When one hears talk of "Christian democracy" today, one immediately thinks of modern political parties, born in the 20th century, which have more or less collaborated with the Republic and have often become diluted in liberalism. But if one opens Father Dehon's Christian Social Manual, written at the end of the 19th century, one realizes that this is not at all what it is about.
Dehon never promoted a liberal, parliamentary democracy, cut off from God. On the contrary, he constantly dismantles the illusions of modern ideologies. For him, socialist democracy, which promises the people absolute equality and the end of natural hierarchies, is nothing but a dangerous mirage. It attracts the masses because the ruling classes have become corrupt and have forgotten justice, but it can only lead to anarchy and the destruction of society.
So, what kind of "democracy" did Dehon want? Well, he spoke of a Christian social democracy. A democracy rooted in the natural order willed by God. That is to say: an organization of society based on justice, on the respect for duties, on the family as the basic cell, on professional corporations and unions, on the authority of the Church as guide.
In his Manual, the Blessed Father insists: society must not be a disaggregated crowd delivered to the all-powerful State or to revolutionary passions, but an organized body. And this organization is not abstract parliamentarianism, but a real representation of professions, trades, and social bodies. This is what he calls true democracy: a participation of workers and families in social life, but in the light of Christian law.
And to clearly mark the difference, Father Dehon goes so far as to show that what distinguishes Christian democracy from liberal democracy is the place given to God. He writes: "Society was not born from a free convention, as Rousseau would have it in his Social Contract. […] That is the door open to social extravagances, to anarchy". Here is the full clarity of the priest: if democracy is founded on human contract and not on divine law, one reaps only the tyranny of the State or revolutionary dissolution. His conclusion is clear: the Christian State, faithful to Leo XIII's Immortale Dei, must be subject to God and protector of the family, associations, and private property.
Today, his words resonate powerfully. When he states that "economic science must treat man as a man and as a Christian", he reminds us that any social policy that reduces man to a consumer, a cog in the capitalist machine, or a mere voter, is doomed to failure. What is needed, says Father Léon Dehon, is to place the family, work, property, and association back under the law of God. This, and this alone, is what he called Christian democracy.
Thus, Léon Dehon was not a militant for a secular democracy, but a prophet of a society ordered by Christ. It is for today's Catholics to understand this point: if we wish to defend social justice, we cannot rely on the chimeras of the Republic or socialism, but on the foundations laid by the Church: family, social bodies, Christian charity, and submission to Our Lord.