From colonial to global? Catholic internationalism and worldviews 1945-1958

Traditionally, the period from 1945–1960 has been seen as one of stability within Roman Catholicism. Recently, however, this interpretation has made way for a reappreciation of the afterwar period in its own right. Some have argued that instead of the long prelude to the vibrant sixties and Vatican II, this period was in fact one of deep transformations. The Church, and its allied organizations and social movements, for example, reshaped their identity and structures in the colonial and what was soon to become postcolonial world, often in the context of the Cold War. In doing so, catholic internationalism contributed significantly to developments in the post-war international constellation and, in turn, had to respond to the reverberations caused by its own repositioning However, this interplay between the Church as an active player and coproducer of globalization, and transnational North-South relations is still underexplored. So far, research has predominantly focused on Catholic anticommunism and, to a lesser degree, -anti-Americanism. As a result, how the Church was affected by, and responded to decolonization, an equally defining current of the late ‘40’s and ‘50’s, has yet to be studied extensively. By working towards a transnational histoire croisée, this project will deepen the understanding of the position of the Church towards decolonization and embed it within the nascent narrative of the ‘40’s and ‘50’s as a period of intense transformations. Christian international organizations are perhaps the primary examples of Catholic internationalism and the globalization of Christian-Democracy in this period. As transnational actors par excellence, organizations such as the International Federation of Christian Trade Unions (IFCTU), the International Young Christian Workers (IYCW) and Pax-Christi cross-cut boundaries between nation states and along the North-South division. Moreover, when approached as agents of informal diplomacy, that is non-state actors that rely on soft power, they complement the formal Vatican diplomacy. The perspective of international organizations thus allows for a more complete and nuanced understanding of the international position of the Church during the afterwar-years and the beginning of the Cold War. The principal research question is how these three, predominantly European, international organizations globalized after the Second World War and throughout the fifties. How, when and where did they gain a foothold outside of Europe and what was the agency of regional actors in this process? The answers to these questions will sketch the network of actors, ideologies and campaigns that shaped the globalization of the three international organizations. Finally, these insights will be combined with unexplored sources from the recently undisclosed Vatican Archives for the pontificate of Pius XII (1939-1958). In doing so, this project will shed a new light on how Catholic internationalism and worldviews changed prior to the 1960’s.