Hugo never lost his antipathy towards the Roman Catholic Church , due largely to what he saw as the Church 's indifference to the plight of the working class under the oppression of the monarchy ; and perhaps also due to the frequency with which Hugo 's work appeared on the Pope 's list of `` proscribed books '' ( Hugo counted 740 attacks on Les MisÃ rables in the Catholic press ) . After that point , Hugo never lost his antipathy towards the Catholic Church , due largely to what he saw as the Church 's indifference to the plight of the working class under the oppression of the monarchy ; and perhaps also due to the frequency with which Hugo 's work appeared on the Church 's Index Librorum Prohibitorum ( Hugo counted 740 attacks on Les MisÃ rables in the Catholic press ) .