• 1 Dr. Warlomont, “La Société médicale Belge de Saint-Luc”, Bulletin de la Société Médicale Belge de (...)
• 2 “Statuts provisoires de la Société Médicale Belge de Saint-Luc”, BSL, 1, 1922, p. 16.

1On the first of June 1922, René Warlomont, the secretary-general of the newly founded Belgian Medical Society of Saint-Luc, addressed his fellow members: The founders of the society strove to group those faithful physicians who were eager to enlighten and strengthen their faith by harmonizing it with their profession. In this manner, they unify them into one single ideal, one single life, that of the physician-apostle for Christ.1 The society’s statutes, which had been approved by the Belgian archbishop Désiré-Joseph Mercier, indicated how to live up to this commitment. They stipulated the double goal of offering a site for the study of medical issues in relation to Catholic doctrine and of spreading Christian morality in the medical corps.2 To achieve these goals, the Saint Luc Society organised lectures and discussions that were monitored by Jesuit priests who acted as “theological advisers”. Afterwards, these were published in the society’s bulletin Saint-Luc Médical. In this way, its readers were presented with a coherent discourse on how Catholic physicians should behave. In short, the journal functioned as a guide to faith-inspired medical practice.

• 3 Pierre Guillaume, Médecins, Église et foi depuis deux siècles, Paris, Aubier, 1990, pp. 10–11.
• 4 Karel Velle, De nieuwe biechtvaders: de sociale geschiedenis van de arts in België, Leuven, Kritak (...)
• 5 Jacques Léonard, “Femmes, religion et médecine. Les religieuses qui soignent, en France au xi^xe si (...)
• 6 John Hedley Brooke, Science and religion: some historical perspectives, Cambridge/New York, Cambri (...)

2For some time now, the Catholic physician has attracted scholarly attention. This interest should hardly be surprising. Situated at the intersection of medicine and religion, his medical practice and beliefs count as a test case for understanding the relationship between both fields. In 1990, the French medical historian Pierre Guillaume identified an inherent tension: The physician faithful to the teachings of the Church can be in an awkward position between the attitude they dictate to him and an attitude inspired by the social demands he observes.3 As most social historians of medicine at that time, he analyzed the relationship between medicine and religion mainly as one of conflict. Guillaume’s Belgian counterpart Karel Velle argued that the process of secularization (next to state development) in the 19^th and 20^th centuries was one of the necessary conditions for the emergence of the doctor as a leading social figure. An ever-growing reliance on science, he claimed, empowered physicians to demarcate themselves from non-professional healers such as Catholic priests.4 Around the same time, however, other historians started to question the modernity rationale underpinning this secularization thesis. While moments of conflict between professional health care providers and religious actors undoubtedly took place in the long 19^th century, the historiographical focus shifted towards instances of collaboration and interaction. The innovations of religious women in care facilities, the medical discourse that was used in support of miraculous phenomena and the tightening clerical pressure on women’s bodies illustrate that medical developments did not strip existing healing traditions from their Christian meaning.5 Rather than one episteme replacing the other, medicine and religion interacted in a variety of ways. In the last two decades, most historians of medicine and religion embraced what John Hedley Brooke called the ‘complexity-thesis’ and started to consider more productive encounters between the two spheres.6

• 7 Jessica Martucci, “Religion, Medicine, and Politics: Catholic Physicians’ Guilds in America, 1909– (...)
• 8 Hervé Guillemain, “Les débuts de la médecine catholique en France. La Société médicale Saint-Luc, (...)
• 9 “Études et travaux des Sociétés médicales catholiques de l’étranger”, Saint Luc Médical (SLM), 2, (...)

3Within this renewed historiography, Catholic medical societies have received much attention. They functioned as collective professional environments and therefore allowed historians to study Catholic physicians’ social profile, professional identity and socio-political views. Jessica Martucci analyzed how the foundation of the American Saint Luc (Luke) guild in New York in 1909 led to the creation of the National Federation of Catholic Physicians’ Guilds in 1931. It provided American Catholic physicians with a political platform to influence health care debates in the United States.7 Hervé Guillemain studied the establishment and structure of the first Catholic medical society in France, the Society of Saint Luc, Saint Cosmas, and Saint Damian (1884) in Le Mans. He rightly observed that this example was copied all around the world.8 The founders of the Belgian Saint Luc Society as well mentioned this French pioneering medical club as their source of inspiration.9

• 10 Martin Conway, “Belgium”, in Political Catholicism in Europe, 1918 - 1965, edited by Martin Conway (...)
• 11 Tine Van Osselaer, “Christening masculinity? Catholic Action and men in interwar Belgium”, Gender (...)
• 12 Hervé Guillemain, “Devenir médecin au xi^xe siècle. Vocation et sacerdoce au sein d’une profession (...)

4This article will not focus explicitly on Catholic medical societies’ political aims in an expanding health care sector or on the profile of their members. Rather, it will contribute to understanding their role in forging a professional identity by analyzing how the Belgian Saint Luc Society advanced a model for being a Catholic physician, for becoming a ‘physician-apostle for Christ’. Our analysis reveals that the society functioned as an extracurricular site for deontological training, whose main aim was to uplift Belgian doctors on a moral level. Belgium’s post-war political context offered fertile soil for the promotion of this Catholic moral agenda. The introduction of universal suffrage for men in 1919 made coalition governments an essential aspect of Belgian politics. After more than thirty years of being the sole party in office, the Catholic party lost its parliamentary hegemony and was obliged to share power with other parties. Beyond Belgium, moreover, the Catholic world at large was said to be in great distress.10 In 1922, Pope Pius XI repeated his predecessor’s call for Catholic Action. From then on, laymen were expected to organize themselves to fight the moral decline of society. The Church wanted to involve every good Catholic, including doctors, in its apostolate to ‘restore everything in Christ’.11 As Guillemain has already observed for France, the mid-nineteenth century vocational discourse on the physician received renewed attention during the interbellum. References to priesthood were reintroduced to restore the social standing of the doctor’s profession.12 We contend that political turmoil, Catholic Action impetus and vocational narratives were crucial ingredients for the creation of a new professional identity in interwar Belgium. This article considers how the Saint Luc Society outlined a medical apostolate which required Catholic physicians to act in a priest-like way when treating patients.

