1985-1987 - A CATHOLIC THIRD WORLDISM IDE NTITY CRISIS

From 1985 to 1987, several campaigns issued from the Right and Far Rig ht newspapers accused the C.C.F.D. (Catholic Committee against Hunger and for Development) of drifting towards Marxism and colluding with re volutionary governments and movements. Those accusations, going far ba ck in time, were revived because they surged up again with the more ge neral crisis of the French ''Third Worldism''. The C.C.F.D, leaders br ought forward these accusations by asserting they came from the small Parisian intellectual world, and from the Catholic circles whose sympa thy for integrism were well-known. But these campaigns also disclosed the conflict which set the Secours Catholique against the Catholic Act ion movements, within the C.C.F.D. After several tricky negotiations, the bishops forced a reform an the C.C.F.D., with the aim of avoiding the splitting up of the movement. As time passes, three historical vie wpoints may bring this crisis to light: it set forth again the questio n of the autonomy of the Catholic Action movements towards the episcop acy; it intersected the debate about inheritance and understanding of Vatican II Council; it put at stake the question of the Catholic ''Thi rd-Worldism'' identity in the French contemporary intellectual scene.