Lord Phan said:Firstly he was removed by request of the french government.
He was removed by Pius XI.
Secondly, Action Francais was UNCONDEMNED by Pope Pius XII.
Refer to Cristian's post above, I had never heard about this.
Thirdly. They did not belief in putting the state above the papacy, they were french monarchists who wanted to make Roman Catholiscism the state religion in france again. Restore the monarchy etc.
From the way they talk, the suggestion is that the monarchy would subordinate the Church rather than the other way around. The Action Francaise has a scent of statism, of Gallicanized fascism. It is very subtle, but something is not quite right about it, in my opinion, an extra-Catholic movement that grudgingly supports Catholicism for political reasons? No.
It's good that it's against Masonry and Jєωry, but that is no reason to compromise and to hitch our wagon to an agnostic, politicized, statist star. I hope someone out there understands that sentence.
Even the king, should he have arisen, would probably have been a puppet of Maurras, who was the real intellectual leader of that movement -- and an agnostic. That is the problem, Catholicism is de-spiritualized and turned into a "force for order and civilization" only, it's heartless and wrong. I believe if Action Francaise were successful, Catholicism would quickly grow cold under their auspices, because there is an unpleasant kind of fascist smell to it.
I will say this, we are opening a huge can of worms here and this is something I want to research further. I once defended Action Francaise here, I believe, but the priest I know in France is always vehemently against it. For a while this confused me. Then I saw why -- in France, there is a skinhead-type network infiltrating trad Catholicism, that seems to emanate from the Action Francaise mentality. Everything is about the state, about organization and rule. To a casual observer, it may just sound like the usual patriotism you might have heard in Catholic Spain... But it's not, it smacks more of communism and fascism, there is a kind of dehumanized collectivist spirit that I pick up on there.
fourthly, I am astonished you are anti-monarchist.
From what I have heard about Action Francaise, I believe it is Gallican-tainted and puts the monarchy above the papacy, and that is never what I have been about. I admit though, that is hearsay, an impression, and I have to study this more. Now is the time, because it has just hit me that this controversy has important consequences for the future, there is something very significant going on here.
As for whether I hate SSPX, I hate compromise and false theology, and for that reason I hate the SSPX. However, since they probably don't teeter over into heresy, I have to recognize them as Catholics and love them for that reason, not the organization but the people :farmer: