The exchanges between northern France and neighbouring Belgium are frequent, to such a point that Belgian social Catholicism seems to have played here an actual role of master, when, in other fields, French influence is prevalent on the other side of the border. The Belgian laboratory is also viewed, by the Nord inhabitants, as a test of the attitude of the hierarchy with regard to the researchq
... [Show full abstract] of social Catholicism, in particular of Rome. But, when tensions arise in Belgium, the Nord social Catholics turn more deliberately to Germany, whose perception does not always correspond to reality. Models for some Catholics of our region, these Belgian and German centres also send us back the image of French social Catholicism.