• 13 Alison Moulds, “The ‘Medical-Women Question’ and the Multivocality of the Victorian Medical Press, (...)
• 14 Documentatie- en Onderzoekscentrum voor Religie, Cultuur en Samenleving (KADOC), Archief Jezuïeten (...)
• 15 For illustrative purposes: the first issue in 1922 counted 17 pages whereas the last issue of 1939 (...)

5To study how the Belgian Saint-Luc Society forged a professional medical identity, we have conducted a detailed analysis of its journal. While journals form well-suited sources for studying professional identify formation, they also present particular difficulties.13 The Saint Luc Society’s journal—with its 1, 050 subscribing doctors and 50 subscribing clerics in 1933—was no exception to this.14 Figures about its circulation are scarce, and its impact on readers, let alone on actual medical practice, remains difficult to assess. Only from 1930 onwards, we may consider Saint Luc Médical an actual journal with a nation-wide reach among doctors. Up until then, it was a member magazine called Bulletin de la Société Médicale Belge de Saint-Luc which provided structure to an extensive network of personal ties. While its objectives—informing society members about discussions, activities and lectures—remained the same, the journal’s professionalization in 1930 resulted in a different set-up. The periodical, which used the format of an A5-booklet, became more extensive and shifted from quarterly to more colourful bimonthly issues, which offered space for pharmaceutical advertisements.15 The most substantive innovation was the appointment of an editor-in-chief. The young and energetic Raoul De Guchteneere, a devout Catholic gynaecologist with a private practice in Brussels, took up this position. Under his editorship, the journal’s content got a more stylized and embellished form. Readers were presented with a clear-cut idea of what was professionally and religiously expected from Catholic physicians. Yet, discussion and incoherence never completely disappeared from the journal. Most of the content consisted of articles and transcribed lectures in which doctors, professors and theologians elaborated on a specific topic related to Catholicism and medicine. In the smaller sections, however, less well-established ideas could be put forward. Apart from the book review section, a section on spirituality and obituaries of famous Catholic physicians, there were two small sections, ‘Questions and Answers’ and ‘Notes and reflections,’ in which the voices of readers could be heard. A close reading of the journal, with attention to all these different components, enabled us to partly reconstruct the vivid interaction and (some of the) disagreements between priests and doctors. Unfortunately, the society left no archive to enrich this picture with a look behind the scenes during the editorial process.

• 16 Emiel Lamberts, “Van Kerk naar zuil: de ontwikkeling van het katholieke organisatiewezen in België (...)
• 17 Joris Vandendriessche, Medical Societies and Scientific Culture in Nineteenth-Century Belgium, Man (...)

7Belgium is an interesting case to study how Catholic medical sociability constructed an ideal of being a Catholic physician. Belgian society was characterized by a deep Catholic tradition. Quite paradoxically, this Catholic persistence was in large part due to the liberal constitution the newly found Belgian state adopted in 1831. The official recognition of religious freedom proved to be very effective for the strengthening of Belgian Catholicism. As a consequence, the Catholic pillar quickly outperformed all others in setting up all kind of social facilities. The faithful could rely on the best-developed organizations for being guided and supported from cradle to grave. Socially as well as politically, Catholicism was deeply embedded in Belgium. Between 1884 and 1916 the Catholic party even enjoyed absolute hegemony in the parliament, being the sole party in office.16 This omnipotence did, however, not necessarily translate into the field of medical associations. Nineteenth-century Belgium witnessed the rise of dozens of medical societies. Most of these were organized along professional or scientific, but not religious lines.17

• 18 Wannes Dupont, “Free Floating Evils: A Genealogy of Homosexuality in Belgium”, unpublished PhD dis (...)
• 19 “Club Médical. Statutes, 1883”, private archive Alain De Cock, current secretary of the Club Médic (...)
• 20 Arthe Van Laer, “De christianisering van moderne beroepen. De beginjaren van de katholieke hogesch (...)
• 21 Aartsbisschoppelijk Archief Mechelen (AAM), Archief Mercier, VI.3, “Brief De Lantsheere aan Mercie (...)
• 22 Institut Des Deux-Alice, L’École d’infirmières Saint-Camille 1907-1932, Bruxelles, Institut des De (...)

8Of course, there were some exceptions to this general rule. First of all, we must point out a few attempts to establish a Catholic-inspired professional organization for physicians. In 1875, the medical press indicated the formation of L’Iâtrie belge. Apparently, this was an association with the aim to defend the ‘Catholic’ medical interests in Belgium.18 A few years later, in 1883, the Club Médical de Bruxelles was more successful in establishing a permanent organization. While the statutes of the Club Médical did not mention any Catholic affiliation,19 its clerical ties became clear when an older ideological conflict over the medical training of hospital nurses flared up again in 1907. In that year, Antoine Depage, a medical professor at the Free University of Brussels, founded his school for lay nurses because he considered the scientific training of religious sisters to be insufficient. In Catholic circles this was perceived as an attempt to secularize health care. Consequently, it did not take long for Catholics to react. Only one month after the opening of Depage’s institute, the nursing school of Saint-Camille was established in Uccle. This way, future lay nurses had the opportunity to choose for a Catholic institution.20 One of the main driving forces behind Saint-Camille was Joseph De Lantsheere, president of the Club Médical at the time. In a letter to Cardinal Mercier he promised Club Médical’s full support of the new Catholic institution.21 Different members of the association such as Emile Van Hoeck and Maurice Wibo took up positions in Saint-Camille.22

• 23 Evert Peeters and Kaat Wils, "Ambivalences of Liberal Health Policy: Lebensreform and Self-Help Me (...)
• 24 “Verslag van de voorzitters der Sint Lucas Gilde van Antwerpen en Hasselt”, SLM, 6, 1932, pp. 360– (...)

