Co-operation of European Catholic politicians in exile in Britain and the USA during the second world war

Christian Democracy had a formative influence on western Europe after 1945. This article studies the transnational co-operation of European Catholic politicians in exile during the second world war and evaluates how this might have influenced postwar developments. It argues that Catholic transnationalism was not well organized. The analysis of its contacts in the People and Freedom Group and the International Christian Democratic Union also shows that there is no political continuity from the thinking of Catholic politicians in exile on such crucial issues as the future role of Britain in Europe or policy towards Germany, to postwar European reconstruction. Postwar Europe was not made in exile.