Parochial patronage

Parochial patronage refers to several Catholic and Protestant organizations initially dedicated to the popular education of underprivileged young people. Such institutions appeared in various European countries at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries - in particular, under the name of Orel in the provinces of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – but the term "patronage" remained closely associated with Belgium, and even more so with France, where Catholic patronages were founded in Marseille at the end of the Consulate by Abbé Jean-Joseph Allemand. Abbé Timon-David later took up the idea, and then widely developed within congregations such as the Brothers of the Christian Schools, Jean Bosco's Salesians, Frédéric Ozanam's Brothers of Saint Vincent de Paul and the Dominican Third Order in the early 20th century.

In parallel with social Catholicism, these institutions developed in parishes in France at the end of the 19th century. They led to the creation of a sports federation in 1898, a few years after Belgium. In 1903, this federation became the French Federation of Gymnastics and Sports Patronages and, in 1968, the French Federation of Sport and Culture. In 1905, with the law on the separation between Church and State, the patronages adopted the status of associations under the law of 1901. Between the two world wars and after 1945, the number of patronages grew rapidly. Since 1965, however, the pastoral decisions of the Church of France have forced them to secularize, and today's patronages are more often than not simply secular sports and cultural associations, most of which remain attached to their original references.