Jacques Leclercq


Jacques Leclercq was a Belgian Roman Catholic theologian and priest.

Life

He received a degree in law from the Université libre de Bruxelles and one in philosophy from the University of Louvain, and was ordained a priest in 1917. He was a theologian and a professor at Saint-Louis University, Brussels, Belgium and the UCLouvain. In 1926 he founded the revue La Cité chrétienne.
In addition to many publications, Jacques Leclercq helped to found the School of Political and Social Sciences at the Université catholique de Louvain and the Society for Political and Social Studies. In 1955, he founded Centre de Recherches sociologiques. He was a supporter of Vatican II at its inception but we have evidence from his writing that his values disagreed with the change.
From 1945 on he was in favor of the creation of a regional Walloon Christian-inspired movement, Rénovation wallonne, and wrote in 1963 an appeal to Catholics to rally to the movement, titled Les catholiques et la question wallonne.
The building that houses the School of Political and Social Sciences at the University of Louvain in Louvain-la-Neuve is named for him.

Publications