9Such ideological conflicts between liberal and Catholic medical professionals occurred typically in urban contexts. Until the end of the First World War, most regulatory power concerning medicine and health care resided at the local level. While liberalism and socialism held a stronger position in the cities, Catholics dominated the countryside (even though Catholicism was a crucial factor in the whole of Belgium). As progressive liberals and socialists expanded public health initiatives in the cities, Catholics realized that the political consensus about personal freedom and minimal state intervention had become untenable. Nonetheless, they feared that the politicization of healthcare would have negative implications for Catholic interests.23 In Antwerp, for example, Victor Possemiers founded the Union des médecins catholiques d’Anvers in 1913 to pressure the town council to end what he considered an unfair appointment policy in the city’s expanding health services, in which liberal physicians were privileged. Apparently, the election of the Catholic mayor Frans Van Cauwelaert in 1921 ended this de facto exclusion of Catholic physicians and the society was dissolved.24

• 25 Joris Vandendriessche, Medical Societies and Scientific Culture in Nineteenth-Century Belgium, Oxf (...)
• 26 “Société scientifique de Bruxelles”, Bestor, consulted on 19 March 2018, https://www.bestor.be/wik (...)
• 27 “Statuts”, Annales de la Société Scientifique de Bruxelles (ASSB), 1, 1875-1876, p. 3. Quote trans (...)
• 28 “Discussion sur le Foeticide médical”, ASSB, XXVII (supplement), 1902-1903, p. 9.

10At the end of the nineteenth century, Catholic medical sociability was not confined to professional organizations. Catholic physicians also gathered in scientific societies. In 1841, the Belgian Academy of Medicine had been the first to seek an ideological mix among its members. Professorships at the universities of Leuven and Brussels functioned as clear denominators of their members’ presumed position in the age-old conflict between Catholics and liberals. Specialized societies in the late nineteenth century followed this mixed model.25 At the same time, exclusively Catholic scientific organizations were created, such as the Scientific Society of Brussels, which was founded in 1875 and aimed at the diffusion and advancement of the sciences.26 For its members, there could be no discrepancy between faith and science since reason was a tool provided by God to understand “His creation”. To live up to this ambition, the Scientific Society met in five different sections, all dedicated to another branch of science. The fourth section dealt with medical science and strictly observed the society’s creed never [to] permit any attack, however courteous, on the Catholic religion.27 This was made very clear during a discussion on medical abortion in 1903. As the Church condemned abortion under all circumstances, the practice itself was not up for discussion. The physicians rather discussed how the constant improvement of other obstetric methods could eradicate the use of abortion.28 Medical procedures such as abortion which ran counter to Catholic doctrine were considered bad science that required no further consideration.

• 29 Jean Stengers, “Les pratiques anticonceptionnelles dans le mariage au xi^xe et au x^xe siècle : prob (...)

11Lastly, Catholic medical sociability was also a product of the Church’s dealings with the issues of birth control and sexual morality. Around 1900 a Belgian Neo-Malthusian association, the Ligue belge de la régénération humaine, was established to urge families and women to think about the number of children they were able to support. To counter this ‘godless propaganda’, Cardinal Mercier undertook all kinds of actions to remind Christians that it was their divine duty to procreate within marriage. As a part of this campaign, he gathered a group of physicians, including Octave Dauwe and Rufin Schokaert (both professors at the Catholic University of Leuven) around him to form the short-lived Ligue nationale contre l’infécondité intentionelle in 1910. All of this indicated that medicine had become a field of intensified polarization on the eve of the First World War.29

• 30 Hervé Guillemain, “Les débuts de la médecine catholique en France”, op. cit., p. 245; “Quatrième s (...)

12It was in this context and within these social circles that the idea to found an explicitly Catholic medical society took shape around the turn of the century. During a session of the Scientific Society in 1904, Warlomont pointed to France as a source of inspiration. After having described the purpose and activities of the French Saint Luc Society, he compared it to the medical section of the Scientific Society. In terms of scope and ambition, he observed an essential difference. While the latter was part of a larger learned society which contented itself with showing that science and religion were in perfect harmony, the former had the specific aim to rechristen the medical profession. There was an apparent discrepancy between Belgian Catholic scholars defending science against atheist requisitions and French Catholic physicians who went beyond this apologetic stance by reintroducing Christianity as the core of medical practice. Even if Warlomont overestimated the consensus around this program of rechristianization within the French Saint Luc Society, the notion of ‘Catholic medicine’ clearly inspired him.30

• 32 Dr. Goedseels, “Le Dr Warlomont”, SLM, 5, 1930, p. 112.
• 33 Dr. Goedseels, “Les quarante ans de la Société Médicale Belge de Saint Luc”, SLM, 5, 1962, pp. 526 (...)
• 34 Dr. Warlomont, “Assemblee générale d’octobre 1924”, BSL, 1, 1925, p. 9.

