Pierre-Marie Théas

Pierre-Marie Théas (born September 14, 1894 in Barzun, Pyrénées-Atlantiques-died on April 3, 1977,aged 82) was a French Roman Catholic bishop. Ordained a priest in 1920, he became Bishop of Montauban, in 1940, and later served as Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes. A significant figure in Catholic resistance to Nazism in France, he was recognised as Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem for his efforts to protect Jews from the Nazi Holocaust.

Biography

He was ordained on September 16, 1920 as a priest. He was consecrated as the Bishop of Montauban, France, on July 26, 1940. He was present at the last days of Spanish President Manuel Azaña, and offered support to his widow.^{[citation needed]}

Resistance to Nazism

When the Archbishop of Toulouse, Jules-Géraud Saliège, lead a powerful denunciation of the mistreatment of Jews in 1942, Théas joined other French bishops in denouncing the roundup of Jews for deportation to Nazi death camps.^[1] He wrote a pastoral letter condemning the Nazi deportation of Jews in the summer of 1942 in which he said: "I give voice to the outraged protest of Christian conscience and I proclaim… that all men, whatever their race or religion, have the right to be respected by individuals and by states." For his attempts to prevent the Jewish deportations and persecutions he was later honoured as "Righteous Among The Nations" by Yad Vashem.

The protest of the bishops is seen by various historians as a turning point in the formerly passive response of the Catholic Church in France. Marie-Rose Gineste transported a pastoral letter from Bishop Théas of Montauban by bicycle to forty parishes, denouncing the uprooting of men and women "treated as wild animals", and the French Resistance smuggled the text to London, where it was broadcast to France by the BBC, reaching tens of thousands of homes.^[2]

Théas continued to oppose the Nazi policies culminating in a fiery sermon in his cathedral in which he condemned the "Cruel and inhuman treatment of one of our fellow men" in 1944. He was arrested the night after the sermon by the Gestapo. He was sent to a concentration camp where he spent 10 weeks and then was released and returned to his parish.^[3]

Post-war

After the war he was installed as the Bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes on February 17, 1947 and retired on February 12, 1970.^[4] He was most noted for his belief in Liberation Theology. He has been credited as saying:^{[citation needed]}

"Urged on by unrestrainable forces, today's world asks for a revolution. The revolution must succeed, but it can succeed only if the Church enters the fray, bringing the Gospel. After being liberated from Nazi dictatorship, we want to liberate the working class from capitalist slavery."

He died on April 3, 1977.

Works

He wrote two books:

• Ce Que Croyait Bernadette (The Faith of Bernadette)
• Ce Que Croyait Le Vierge Marie (The Faith of the Virgin Mary).

References