In Spring of 1940, France was defeated and occupied by the Germans. Under the leadership of Marshal Philippe Petain  an amnesty was signed and a new government was formed in Vichy France. This government collaborated with the Germans and was later condemned by the French. But in truth many Frenchman cooperated with the Vichy government and supported its policies.  Many of the leaders of the Catholic church were among those who supported the regime of Petain.  The Catholic church was in particular enthusiastic about the new regime because of its pro-church policies.
 
 

                  Petain and Laval                                               Petain

    The Key to the relations between Vichy government and the Church was Petain himself. The hero of Verdun was considered a savior by the Bishops and they had a tremendous faith in him. No Bishop ever disavowed the Marshal.

    The New regime practiced a religiosity that went far beyond foxhole prayers. Under the third republic France had gone under tremendous secularism. The traditional Catholics and the small left Catholic both hated the secularism of the third Republic. Most of them favored religious support of the Petain regime for religious values. For instance, the Catholics hated the Third Republic policy of expulsion of God from public school. For most Catholics a return to traditional Catholic values would restore France to its greatness.

    Ever since the time of revolution, the schooling had been taken always form the Church and had become a state monopoly.  By 1940, the state schools were " godless".  On December 6 1940, under the education minister Jacques Chevalier  religious instructions were restored to state schools.  At the same time, the Church requested state aid  from the Vichy government.  The clergy asked for a system of bonds that would grant families to attend the schools of their choice.  But the clergy were not all too successeful in their request. State aid was granted to bishops for educational purposes, but it was considered an emergence plan, not a permanent state aid for parochial schools.

    Ever since the legislation of Emile Combes in 1901, many members of the Church had been prevented from teaching without authorization. The Minster of Justice Raphael Alipert permitted member of the religious orders to teach by the law of 3 September 1940. A further act on 8 April 1942 permitted religious orders to exist under the same terms as any other organization, but it required state authorization if they wished to have legal personality. Finally, church property that had been seized upon in 1905 when the church and state were officially separated  was restored on 15 February 1941

 Although the traditional Catholics favored a new Concordat which would challenge the concept of separation of church and state, the state chose to settle some the questions raised by the separation in 1905. No new Concordat was ever realized and the Vichy-Church alliance of 1940 loosened with time.  But the most important change in the early years was the matter of tone.  The regime sought the advice of the churchmen and made the teachings of the Church and family values its own.