Mun, Albert, comte de

▪ French religious leader

born Feb. 28, 1841, Lumigny, Fr.

died Oct. 6, 1914, Bordeaux

      French Christian Socialist leader and orator who advocated Roman Catholicism as an instrument of social reform.

      After leaving the military school at Saint-Cyr, Mun saw active service in Algeria (1862) and in the Franco-German War and later fought against the Paris Commune. From the end of 1871, however, he devoted himself to the formation of Catholic workers' clubs throughout France. Elected to the Chamber of Deputies, he allied himself with the monarchists for many years. In obedience, however, to Pope Leo XIII's encyclical of 1892, he declared his readiness to rally to the republican regime provided that it respected religion. Roman Catholic support of the French republic failed to create a conservative republican party, but it did further the cause of social Catholicism and Catholic trade unionism.

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