François Brune (priest)

François Brune (18 August 1931, Vernon, Eure – 16 January 2019, Paris) was a French Catholic priest and writer.

After a baccalaureate followed by four years of literary preparatory classes and certificates in Sorbonne in classical letters (Latin and ancient Greek), François Brune undertook studies in philosophy and theology (five years at the Institut Catholique de Paris and a year at University of Tübingen).

In 1960, he obtained a degree in theology from the Institut catholique and joined the Compagnie des prêtres de Saint-Sulpice before teaching in various major seminaries, in Nantes, Rodez and Bayeux.

In one of his works, François Brune welcomes the return to ideas from before the ecclesial crisis of the 1960s to 2000s, such as the notion of sin or the importance of the sacrament of reconciliation, but also the retreat in the Catholic Church of materialist theses denying the existence and importance of the supernatural and miracles, theses which, according to him, reduce vague humanitarian and philanthropic philosophy.

He rejoices at the abandonment of the catechism for children "Living stones" where the divinity of Jesus Christ was affirmed only in a footnote.

However, he does not think that the return to the uses of before Vatican II will be enough to make the Catholic Church credible and attractive and he is open to the ordination of married men practiced in Orthodox Churches, to the reconciliation of the divorced and remarried, to the use of condoms and other forms of birth control.

Very hostile to Saint Augustine's "appalling and despairing theology" on the damned masses, he regrets that his influence has been hypertrophied in the West to the detriment of the Greek Fathers much closer in his opinion to true Christianity.

In 1962, he attended the Biblical Institute of Rome and studied there for two years, and finally went on to study Holy Scripture in 1964.

Since 1970, he had devoted himself to writing his books, as well as hosting conferences in various countries, making many trips to meet other researchers.

Father Brune was interested in many theological questions but most of his theological work has two characteristics: the emphasis on the convergence of the experience of the Catholic mystics of the West with the theological tradition of the Orthodox Churches and not with the prevailing theological currents in the Catholic or Protestant west (influenced by Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas Aquinas); taking into account scientific discoveries, especially those of quantum physics, and phenomena related to death (imminent death experiences) to combat materialism.

"There is another author who, without knowing it and therefore without any bad intention, took my first and last name as a pseudonym. He first wrote books in the collection 'Signes de piste' for teenagers, then he specialized in economics and advertising" In fact, this other François Brune published as early as 1973 a story entitled "Memoirs of a future President" in the Newspaper "Combat" : as he explains on his literary blog, it was on this occasion that he gave himself this author's name by combining his first name and that of his wife.

He naturally kept it when he then published articles in "Le Monde", then his essay "Le Bonheur conforme", at Gallimard, in 1981.

Known from that time under this signature, he knew only much later that there was a priest with this name.

Hence his good faith in maintaining his signature.