Quando L'Action Française rientrò nell'alveo dei nazionalismi ammessi dalla Chiesa

The present article relies on documents from the Vatican archives, while integrating the existing historiography on the 1926 decree through which the Holy Office prohibited some of Charles Maurras' works, as well as the newspaper L'Action Française. In particular, it assesses its impact on the French Catholic and Catholic world. It then reconstructs the decision-making process that led to another decree the one that on 10 July 1939 eventually withdrew L'Action Française from the Index, thereby putting an end to its interdiction. The article confirms that, in a decade marked by the threat Nationalism and State anti-Semitism, in this affair disciplinary issues prevailed by far over doctrinal ones. In particular, only scant attention was paid to some of the Action Française’s main themes such as politique d'abord, "integral nationalism" and anti-Semitism. Finally, the article highlights the role of Cardinal Ottaviani and the discontinuity between Pius XII and his predecessor.