Suchergebnisse

This article examines transnational connections, perceptions and imaginations of bottom-up contention in the Dutch and West German Catholic Church. It not only analyses how the Second Vatican Council fuelled participatory practises launched by the bishops of both countries in order to keep their institute viable, such as opinion polling, but also focuses on the ways in which the Dutch Pastoral Council influenced Church reform in West Germany. Furthermore, it highlights Latin American liberation theology as a powerful new intellectual and spiritual framework. Especially from 1968 onwards, figureheads of the priestly activist groups Septuagint and the Freckenhorster Kreis tapped into the neo-Marxist notions of institutionalised violence and oppression in their quest for participation. The transfer of these notions took place in both a north-south and south-north direction. Special attention goes to the 1970 international 'Church in Our Society' conference in Amsterdam.