13Before the First World War, a first attempt to set up such an organization failed due to too much opposition within the medical corps.32 After the elections of 1919—marked by a strong rise of the socialist party and a severe loss of the Catholic party—there seemed to be a greater sense of urgency among Catholic physicians. Eventually, a founding committee consisting of Warlomont, De Lantsheere, Wibo, Van Hoeck and the young Goedseels established a Belgian Saint Luc Society in 1922.33 Soon this newly found organization counted a hundred or so members. Like the founding members themselves, the majority of them were male, self-employed practitioners from the Brussels region. In addition to a large number of general practitioners, the association included ophthalmologists, gynaecologists, obstetricians, urologists and so on.34

• 35 Tine Van Osselaer, “Christening masculinity?”, op. cit., p. 380; Martin Conway, “Introduction”, p. (...)
• 36 Emmanuel Gerard, “Cardijn, arbeidersbeweging en Katholieke Actie (1918-1945)”, in Cardijn. Een men (...)
• 37 “Assemblée Générale du 18 octobre 1936”, SLM, 6, 1936, p. 588–592; Pierre Rion, “L’ACJB et la lutt (...)
• 38 Mgr. Callewaert, “Op de stichtingsvergadering van de Sint-Lucasgilde te Brugge, 17 juli 1932”, SLM(...)
• 39 Karen Celis, “Abortus in België, 1880-1940”, BTNG, 26/3, 1996, p. 228; Dr. Van Langendonck, “La ré (...)

14As papal encouragements lay at the heart of the initiative, the Belgian Saint Luc society bore a clear Catholic Action imprint from day one. While this term was first coined by Pope Pius X, it was his successor, Pope Pius XI, who narrowed it down to a movement of the Catholic laity in 1922. According to his encyclical Ubi Arcano Dei Consilio, clerical authorities could only provide a general framework and theological guidance. It was up to ordinary Catholics to unite in order to restore the Catholic grip on state and society. Physicians were not in the least counted upon to help the Church with this Catholic reconquest of society.35 Apart from this general idea, lay action under the supervision of theological advisors, the Saint Luc Society incorporated other Catholic Action elements as well. Emmanuel Gerard observed at least two essential features of Belgian Catholic Action.36 First of all, there was a broader educational objective to the society. Apart from establishing youth sections in Leuven, Liège, Gent and Brussels, Maurice Wibo, one of its leading members, was directly linked to youth engagement. As president of the Ligue pour le relèvement de la moralité publique he joined forces with l’Association Catholique de la Jeunesse Belge, the leading Catholic Action youth-organization, in 1932.37 Second, the society declared to be apolitical as they considered being Catholic, not to be a political conviction, but an all-compassing feature of life.38 While this alleged ‘political neutrality’ was fully in line with the Catholic Action philosophy, this did not withhold the society from putting pressure on politicians. Especially concerning ‘immoral practices’ such as abortion, the society often tried to influence policy-making.39

• 40 “Statuts de la Société Médicale Belge de Saint-Luc”, BSL, 2, 1925, p. 33.
• 41 Dr. Peeters, “Le premier week-end spirituel médical en Belgique”, SLM, 3, 1933, pp. 210–212.
• 42 Mgr. Callewaert, “op de stichtingsvergadering van de Sint-Lucasgilde te Brugge, 17 juli 1932”, SLM(...)
• 43 M. Massion, “Rapport sur la Jeunesse médicale de Saint Luc”, BSL, 4, 1925, p. 10.
• 44 Hervé Guillemain, “Devenir médecin au xix^e siècle”, op. cit., pp. 120–122.
• 45 “Notre activité”, BSL, 3, 1923, p. 47; Dr. Warlomont, “ Rapport sur la Société Médicale Belge de S (...)

15The main goal of the Saint Luc Society was more moral than it was political. Its essence was to infuse the medical corps with a Christian spirit. Therefore, attention was paid to small but significant religious gestures. According to the statutes, all gatherings opened and closed with common prayer. Deceased members were given a funeral ceremony and annually a mass was organized in honour of Saint Luc.40 Furthermore, society members could regularly enjoy ‘spiritual weekends’ in the abbey of Drongen. These were meant to give Catholic physicians the opportunity to distance themselves from their hectic lives and deepen their religiosity.41 However, the journal stressed that religion could and should never confine itself to the private sphere, that faith is not a coat which someone can wear according to circumstances.42 Piety was to be embraced in medical practice, not banned from the doctor’s cabinet. In order to unify Catholicism and medicine, the society developed a vocational discourse which compared the doctor’s profession to a second and authentic priesthood.43 Authentic, in the sense that it required the same kind of honest asceticism, but also subordinate to priesthood due to its worldly and material nature. This symbolic language retook an older vocational narrative in which the ‘inner compelling feeling’ to become a physician was attached with a sacral dimension.44 The novelty which characterized the reintroduction of this vocational narrative in interwar Belgium was the particular emphasis placed on apostolate, taking initiative and proclaiming the one true religion. Catholic doctors had to be men of action. Therefore, the society created and supported several ‘apostolic works’ in its wake. Apart from the Saint Luc Youth, the Pilgrimage Direction (an organization that provided Belgian pilgrims to Lourdes with medical assistance) and Medical Aid to the Mission (a recruitment body for doctors in the Belgian Congo) were respectively set up in 1923 and 1925.45

• 46 Dr. Warlomont, “La Société Médicale Belge de Saint-Luc”, op. cit., p. 3; Emmanuel Gerard, “Cardijn (...)
• 47 Karel Velle, “De geneeskunde en de R.K. Kerk…”, op. cit., p. 15; “Société de Saint Luc de Bruxelle (...)
• 48 “Statuts de la Société Médicale Belge de Saint-Luc”, op. cit., p. 32.

