03/07/2026 09:00
- 11:10
HALL: Pola - A101
Contact:
Faggioli M.
Chair:
Froehle B.
Since the nineteenth century and the rise of nationalism, the papacy has played an outsized role both within the international system and the internal workings of the Catholic Church. This was only heightened by post-colonialism as the nation states of the world entered into the world created by the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia. Before 1900, a majority of Catholic bishops were named by some combination of local authority and historic custom within their territories. Today, the vast majority of Catholic bishops are named by Rome under the authority of the Pope. In spite of the decentralizing tendencies of episcopal collegiality as it emerged in the Second Vatican Council, the papacy under Paul VI, John Paul II, and Benedict XVI became only more centralized. The Francis papacy was an effort to undermine the Roman curial bureaucracy and nonetheless was marked by a kind of personal, charismatic leadership confronting the strongmen of the post-liberal world order, especially Donald Trump. After Francis, where does this leave the papacy today? What are the lasting contributions of Francis to the self-understanding of Roman authority by Catholics, lay and leaders alike, around the world and within the Curia itself? Is the Leo papacy a return to the past and the longed-for status quo ante of so many Catholic conservatives? Or is it the consolidation of long-overdue changes stemming from the Council that had been put aside before Francis? What is the emerging role of the papacy in addressing the quasi-religious and messianic features of today's post-liberal and illiberal regimes?
