The Parish & The Working Class

Abbé Georges Michonneau (1899–1983) was a dedicated and zealous parish priest among the working class of Paris. In his three works of this anthology the reader will find a profound awareness of the full reality of the Church of Christ, its role in the world, and the service it must render to the people who make up the Body of Christ on earth. For that reason, and because his priestly heart was very much in the right place, and also because the pre-conciliar pastoral problems he sought to address are still in essence the same pastoral problems as today’s, what Abbé Michonneau had to say in the mid-twentieth century retains value in our day. * * * * *  The original books were first published in English (1949, 1952, 1955) by The Newman Press. This volume includes the following books translated into English: 

• Revolution in a City Parish
• The Missionary Spirit in Parish Life
• Catholic Action and the Parish (co-authored with Abbé R. Meurice whose section was omitted in this volume)

The term “new evangelization” may not have been coined until after the Council, but the reality of it was being lived out well before. Already in the 1940s, industrial France was recognized by church leaders as mission territory, and a good deal of new ardour, methods, and expressions were devoted to reaching the young and working classes.

Abbé Michonneau was at the vanguard of these efforts. These three books, re-released here by Arouca Press in one volume, are essential reading for those interested not only in the new evangelization itself, but for understanding the growing pastoral crisis to which Vatican II was responding. —Professor Stephen Bullivant, author of Nonverts: The Making of Ex-Christian America

The writings of Abbé Michonneau are seasoned with spiritual and psychological insights into the practical mechanics of parish life, reflecting Michonneau's years of experience ministering to working class Catholics in the suburbs of Paris. Michonneau's observations cover an astonishing breadth of subject matter, from clerical culture, to collections, to parish organization, and outreach. The Parish and the Working Class is a fantastic resource for priests or laymen looking for ideas to energize their parish but wary of the modern, kitchy revitalization programs so in vogue today. —Phillip Campbell, Catholic writer and author of The Story of Civilization series

The Abbé Michonneau may have thought that “a suburban priest makes a poor author” but if that is so he was an exception to the rule. This book is beautifully written, well translated and provides a fascinating insight into the context from which so many of the changes to Catholicism in the second half of the twentieth century emerged. —The Rev’d Prof Stephen Morgan DPhil (Oxon), Rector of the University of Saint Joseph Macao, China