16The priest was not merely an abstract figure often invoked by the society’s journal. Article three of the statutes stated that all meetings should be assisted by a member of the clergy. The Jesuit Serafien Vermeulen was the first to hold the position of theological adviser. He acted as an intermediary between Cardinal Mercier and the Catholic physicians.46 Of course, one sole theological advisor would soon prove to be insufficient for the expanding Belgian Saint Luc Society. In 1935, when the 59-year-old Vermeulen passed away, the society had established sections or ‘guilds’ in Charleroi, Verviers, Liège, Antwerp, Namur, Hasselt, Sint-Niklaas, Bruges, Mons, Kortrijk and Ghent.47 Moral theologians with a specific medical interest such as Jozef Salsmans and René Boigelot were brought in as authorized interpreters of the doctrine.48

• 49 Lucia Pozzi, “The Encyclical Casti connubii (1930): the Origin of the Twentieth Century Discourse (...)
• 50 Wannes Dupont, “Of Human Love: Catholics Campaigning for Sexual Aggiornamento in Postwar Belgium”, (...)

17To understand how these theological advisors were essential in forging Catholic views on medicine, we will explain how the Ogino-Knaus method was treated within the society. This method, named after the Japanese gynaecologist Kyusaku Ogino and the Austrian gynaecologist Hermann Knaus, was used to calculate the non-ovulation period of women based on their previous menstrual cycles. While the society treated topics as diverse as psychoanalysis, stigmata and Marian apparitions, questions concerning sexuality and reproduction dominated its agenda after Pope Pius XI published his encyclical Casti Connubii in 1930. As Lucia Pozzi has shown, this pro-natalist letter was a definite dismissal of Neo-Malthusianism and all kind of birth control practices.49 Despite its severe tone, however, it left much doubt about the legitimacy of periodic abstinence.50 Editor-in-chief Raoul De Guchteneere used this uncertainty to set the general tone. In a fifteen-page article in the journal he stated the following.

• 52 Dr. De Guchteneere, “La loi d’Ogino-Knaus. Etude rétrospective”, SLM, 2, 1956, pp. 133.
• 53 “Notes et Réflexions”, SLM, 1, 1934, p. 52.

18Well into the 1950’s the journal depictured Ogino-Knaus as an amoral technique, which, ‘if used for the right reasons’, could help to handle ‘the generosity of the Creator’.52 Yet, as historian of religion Ria Christens has noted, not everyone in the Saint Luc Society was pleased with this apparent consensus. In the shorter journal sections dissident voices such as the one of Octave Dauwe could be heard at times. In a reaction to a colleague asking whether or not the method was a legitimate practice, Dauwe viciously reacted that a true Catholic should know who to trust with regard to family planning, God or Ogino.53 Notwithstanding this small incident, the evaluation of Ogino-Knaus itself did not cause a lot of debate within the society.

• 54 Martine Sevegrand, L’amour en toutes lettres: questions à l’abbé Viollet sur la sexualité 1924-194 (...)
• 55 E.P. Vermeulen, “Over de theorie Ogino-Knaus”, SLM, 1, 1932, pp. 23-29; Lucia Pozzi, “The Encyclic (...)
• 56 Dr. Daubresse, “La période agénésique chez la femme au point de vue scientifique et moral”, SLM, 2 (...)
• 57 Translated from the dutch title “Periodieke onthouding in het huwelijk: methode Ogino-Knaus” see “ (...)
• 58 Ria Christens, “De orthodoxie van het zaad”, p. 245; Dr. De Guchteneere, “Population et Birth-cont (...)

19Yet, within the society the moral implications of disseminating this new method among the Catholic crowds was openly questioned. Shortly after De Guchteneere had addressed this topic for the first time, Vermeulen denounced the fact that Casti Connubii had made an end to the tradition of using Latin for writing about sexuality. This caused the circulation of half-truths and oversimplifications among laypeople that were morally harmful.54 Vermeulen feared that the widespread use of Ogino-Knaus would lead to confusion in the heads of many about the central aim of marriage, namely procreation. Therefore, the method should only be used discreetly in specific circumstances after consulting a physician or a priest. The ‘evil of Onanism’, for example, was a threat that could be suppressed by Ogino-Knaus, according to Vermeulen.55 Of course, this emphasis on discretion clashed with how the Dutch doctor Johannes Smulders publically recommended the method as a Catholic means to combat Neo-Malthusianism.56 A few weeks before the publication of Casti Connubii, Smulders had written a brochure for a broader audience called Periodic abstinence in marriage: method Ogino-Knaus.57 Even De Guchteneere, who himself warned for the exaggerated and illicit use of the method in the United States, while ‘prescribing’ it in his maternity in Brussels, openly wondered whether it was wise to vulgarize Ogino-Knaus on a large scale.58

• 59 Martine Sevegrand, “Les médecins catholiques français et la procreation (1920-1974)”, in La Sainte (...)
• 60 R.P. Lemaire, “Aspect moral des procédés employés pour éviter la conception”, SLM, 3, 1933, pp. 20 (...)
• 61 Tine Van Osselaer, “A question of competence and authority”, Sign or Symptom? Exceptional Corporea (...)
• 62 Martine Sevegrand, “La méthode Ogino et la morale catholique : une controverse théologique autour (...)

