In reply to Offwidth:
In the novel Victor Hugo has a set-piece about the church. The point of it is that the church is widely denounced, but does good, not evil.
Les Mise'rables is a profoundly Christian novel: it's about redemption and grace, and it's about judgement vs mercy, and it's about forgiveness and atonement and substitution. VH writes out of Catholic-French convictions, but also out of Republican-French convictions--and like many others in 19C France, he struggles to reconcile the two.
Someone said above that Javert and Valjean are supposed to hate each other. Not a bit of it. Neither hates at all. But while Valjean understands Javert's passion for justice, Javert cannot understand Valjean's ability to forgive, an ability which Valjean learns from the Bishop of Digne right at the beginning of the novel.
It's one of the great Christian works of art; it's right up there with the Divine Comedy.