par Masquelier, Juliette 
Référence Committed but not Activist? Engaging in Catholic European and Colonial Charities (1945-2000) (19-20/10/2023: Université libre de Bruxelles)
Publication Non publié, 2023-10-19
Référence Committed but not Activist? Engaging in Catholic European and Colonial Charities (1945-2000) (19-20/10/2023: Université libre de Bruxelles)
Publication Non publié, 2023-10-19
Communication à un colloque
| Résumé : | The aim of this presentation is to compare the commitment of lay Catholics... with that of other lay Catholics within the same umbrella organisation of Catholic Action for Women specialising in working-class areas in Belgium: the Ligues ouvrières féminines Chrétiennes, which became Vie féminine later. Firstly, I will set out the context of the involvement of women's leagues in the organisation of free clinics for pregnant women and infants in Belgium. Secondly, I will show how, from 1950 onwards, the Women's Leagues developed their methods of action, which became increasingly distinct from those of the clinic volunteers. I will show how these two distinct forms of commitment mutually constituted each other, and how the League leaders created the figure of the « Charity Lady » to embody an outdated « bad form of commitment » of the clinic volunteers, and how they tried to develop these volunteer committees by replacing their members. I will also show how, at the same time, the volunteers on the committees rejected the militancy of the Leagues. My third part will be devoted to showing how the Services Maternels et Infantiles, by distinguishing themselves from Vie féminine and detaching themselves from the movement's objectives and methods to embrace their own, have managed to preserve the link between volunteers refusing to be militant and Vie féminine asserting its militant identity. I will show that to do this, they developed a new, more neutral identity as a professional technical service, then as a professional entertainment and child minding service, to support and facilitate the committees. The aim is therefore to show how, paradoxically, in order to preserve a Catholic network of clinics for infants attached to Vie féminine, and which would enable Vie féminine to be represented in the national bodies regulating children's charities and to defend its positions as a Christian women's social action movement, the SMI set itself up as a professional body with a tendency towards neutrality, because this was the most effective way of gaining acceptance from the committees of volunteers at the clinics. |
