Marie Carré
Encyclopedia
Marie Carré was a French
Roman Catholic
nun
. She is known primarily for having published a purported memoir
entitled AA-1025: The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle, which some dismiss as radical Traditionalist Catholic
propaganda.
in France
. In 1964, she converted to Catholicism
and became a nun
.
hospital in the late 1960s, Carré claimed that a severely injured man, who had a Slavic
look, was brought in after being in a car accident. Carré tried to communicate with the man to ask him some questions but he didn't or couldn't respond. She even tried to get him to answer her questions by blinking his eyes but he didn't. The man survived for a few hours before he succumbed to his injuries. Having no form of identification Carré was instructed to go through his belongings in order to possibly identify him. She did not succeed in discovering his name, but she did discover in his briefcase a 100-page-typed memoir
. She began reading the papers partly to find some information to identify him and partly out of curiosity.
The memoir claimed that he was an undercover
agent of the Soviet Union
ordered to infiltrate the Catholic Church by becoming a priest
and to put forth modernist
ideas through a teaching position that would undermine the main teachings of the Church during the Second Vatican Council
. The document gave details and even told of a murder of a priest he had committed in order to get his way. No one ever claimed his belongings and Carré eventually decided to publish the memoir which was apparently written by the dead man. It was printed in France in May 1972 and eventually was translated into several other languages.
In a 2002 critique of Catholic conspiracy theories for Crisis magazine, Sandra Miesel
wrote:
Catholic philosopher and theologian Alice von Hildebrand
counters that:
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
Roman Catholic
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
. She is known primarily for having published a purported memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
entitled AA-1025: The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle, which some dismiss as radical Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholic
Traditionalist Catholics are Roman Catholics who believe that there should be a restoration of many or all of the liturgical forms, public and private devotions and presentations of Catholic teachings which prevailed in the Catholic Church before the Second Vatican Council...
propaganda.
Early life
Carré grew up a ProtestantProtestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...
in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In 1964, she converted to Catholicism
Catholicism
Catholicism is a broad term for the body of the Catholic faith, its theologies and doctrines, its liturgical, ethical, spiritual, and behavioral characteristics, as well as a religious people as a whole....
and became a nun
Nun
A nun is a woman who has taken vows committing her to live a spiritual life. She may be an ascetic who voluntarily chooses to leave mainstream society and live her life in prayer and contemplation in a monastery or convent...
.
AA-1025: The Memoirs of an Anti-Apostle
While working as a nurse in a ParisParis
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
hospital in the late 1960s, Carré claimed that a severely injured man, who had a Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
look, was brought in after being in a car accident. Carré tried to communicate with the man to ask him some questions but he didn't or couldn't respond. She even tried to get him to answer her questions by blinking his eyes but he didn't. The man survived for a few hours before he succumbed to his injuries. Having no form of identification Carré was instructed to go through his belongings in order to possibly identify him. She did not succeed in discovering his name, but she did discover in his briefcase a 100-page-typed memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
. She began reading the papers partly to find some information to identify him and partly out of curiosity.
The memoir claimed that he was an undercover
Undercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
agent of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
ordered to infiltrate the Catholic Church by becoming a priest
Priesthood (Catholic Church)
The ministerial orders of the Catholic Church include the orders of bishops, deacons and presbyters, which in Latin is sacerdos. The ordained priesthood and common priesthood are different in function and essence....
and to put forth modernist
Modernism (Roman Catholicism)
Modernism refers to theological opinions expressed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but with influence reaching into the 21st century, which are characterized by a break with the past. Catholic modernists form an amorphous group. The term "modernist" appears in Pope Pius X's 1907...
ideas through a teaching position that would undermine the main teachings of the Church during the Second Vatican Council
Second Vatican Council
The Second Vatican Council addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world. It was the twenty-first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church and the second to be held at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. It opened under Pope John XXIII on 11 October 1962 and closed...
. The document gave details and even told of a murder of a priest he had committed in order to get his way. No one ever claimed his belongings and Carré eventually decided to publish the memoir which was apparently written by the dead man. It was printed in France in May 1972 and eventually was translated into several other languages.
In a 2002 critique of Catholic conspiracy theories for Crisis magazine, Sandra Miesel
Sandra Miesel
Sandra Louise Miesel is an American medievalist, writer and science fiction and fantasy fan. Her early work was science fiction and fantasy criticism, fields in which she has remained active. She is a literary analyst; has described herself as "the world's greatest expert" on Poul Anderson and...
wrote:
Catholic philosopher and theologian Alice von Hildebrand
Alice von Hildebrand
Alice von Hildebrand is a Catholic philosopher and theologian and a former professor.She came to the U.S. in 1940 and began teaching at Hunter College in New York City in 1947...
counters that: