Liberal CatholicismW
Liberal Catholicism

Liberal Catholicism was a current of thought within the Catholic Church. It was influential in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, especially in France. It is largely identified with French political theorists such as Felicité Robert de Lamennais, Henri Lacordaire, and Charles Forbes René de Montalembert influenced, in part, by a similar contemporaneous movement in Belgium. Since 1834, liberalism and "liberal" Catholicism have been condemned by the Catholic Church.

John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron ActonW
John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton, 13th Marquess of Groppoli,, better known as Lord Acton, was an English Catholic historian, politician, and writer. He was the only son of Sir Ferdinand Dalberg-Acton, 7th Baronet, and a grandson of the Neapolitan admiral and prime minister Sir John Acton, 6th Baronet. Between 1837 and 1869 he was known as Sir John Dalberg-Acton, 8th Baronet.

Cesare BalboW
Cesare Balbo

Cesare Balbo, Conte di Vinadio, was an Italian writer and statesman.

Orestes BrownsonW
Orestes Brownson

Orestes Augustus Brownson was a New England intellectual and activist, preacher, labor organizer, and noted Catholic convert and writer.

Gino CapponiW
Gino Capponi

Marquis Gino Capponi was an Italian statesman and historian of a Liberal Catholic bent.

Catholic Mariavite ChurchW
Catholic Mariavite Church

The Catholic Mariavite Church is an autonomous church in Poland resulting from a schism in 1935 within the Old Catholic Mariavite Church.

Pierre-Suzanne-Augustin CochinW
Pierre-Suzanne-Augustin Cochin

Pierre-Suzanne-Augustin Cochin, was a French politician and writer with an interest in social and economic issues. He was associated with Charles de Montalembert and the liberal branch of the Catholic Church in France and was elected mayor of the tenth arrondissement in Paris in 1853. A staunch opponent of slavery and advocate for the Union cause during the American Civil War, he was knighted by Pope Pius IX in 1862 for his "admirable work on the Abolition of Slavery." He was the father of the Catholic politician Denys Cochin and the grandfather of the historian Augustin Cochin.

Ignaz von DöllingerW
Ignaz von Döllinger

Johann Joseph Ignaz von Döllinger, also Doellinger in English, was a German theologian, Catholic priest and church historian who rejected the dogma of papal infallibility. Among his writings which proved controversial, his criticism of the papacy antagonized ultramontanes, yet his reverence for tradition annoyed the liberals.

Félix DupanloupW
Félix Dupanloup

Mgr. Félix Antoine Philibert Dupanloup was a French ecclesiastic. He was among the leaders of Liberal Catholicism in France.

Antonio FogazzaroW
Antonio Fogazzaro

Antonio Fogazzaro was an Italian novelist and proponent of Liberal Catholicism. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times.

Vincenzo GiobertiW
Vincenzo Gioberti

Vincenzo Gioberti was an Italian clergyman, philosopher, publicist and politician. He was a prominent spokesman for liberal Catholicism.

Auguste Joseph Alphonse GratryW
Auguste Joseph Alphonse Gratry

Auguste Joseph Alphonse Gratry was a French author and theologian.

Anton GüntherW
Anton Günther

Anton Günther was an Austrian Roman Catholic philosopher whose work was condemned by the church as heretical tritheism. His work has been described as Liberal Catholicism and Vienna's first Catholic political movement. His writings made him a leader among the generation of German Catholic theologians who emerged from the Romantic movement.

Isaac HeckerW
Isaac Hecker

Isaac Thomas Hecker was an American Catholic priest and founder of the Paulist Fathers, a North American religious society of men.

Alexandre HerculanoW
Alexandre Herculano

Alexandre Herculano de Carvalho e Araújo was a Portuguese novelist and historian.

Félicité de La MennaisW
Félicité de La Mennais

Félicité Robert de La Mennais was a French Catholic priest, philosopher and political theorist. He was one of the most influential intellectuals of Restoration France. Lamennais is considered the forerunner of liberal Catholicism and social Catholicism.

Jean-Baptiste Henri LacordaireW
Jean-Baptiste Henri Lacordaire

Jean-Baptiste Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, often styled Henri-Dominique Lacordaire, was a French ecclesiastic, preacher, journalist, theologian and political activist. He re-established the Dominican Order in post-Revolutionary France. Lacordaire was reputed to be the greatest pulpit orator of the nineteenth century.

Alessandro ManzoniW
Alessandro Manzoni

Alessandro Francesco Tommaso Antonio Manzoni was an Italian poet, novelist and philosopher. He is famous for the novel The Betrothed (1827), generally ranked among the masterpieces of world literature. The novel is also a symbol of the Italian Risorgimento, both for its patriotic message and because it was a fundamental milestone in the development of the modern, unified Italian language. Manzoni also contributed to the stabilization of the modern Italian language and helped to ensure linguistic unity throughout Italy. He was an influential proponent of Liberal Catholicism in Italy. His work and thinking has often been contrasted with that of his younger contemporary Giacomo Leopardi by critics.

Francisco Martínez MarinaW
Francisco Martínez Marina

Biografía española. D. Francisco Martínez Marina

François Antoine Marie Constantin de Méan et de BeaurieuxW
François Antoine Marie Constantin de Méan et de Beaurieux

François Antoine Marie Constantin de Méan et de Beaurieux, was Archbishop of Mechelen, Belgium.

Charles Forbes René de MontalembertW
Charles Forbes René de Montalembert

Charles Forbes René de Montalembert was a French publicist, historian and Count of Montalembert, Deux-Sèvres, and a prominent representative of Liberal Catholicism.

John Henry NewmanW
John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman, C.O. was an English theologian, scholar and poet, first an Anglican priest and later a Catholic priest and cardinal, who was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century. He was known nationally by the mid-1830s, and was canonised as a saint in the Catholic Church in 2019.

Frédéric OzanamW
Frédéric Ozanam

Antoine-Frédéric Ozanam was a French literary scholar, lawyer, journalist and equal rights advocate. He founded with fellow students the Conference of Charity, later known as the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris in 1997, hence he may be properly called Blessed Frederic by Catholics. His feast day is 9 September.

Antonio RosminiW
Antonio Rosmini

Blessed Antonio Francesco Davide Ambrogio Rosmini-Serbati was an Italian Roman Catholic priest and philosopher. He founded the Rosminians, officially the Institute of Charity or Societas a charitate nuncupata, pioneered the concept of social justice, and was a key figure in Italian Liberal Catholicism. Alessandro Manzoni considered Rosmini the only contemporary Italian author worth reading.

Francisco de São LuísW
Francisco de São Luís

Frei Francisco de São Luís, O.S.B., religious name of Francisco Manuel Justiniano Saraiva and today more commonly known as Cardinal Saraiva, was a Portuguese Cardinal of the Catholic Church, who was the eighth Patriarch of Lisbon from 1840 to 1845.

Engelbert SterckxW
Engelbert Sterckx

Engelbert Sterckx, was the Archbishop of Mechelen, Belgium from 1832 to 1867.

Johann Emanuel VeithW
Johann Emanuel Veith

Johann Emanuel Veith was a Bohemian Roman Catholic preacher. He was heavily influenced by the liberal theology of Anton Günther.

J. I. WedgwoodW
J. I. Wedgwood

James Ingall Wedgwood was the first Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church.