From World Catholicism to the Emergence of Global Catholicism, 1800–2025: Encounters and Transformations

Dear Colleagues,

In recent decades, historians have examined the concept of “global Catholicism” as a worldwide configuration of Catholic belief, practice, and institutional life that emerged with increasing clarity during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It denotes not merely the geographical expansion of the Church but the formation of a transnational and highly interconnected religious field.

The factors that drove this transformation—which ultimately entailed an ecclesiological shift, that is, a change in the way the Church understands and defines itself—are numerous and increased over time. This transition from a globally extensive Catholicism to a global Catholicism was due, above all, to the circulation of missionaries, clergy, religious congregations, ideas, devotional forms, and educational models across continents. The movement of people and ideas produced cultural encounters that reshaped both long-established Catholic centers and newly evangelized regions. After the Second Vatican Council, the new theology of mission set in motion processes of inculturation and interculturation through which the Christian faith was articulated within diverse local cultures. In coordinating and reorienting the Church’s international presence, the papacy and missionary societies acquired an increasingly important role, aided by the development of modern means of communication that facilitated the exchange of information, images, and resources on a planetary scale.

The editor of this journal is pleased to invite you to submit articles that explore the continuous interactions among Catholic communities worldwide and to explore how the Catholic Church has been shaped—from the aftermaths of the French Revolution to the papacy of Pope Francis—by this mutually transformative configuration of Catholicism. This Special Issue welcomes original articles on potential research areas that include, but not limited to, the following:

• History of Catholic missions/missionary congregations.
• History of the role of religious /lay women.
• History of Catholic internationalism.
• Case-studies of inculturation/interculturation.
• Theories on global Catholicism.
• Interreligious/Ecumenical encounters.
• Racism/Intolerance.
• Anti-Protestantism.
• History of basic ecclesial communities.
• Relationship between the center and periphery.
• The role of the media.

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200–300 words summarizing their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editor (raffaella.perin@unicatt.it), or to the Assistant Editor of Religions (zena.zeng@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purpose of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo a double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Raffaella Perin
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• global Catholicism
• Catholic internationalism
• missionary networks
• transnational circulation
• inculturation
• ecclesiological transformation
• media and religion
• interreligious relations
• center-perophery relations
• Vatican II