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Abstract
Religious actors and their political concepts are commonly assumed as conservative, static, and aligned with the private contemplative world. Popes, however, regularly stood out of this narrative. Analysing the papal human rights discourse, this article illustrates that religious ideas and configuration change in relation to macro-political developments. The article contextualizes the papal human rights discourse and contributes a hitherto neglected aspect to the debate on human rights and religion in the international realm. The research points out three key findings: (1) John Paul II dominates this discourse, which has gained traction since the end of the Second World War. (2) Although Francis takes an outsider role in the papal discourse, he does not differ in principle from the mainstream papal human rights discourse. (3) From the first evocation of human rights by a pope, there is a persistent trend stressing both individual and collective human rights. The results offer fertile ground to anticipate future papal political conduct on the grounds of the trajectory of the human rights discourse.
Highlights
International relations and human rights scholars show little interest in the papacy, which stands as the leader of the largest transnational religious group, and in the papal human rights discourse
Debates on human rights and religion have merged into the realm of international politics and study
By looking at the papal human rights discourse, this article contributes a contextual understanding of religion in international politics[8] and illustrates that religious ideas and configurations change in relation to macro-political developments because they are inherently political
Summary
International relations and human rights scholars show little interest in the papacy, which stands as the leader of the largest transnational religious group, and in the papal human rights discourse. Popes regularly stand out from this secularist narrative, as they always engage with politics.[7] By looking at the papal human rights discourse, this article contributes a contextual understanding of religion in international politics[8] and illustrates that religious ideas and configurations change in relation to macro-political developments because they are inherently political. “Human rights pessimists” often build their arguments on empirical research, focusing on how human rights became Human Rights and how they lack political impact and relevance other than in their own right This branch of literature offers a normative argument that is essential to contextualizing the papal human rights discourse: Pope Francis gives human rights discourse a “spin” away from a liberal notion towards a collective and critical notion, stressing the common good. This move cannot be fully grasped without taking a closer look at the self-understanding of this pope who challenges the privileging of Western agency in papal discourse.[33]
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