordial source of charity that would reveal her particular vocation: a simple, evangelical presence in the midst of people, a woman of dialogue with the Communists of Ivry-sur-Seine near Paris. "To be Christ in the midst of the people" was her ambition.
The union of faith and charity brought about by the Eucharist invited Madeleine to take a benevolent yet clear-sighted look at the Church itself. Despite the disagreements Madeleine had within her parish, there was no question of her serving Christ by distancing herself from the Church and its actions. She had a keen sense of the Church as the body of Christ.

Central to the spiritual life of Madeleine Delbrêl (1904-1964), the Eucharist was for a long time a less visible subject in her writings. After several years' research, Gilles François and Bernard Pitaud have brought us ten seminal texts on the subject.

Gilles François is a priest of the Diocese of Créteil, an historian and the postulator for the beatification cause of Madeleine Delbrêl. Bernard Pitaud is a priest of Saint Sulpice and a specialist in the writings of Madeleine Delbrêl, as well as in the French school of spirituality.

Here is the list of previous books from Nouvelle Cité:

FRANÇOIS Gilles and PITAUD Bernard. La Miséricorde selon Madeleine Delbrêl. Le beau scandale de la charité. [Mercy according to Madeleine Delbrêl. The Beautiful Scandal of Charity] Paris : Nouvelle Cité, 2016
FRANÇOIS Gilles and PITAUD Bernard. La Vocation selon Madeleine Delbrêl. Partager la vie de celui qu’on aime. [Vocation according to Madeleine Delbrêl: Sharing Your Life with Someone You Love] Paris : Nouvelle Cité, 2018
FRANÇOIS Gilles and PITAUD Bernard. Souffrance et joie. Sauver le monde, c’est lui donner le sens de sa peine. [Suffering and Joy: To Save the World is to Give It a Sense of Its Pain] Paris : Nouvelle Cité, 2020
FRANÇOIS Gilles and PITAUD Bernard. À l’écoute de la Parole de Dieu avec Madeleine Delbrêl. Cette docilité à nous laisser modeler. [Hearing the Word of God with Madeleine Delbrêl. Letting Ourselves Model This Docility] Paris : Nouvelle Cité, 2021
FRANÇOIS Gilles and PITAUD Bernard. Prêtres et laïcs selon Madeleine Delbrêl. Que chacun soit ce qu’il est. [Priests and Laity according to Madeleine Delbrêl. Let Each Be What They Are] Paris : Nouvelle Cité, 2022

M. Zakaria HILAL, Director of the Jean-Jacques Olier Library
Translated by Rev. Ronald D. WITHERUP, PSS