OUR FOUNDER: JEAN RODHAIN | Cité Saint-Pierre

Jean Rodhain A man who disturbs

Jean Rodhain was born in Remiremont, Vosges, on January 29, 1900. The future founder of Secours Catholique and initiator of Cité Saint-Pierre was born into a pious family very attached to the figure of Mary.

After studying at the seminary in Saint Dié des Vosges, he was ordained priest on July 12, 1924.

” Throughout my seminary, I was preoccupied above all by the social aspect and by serving the poor!– Jean Rodhain.

He was curate for 5 years at the Basilique Saint Maurice in Épinal.
He was tireless, bursting with activity, imagination and initiative. He caused a stir. He was then appointed parish priest at Mandres-sur-Vair.

At the same time, he joined the nascent JOC (Jeunesse Ouvrière Chrétienne) and took charge of a women’s Jocist section.
It was a new form of apostolate that took his life in an unexpected direction, ashe discovered working-class life, the weight of social inequalities and injustices, the constraints of work…

Up close Prisoners

When war broke out in 1939, he was mobilized as a divisional chaplain.

Taken prisoner on June 16, 1940, he was transported to Avallon hospital.
Sent to Paris by the Chief Medical Officer to collect medical supplies, he took the opportunity to meet Cardinal Suhard, Archbishop of Paris. He asked him for permission to escape to better serve the prisoners.

He escaped in July 1940 and set up the Aumônerie des Prisonniers de Guerre (Prisoners of War Chaplaincy). He organized liaison with the 2,200 prisoner priests and the shipment of worship materials to the camps.

In December 1942, he visited the prison camps in East Prussia and met laypeople, priests and prison authorities. He spent Christmas Eve with the prisoners. In his pocket, he carried a very modest rosary made from the ends of prisoners’ shoelaces.

In 1943, the Aumônerie des Déportés et des Travailleurs français en Allemagne merged with the Aumônerie des Prisonniers to become the Aumônerie des Prisonniers et des Déportés.

A man of action The beginnings of Secours Catholique

On September 8, 1946, at the Grotto of Massabielle in Lourdes, he announced the creation of Secours Catholique.

From that date onwards, Abbé Rodhain’s activities merged with those of Secours Catholique: setting up this organization in France through the Délégations Diocésaines, campaigns and action on behalf of the poorest (the elderly, the sick, children, prisoners, migrants, disaster victims, etc.), creation of the Cités-Secours, aid to the Third World, thanks to the microproject formula launched by him, presence and aid during major national and international disasters.

Beyond organization and achievements, Abbé Rodhain is above all concerned with the pedagogy of Charity: ” Christ is shared bread “, he readily asserts, and even more often ” Charity today prepares the social justice of tomorrow “.

Why Secours Catholique?

To this question, he answers: ” To light the fire of Charity “. The aim of the association is to spread Christian charity.

The association’s mission is to ” provide assistance and direct or indirect moral or spiritual aid wherever it is needed, regardless of the philosophical or religious opinions of the beneficiaries, to the exclusion of any national or denominational particularism “, as stated in article 1 of Secours Catholique.