20Around 1938, with the multiplication of clerical writings publicly approving Ogino-Knaus, the discussion surrounding Smulders died down.59 Far more important was a question raised by theological adviser Alfred Lemaire. Which attitude should the individual physician hold in all this?60 The answer was not that different from what Tine Van Osselaer has shown concerning the medical examinations of supernatural phenomena.61 While high moral standards were central to the identity of the Catholic physician, he was also expected to abstain himself from theological reasoning and stick to medicine. That is no to say that theological inquiries about periodic abstinence could not benefit from the input of medical experts. To the contrary, they clearly did. But only theologians could legitimately speak out about the method in public.62 This was exactly why the publication of the Smulders brochure had caused so much commotion. As a physician, he should have refrained from openly endorsing Ogino-Knaus as a Christian alternative for Neo-Malthusian practices. It exceeded the moral authority attached to his profession.

• 63 R.P. Lemaire, “Aspect moral des procédés employés pour éviter la conception”, SLM, 3, 1933, pp. 20 (...)
• 64 E.P. J. Bogaerts, “De zedelijke waarde van de periodieke onthouding volgens de methode Ogino-Knaus (...)
• 65 R.P. Honoré, “L’Apostolat laïque du Médecin”, SLM, 2, 1937, pp. 125–129.

21The lines between medical and moral authority proved, however, difficult to draw sharply. Surely, physicians and clerics agreed, the task of the physician-apostle resembled that of the priest. Only after private consultation could he legitimately suggest the use of Ogino-Knaus to Catholic families.63 There was, however, some discord about who had the last say in the matter: the priest or the physician. In contrast to Lemaire, Jozef Bogaerts, theological adviser of the section in Ghent, prioritized the latter, since he considered Ogino-Knaus to be a medical affair.64 On a slightly larger scale, it was also the Catholic physician’s duty to fight miss-information about Ogino-Knaus among Christian families. Certainly until 1938, discretion remained the guiding principle.65 Far from propagating moral schemes, the physician-apostle was expected to reconcile doctrine with the real-life conjugal sexuality of lay Catholics. De Guchteneere’s treatment of Ogino-Knaus as an ‘amoral’ technique that could be used for the ‘right’ reasons provided Catholic doctors with some leeway. In fact, the journal was full of concrete advice on how a physician should proceed within the safe walls of his private cabinets without running counter to papal teachings.

• 66 “Assemblée Générale”, SLM, 6, 1937, p. 449.
• 67 M. Massion, “Rapport sur la jeunesse Médicale de St Luc”, BSL, 3, 1925, p. 7.

22Saint Luc Médical was intended for all Catholic doctors interested in topics related to medicine, religion and morality. As mentioned above, the journal counted 1, 200 subscribers. Except for 50 clerics, all of them were physicians (700) or students of medicine (450).66 While all subscribers were considered affiliated members of the society, it is fair to assume that not everyone was equally present and active at meetings of the local guilds. The journal had an outreach which went beyond the society’s core group of leading members. As such it was a powerful instrument to convey a new medical identity. As the previous section has demonstrated, debates were confined to the margins of the journal, and even then it seems that dissenting voices were stripped of their sharp edges to preserve the ‘Christian atmosphere’.67 Above all, the readers were presented with a clear-cut narrative on how to behave as good Catholic physicians.

• 68 Jessica Martucci, “Religion, Medicine, and Politics…”, op. cit., pp. 297–299.
• 69 “Chronique de la jeunesse de Saint Luc”, SLM, 6, 1934, p. 387; “La Société Médicale de Saint Luc d (...)
• 70 “Assemblée Générale du 18 octobre 1936”, SLM, 6, 1936, pp. 588–592.
• 71 “Chronique de la jeunesse de Saint Luc”, SLM, 6, 1933, p. 504; “Chronique de la jeunesse de Saint (...)

23This kind of ‘extracurricular’ training was deemed necessary to compensate for the perceived weaknesses of medical education at the Belgian universities. In contrast to their American counterparts, the Belgian Saint Luc guilds were not set up as a response to the persisting discrimination of Catholics in medical schools.68 As indicated above, Catholics rather held a dominant position in Belgian higher education. Several personalities of the Saint Luc Society, including its first president Aimé Morelle who was a professor in dermatology, were affiliated to the Catholic University of Leuven. These ties, however, did not protect, the university from being fiercely criticized by the society for focusing too excessively on knowledge and hence not assisting students enough in acquiring professional skills. The society felt in particular that the ‘social and Christian formation’ of doctors was being neglected.69 To provide medical students with additional deontological training, it established youth sections in every important university town around 1935.70 Especially in Leuven, the educational purpose of this youth section was very clear. Upon its foundation in 1933, it immediately absorbed the former Student Club for Deontology.71

• 72 Hervé Guillemain, “Les débuts de la médecine catholique en France”, op. cit., p. 232.
• 73 L.A. Veeger, “De maatschapelijke taak van den Katholieken Geneesheer”, SLM, 4, 1935, pp. 279–290.
• 74 In addition to 4 book reviews, two of his lectures were published in the journal. “Les livres, les (...)
• 75 Darrel W. Amundsen, “The Discourse of Roman Catholic Medical Ethics”, in The Cambridge World Histo (...)

24This was a structural difference between Belgium and France. In contrast to the Belgian youth sections, the Conferences Laënnec, the deontological gatherings for Catholic students of medicine in France, were not officially affiliated to the Saint Luc Society.72 Their simultaneous existence nonetheless illustrates a shared need for deontological training among Catholic medical professionals. In fact, a similar critique of medical education could be heard among Catholic physicians throughout Europe. At an international congress for Catholic doctors in 1935, the Dutch physician Lucas Antonius Veeger warned for the materialistic tendency at universities which led to harmful individualism among students of medicine.73 In the same way, the Saint Luc journal gave wide coverage to the work of Albert Niedermeyer, an Austrian doctor who advocated pastoral medicine.74 He urged Catholic doctors to care for their patients in a priest-like manner and to devote more attention to the spiritual and supernatural dimension of their profession.75

• 76 “Spiritualité médicale”, SLM, 1, 1939, pp. 6–9.
• 77 E.P. Salsmans, “Het hoekje van vroomheid : geest van geloof”, SLM, 2, 1939, pp. 85–88.
• 78 “Spiritualité médicale : Le Dévouement”, SLM, 3, 1939, pp. 165–168; E.H. Kan. F. Blaton, “Het hoek (...)

