The Transformative Power of Human Rights Rhetoric: Progressive Talk in Catholic Spaces
Topics: Religion and Belief Systems
, Human Rights
, Political Geography
Keywords: Catholic, geopolitics, social movements, political geography, social geography, discourse, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Euromaidan, protests, human rights
Session Type: Virtual Paper
Day: Thursday
Session Start / End Time: 4/8/2021 01:30 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada)) - 4/8/2021 02:45 PM (Pacific Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 46
Authors:
Justin Tse, Singapore Management University
Halyna Herasym,
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Abstract
The Catholic Church is typically seen as a reactionary and inert institution. While this common wisdom is not completely out of place, the Church has actually shown the will to change due to major socio-political shifts challenging imperial powers in the contemporary world (Agnew 2010). In our presentation, we focus on two particular cases of rhetorical changes of local Catholic churches in post-colonial contexts: the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine and the Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong. We argue that in circumstances of major social turbulence -- in our cases, the Euromaidan and the Umbrella Movement, respectively -- those local Catholic churches not only found an unlikely ally among progressive civil rights groups, but also adopted some of the discourses used by secular (or even anti-religious) activists. Using preliminary research data drawn from our collaborative project “Catholic talk, social dreaming” on the interconnections between those local churches, activists and the Vatican, we show that discursive terms such as ‘democracy,’ ‘rule of law,’ and ‘human rights’ move from the language of secular civil society into the talk of the church. This appropriation of civil rights discourse might on the one hand serve reactionary arguments regarding abortion and sexuality, but we suggest through our interviews that they are having a potentially progressive transformative effect on conceptions of ecclesial space. This paper contributes to ongoing conversations about the place of religion in contemporary social geographies and critical geopolitics.
References
Agnew, J. (2010). Deus vult: the geopolitics of the Catholic Church. Geopolitics, 15(1), 39-61