The politics of Catholic humanitarian Aid: missionaries and American relief in Algeria 1942–47

Abstract

This paper examines the politics of the Catholic American aid delivered in French-controlled Algeria between 1942 and 1947. Using the archives of the White Fathers (Missionnaires d’Afrique [AGMAfr]), the Archives Nationales d’Outre Mer [ANOM] and the archives of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops at the Catholic University of America in Washington this article traces how humanitarian relief funds sent in support of missionaries in Algeria altered their status in the colonial order. The article focuses on the transformative aspects of this American intervention in a complex colonial environment. The paper argues that the American Catholic intervention, with its focus on indigenous patients rather than colonial settlers, renewed older and broader provisions of missionary relief in Algeria. American aid funded missionary work and resourced social work and later aligned Catholic relief with anti-communist activities in France.