25In its journal, the Saint Luc Society propagated this Christian way of practicing medicine not only by including these foreign voices. The image of the physician-apostle was spread in several ways. From 1939 onwards, texts were inserted under the heading of ‘medical spirituality’ or ‘corner of piety’. These were short texts written by a theological adviser to underline the ‘sanctified nature’ of the doctor’s profession. The readers of the journal were constantly reminded of the privileged position a physician held. In contrast to other lay Catholics, they were to put Christian charity into practice on a daily base.76 While this Christian charity was expressed in a humanitarian fashion, it is remarkable that love of one’s fellow-man was not the sole objective of medical care. A physician could spiritually benefit from treating a patient to the best of his abilities.77 In most of the journal the patient was depicted as a mere tool for the doctor to get closer to God.78

• 79 Kaat Wils, ‘The Revelation of a Modern Saint: Marie Curie’s Scientific Asceticism and the Culture (...)
• 80 Michael Brown, “‘Like a Devoted Army’: Medicine, Heroic Masculinity, and the Military Paradigm in (...)
• 81 “Spiritualité médicale : Le Dévouement”, SLM, 3, 1939, op. cit. ; “Spiritualité médicale : les con (...)
• 82 L. Arts, “Het hoekje van vroomheid : loyaal en royaal”, SLM, 4, 1939, p. 325.

26Besides Christian charity, the virtue of self-sacrifice could equally be found across the articles in Saint Luc Médical. Not surprisingly, its religious meaning—Christ himself had set the example—was emphasized more than its professional or scientific dimension. The self-sacrifice of the Catholic physician was about his total commitment towards caring for patients rather than making personal sacrifices to realize scientific progress.79 Of course, the self-sacrifice of the doctor was also a professional virtue that transcended the Catholic framework. In contrast to Victorian narratives, however, the journal did not necessarily link it with images about military courage or manlike heroism.80 In the above mentioned headings, self-sacrifice was given a rather ordinary and attainable interpretation. It was exemplified in the willingness to give free treatment to people in need. This renunciation of financial compensation arose from the Catholic aversion towards materialism. Money was never a legitimate motivation to practice medicine.81 Yet again, the vocational nature of the doctor’s profession was accentuated as well. It’s a disgrace when a priest dies rich. It is no dishonour for a doctor to die poor.82

• 83 “Spiritualité médicale”, SLM, 1, 1939, p. 7.
• 84 “Questions et Réponses ”, SLM, 2, 1934, pp. 145–146.
• 85 “Questions et Réponses : un médecin a-t-il le droit de nourrir de force une personne qui se refuse (...)
• 86 “Questions et Réponses ”, SLM, 5, 1937, pp. 359–360.

27The sections ‘medical spirituality’ and ‘corner of piety’ outlined the general attitude that was expected of Catholic physicians. Since they were often confronted with the fears, hopes and doubts of their patients, they were expected to care for their soul in a priest-like manner.83 As the Ogino-Knaus debate has shown, however, a general behavioural ideal was insufficient in various specific situations. Catholic physicians needed deontological guidelines applicable in their everyday practice. Therefore, the journal also provided its readers with a question and answer section. The editors called on their readers to submit the most delicate moral dilemmas they encountered. These were then published together with the reply of a theological advisor. Is it legitimate to anaesthetize a patient who is assumed to undergo an abortion?84 Is a doctor allowed to feed a patient against his will?85 Should a doctor baptize a three-month-old fetus in case of miscarriage?86

• 87 “Questions et Réponses ”, SLM, 2, 1934, pp. 146–148.
• 88 Dr. Possemiers, “La déontologie du médecin catholique”, SLM, 5, 1930, pp. 144–151.

28In 1934 for instance, an anonymous doctor B. was in serious doubt about the limits of medical confidentiality. After having diagnosed a bus driver with a heart defect, he feared that not disclosing this information to the man’s employer continued the risk of a major traffic accident in case of a heart attack. Yet, he also knew such disclosure would lead to the man’s dismissal. The theological advisor’s response was quite vague. As the transport company had not requested the medical inquiry, there was no legal necessity to breach medical confidentiality. On a moral level, however, the patient could not wish for the doctor’s tacit complicity. The latter had every reason to protect third parties from a possible accident. In this case, Christian charity was seen as a moral responsibility towards society. The lives of potential victims were valued higher than medical confidentiality.87 Whereas medical confidentiality was usually seen as essential to the credibility of the doctor’s profession, the doctor in question was urged to jeopardize his personal reputation. The willingness to risk one’s career was a matter of self-sacrifice as well. Finally, it is interesting to note that the option to inform the transport administration about the man’s heart defect was presented as the better choice, but not as an absolute obligation. This fully reflects what Victor Possemiers said about Catholic deontology in a lecture to the Brussels section in 1930. The Saint Luc Society did not oppose the general deontology of the Belgian Medical Federation, but it propagated a profound extension to it. While all physicians had the same professional task, the Catholic doctor was assumed to take stricter considerations into account when practicing medicine. Moral superiority, in other words, marked the essential difference between a good Catholic doctor and his Godless colleague.88

• 89 Hervé Guillemain, “Devenir médecin au xix^e siècle”, op. cit., pp. 120–122.
• 90 Emmanuel Gerard, “Grondlijnen van de katholieke verzuiling tussen 1914-1945”, in Tussen beschermin (...)
• 91 E.P. J. Bogaerts, “De zedelijke waarde van de periodieke onthouding volgens de methode Ogino-Knaus (...)
• 92 Tine Van Osselaer, “Christening masculinity?”, op. cit., pp. 85, 95; ead., The pious sex: catholic (...)
• 93 Mlle S. Deblan, “La profession médicale et la femme”, SLM, 3, 1936, pp. 246–257.
• 94 Jolien Gijbels and Kaat Wils, “Medicine, Health and Gender”, in Medical Histories of Belgium: New (...)
• 95 Ibid., p. 253.

