76

Based on an analysis of the collections of the apostolic nunciature to Paris (Secret Archives of Vatican), this article questions the social and political implications of the mission to rechristianize France under the pontificate of Pius XI. Whilst the strategy to create specialist Catholic Action group suggests that the relationship between the Church and the working classes was evolving, faith training in the interwar period was not however seen as a vector of social emancipation or political engagement. Instead, such specialist groups challenged the diocesan structure of the Church and destabilized the existing hierarchical order.