11/07/2025 08:30
- 12:00
HALL: Main Ceremonial Hall
Proponent:
Faggioli M.,
Froehle B.
Chair:
Froehle B.
Speaker:
Beliakova N.,
Cerny-Werner R.,
Mclarren K.,
Silvestri S.
2025 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Helsinki Accords of 1975. That moment is a major achievement of the Vatican's Ostpolitik during the Cold War and a high point in the history of international conference diplomacy in general. This call invites papers to explore ways in which Helsinki is remembered (or forgotten) in Global Catholicism today, a time of new geopolitical challenges in Ukraine, the Middle East, and the changing face of global superpowers more generally. We invite papers that address Catholic understanding and practice of diplomacy and international relations over a period of transition from a European-centered to a more truly Global Catholicism. We welcome papers that explore continuities, changes, and contradictions in the pursuit of peace by Catholic institutions, movements, and Vatican diplomacy. We encourage studies of the effects of Helsinki 1975 on Church thinking (religious liberty, human rights, democracy), the place of Europe in the Vatican's vision, or wider shifts in the perspective of the diplomacy of the Holy See from John XXIII to Francis.