Marcel De Corte (1905-1994), La cité oubliée : contribution à une histoire du catholicisme social
(2025)
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- Marcel De Corte (1905-1994) spanned the 20th century. This Brabant native who taught philosophy at the University of Liège is now almost forgotten in Belgium. He was, however, a prominent figure in the intellectual and political life of his country, known during his lifetime well beyond its borders.Initially close to Maritain and Mounier, during the war he became the thinker of the clandestine movement Ralliement Social Belge which brought together Proudhonian trade unionists and intransigent Catholics. He contributed to the founding of the P.S.C.-C.V.P. in 1945, committed himself with all his strength to the service of Leopoldism and, in the press, took part in all the debates of his time: Europe, economy, decolonization, Vatican II Council...Is this life itself inhabited by a question: if man is a naturally social being, what is the most humane form of society? The one most in conformity with his nature? This question has an existential scope for this man who perceives the evolution of the West as a crisis and even an end of civilization. So what are Western societies dying of? What is the remedy? All the commitments of this philosopher – which are not exempt from inconsistencies – are driven by the search for a new path, both social and political: how to concretely escape individualism, while facing the communist threat? Social Catholicism, of which De Corte, as a philosopher and committed man, is a particularly interesting representative, presented itself from the beginning as the search for a third way. By retracing the life of this forgotten Belgian, by drawing on intellectual, political and ecclesiastical history, and on philosophy including its relationship to theology, we have sought to better understand not only the history of social Catholicism but also its essence.
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Melin, F. (2025). Marcel De Corte (1905-1994), La cité oubliée : contribution à une histoire du catholicisme social. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/260589