Conference organised with the Spanish Association of Contemporary Religious History, Asociación Española de Historia Religiosa Contemporánea (AEHRC)This panel wishes to pay a tribute to the memory of the late founding member of the AEHRC, Professor Feliciano Montero García (1948-2018), a great inspiration to so many of us.The history of networks created by Hispanic Catholics is crucial to the understanding of contemporary World Catholicism. Hispanic Catholics have played an important role in the creation of transnational networks, including the secular clergy, religious congregations or/and secular organizations. One of the key tropes that defined this transnational catholic imaginary is the ideology of “Hispanidad”. Meaning slightly different things to different groups at different times, the concept presupposes the existence of a transnational (often Transatlantic and/or Pan-American) spiritual brotherhood. This ideology was strongly marked by the legacy of the colonial past, that is, by the persistence of the relationship that linked the old metropolis to its former possessions in America, Asia and Africa. Although this transnational identity was rather vague, it decisively conditioned the intricate relations (diplomatic, spiritual) established with other non-Hispanic Catholics from Western Europe and the United States. This panel wishes to explore this noteworthy historical experience. Besides, by exposing the relevance and complexity of these networks we also wish to open a historiographical debate over the limits of the pervading national framework that has traditionally been used by historians to approach the study of Contemporary Hispanic Catholicism.
Chair:
- Jose Ramón Rodriguez Lago (University of Vigo)
Panelists:
- Natalia Núñez Bargueño (Université Sorbonne) - Between Utopia and Reality: The contribution of the International Eucharistic Congress to the creation, consolidation and evolution of International Catholic Networks
- Chiaki Watanabe (Aoyama Gakuin University) - Spanish missionaries in XXth century Japan/ Misioneros españoles en el Japón del siglo XX
Round table: discussing Professor Feliciano Montero García´s work and legacyLanguage: English / Spanish
