ABSTRACT

This chapter explores changes in the character of the papacy as the transnational core of Catholicism, particularly in terms of the papacy's relation to three different types of worldly regimes. It includes the medieval system of Christendom of which the papacy was one of the core institutions; to the modern system of sovereign nation-states to which the papacy became rather marginal; and to a newly emerging and still undefined global system within which the papacy is attaining once again a central structural role. The combination of globalization, nationalization, secular involvement, and voluntary disestablishment has led the Catholic Church to a significant change of orientation from nation-state to civil society. There is an even more telling and reprehensible indicator that the Church viewed as its task the protection of the particular rights of Catholics and not the defense of universal human rights.