Reawakening in France

The most popular preacher in Paris is Jesuit Father Michel Riquet. "The French are better Christians today than they used to be," says Pere Riquet. "There are more of them; they pray more and go more often to church."

Stout, stern-faced Jesuit Riquet seems to Parisians almost a one-man revival in himself. Each Sunday during Lent--even when the warm promise of spring brought crowds to the sidewalk cafes and the banks of the Seine--49-year-old Father Riquet filled the cold, damp, dark interior of Notre Dame to capacity with the power of his preaching.

Three years ago Pere Riquet preached to his first large Paris audience, dressed in the faded, striped prison uniform of Dachau (where he was sent for helping U.S. and British flyers escape from France). So great was his success that he was appointed predicateur (preacher) at Notre Dame. Since then, half of Paris has come to hear him--including Communist Chieftains Maurice Thorez and Jacques Duclos, as well as middle-road Premier Schuman.

Outside Notre Dame recently, a dignified, grey-haired civil engineer undertook to explain Father Riquet's success: "Voil`a, at last a priest who makes sense. I don't care about his Jesuit politics, nor even about his soutane [cassock]. He represents something which we lack in France; he fills a gap because he is able to reconcile logic and faith."

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