Between Rome and Rebellion

With Between Rome and Rebellion, Yves Chiron, acclaimed author of dozens of biographies and historical studies, once again proves himself a master historian. Drawing upon a vast fund of information gathered over the course of three decades, including numerous interviews, correspondence, diaries, and archives, Chiron tells the thrilling, at times gut-wrenching, story of the “loyal resistance” of Catholics—especially in France, but soon all over the world—who held fast to the old forms of worship, catechesis, doctrine, and family life, in the midst of a Church roiling with reforms that they viewed as betrayals.

Starting with the Modernist crisis and Pius X’s response to it, we follow in these pages the immense drama of a century filled with battles on every front—political, military, and ecclesiastical. We learn of the vitality, but also the fissiparousness, of traditionalist groups at a time when nearly everything else in the Church seemed to be falling apart, especially after the tumultuous years of the Second Vatican Council. We see the rage directed at traditionalists by an establishment that tolerates any experiment except “the experiment of Tradition” and writes off all adherence to the past as “integrism.” As everyone tries to navigate the turbulent waters of a conciliar “renewal” that quickly turned into a debacle, we become acquainted with modern-day confessors and white martyrs, wild-eyed prophets and sober critics, two-faced churchmen and secret allies. Chiron’s deft pen brings many controversial figures into sharp relief—above all, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Priestly Society of St. Pius X, with whose formidable witness everyone, friend or foe, had to reckon.

Breathlessly moving from one disaster and rescue operation to the next, Between Rome and Rebellion sheds new light on the modern transformation of the Catholic Church, and why numerous priests, religious, and laity felt compelled to stand against it.