29The image of the physician-apostle was crucial in the spreading of this Catholic deontology. This image was rooted in the ideal of the priest-like physician. As Guillemain rightly pointed out, the Saint Luc Society did not invent this doctor-priest metaphor. It had been used extensively in texts on the medical profession in the nineteenth century. The interwar period provided a fertile context to reconnect with this tradition.89 Yet, the society—by means of its journal—did more than merely depict the medical profession as a sacred vocation. The Catholic Action emphasis on lay apostolate also gave this vocational element a new interpretation. The physician was not only expected to resemble the priest in his daily work, he was also expected to help him rechristianize society.90 The Catholic doctor was assumed to spread the word of God ‘there where the priest is no longer heard’.91 In order to bolster Christian morality in Belgian society, the Catholic Action movement strongly focused on men’s involvement. As Van Osselaer has indicated, men were sometimes seen as the less religious sex. Providing laymen with pious examples was considered necessary to alter this situation.92 Therefore, it is no surprise that the medical apostolate of the physician was a masculine one. Ironically, this was made most explicit in the sole article by a female author.93 Contrary to all other Saint Luc guilds, the Youth section of Liège had a separate women’s branch. One of its members, miss Deblan, gave a lecture about the opportunities for women to become a physician. She praised women who managed to emulate male physicians, women who stood out for their stamina, inquisitiveness and work ethic. At the end of her argument, however, she admitted that pursuing a career as a doctor was not for every woman. In line with conservative views on womanhood, she claimed that most women’s vocation was to become a mother, rather than a physician.94 Deblan added that a married woman working as a physician should always put the ideal of a Christian family above her medical obligations. The profession [for those women] must remain a means to earn a living and not a purpose in itself.95 With these words, she made it very difficult for female doctors to identify with the ideal of the physician-apostle. This grand image was antithetical to materialistic motives such as earning money. Fulfilling the medical apostolate of the doctor was thus mainly a masculine affair.

• 96 Monseignieur Ladeuze, “Éloge funèbre du professeur Morelle”, BSL, 1-2, 1926, pp. 2–6.
• 97 “Allocution du docteur Warlomont”, BSL, 1-2, 1926, pp. 21–23.

30Consequently, the Saint Luc journal used ‘great men’ as role models for young readers. Necrologies of recently deceased members were continuously used as real-life examples of this masculine medical apostolate. The life story of other Catholic physicians gave the image of the physician-apostle a worldly touch. When Aimé Morelle died in 1926, for example, a number of eulogies were published in the journal. Paulin Ladeuze, the rector of the Catholic University of Leuven, praised him for being a Christian in both his private life and his medical life. While all of his brothers were priests, he had been a lay apostle himself. His relentless support for the FOMULAC (a university platform for medical training in the Belgian-Congo), the Leuven Cancer Institute and the Saint Luc Society were mentioned as proof.96 This last element, Warlomont added, was essential to understand the meaning of Morelle’s life. As the first president of the Society, he had demonstrated that doctors could and should be openly Catholic.97 As indicated above, the physician-apostle was expected to act, to take initiative. Only this way could he help the Church to bring about moral renewal.

• 98 “Séance inaugurale du 30 mars 1922”, BSL, 1, 1922, p. 5.
• 99 “Avis”, SLM, 3, 1939, p. 231.
• 100 “Statuts de la Société Médicale Belge de Saint-Luc”, op. cit., p. 32.
• 101 R.P. Honoré, “L’Apostolat laïque du Médecin”, SLM, 2, 1937, pp. 125–129; E.P. Salsmans, “Het hoekj (...)

31As with other texts in the journal, these necrologies informed young physicians about the deontological attitude that was expected of them. As mentioned before, the virtue of self-sacrifice was highly valued in this regard. A true physician-apostle had to be willing to risk everything to safe a fellow man’s life. Apparently, some Catholic doctors took that very literally. In the journal’s first edition, priest Vermeulen reported the death of different colleagues among whom doctor Charles Vanbever. This last one died a victim of his charity. Being seriously ill and despite the pleas of his family, he went to treat a person in danger. On his return, he had a 42-degree fever. Despite the best care of his colleagues, he died.98 The same thing happened again 17 years later. A short obituary mentioned that Doctor Prosper Neefs died at the bedside of a patient while preforming his medical duty.99 While it is unclear whether these stories were true, it is remarkable that they were taken up in the journal. Visiting a patient while sick, could just as well be judged unprofessional. Among Catholic physicians, however, it was presented as an extreme form of self-sacrifice and charity. By propagating this image of the physician-apostle and its corresponding deontology, the journal responded to one of the main aims of the Saint Luc Society: defending and disseminating the Christian ideal within society.100 In fact, the journal itself functioned as a tool of apostolate. By performing sacraments and praying together with his patients, the Catholic physician could be a beacon of light for all Catholics.101 Catholic deontology was as much a medical code of conduct as a model for being a good Catholic.