ABSTRACT
Catholic mediation has been particularly evident in the case of violent political conflicts. The development, recognition or even institutionalization of religious mediation in this kind of conflict should not be considered separately from the other action repertoires which have been considered in this book. It is precisely because the Church plays a key role in matters of social work, care for migrants and social economy that its activity in peacemaking becomes legitimized, perhaps above all in very secularized contexts. This chapter starts with a theoretical framing of religious mediation in violent political conflicts. The sections which follow focus upon the Basque case. Analysis of the political work of the Church, at its various levels (internal and external), clearly shows the institution’s internal pluralism. At least three major positions are crystallized here, positions which we respectively term legalistic (with an additional nuance of ‘flexibly legalistic’), alternative and deliberative, within the Church in the Basque Country. Finally, the chapter suggests a number of comparative avenues of investigation on the Catholic presence in pacifist mediation efforts in Italy.
