Papal Geopolitics: The European and Global Imaginations of Urbi et Orbi

Drawing on both Ó Tuathail’s approach to critical geopolitics and Fairclough’s concept of critical discourse analysis, the paper will explore the geopolitics of the Catholic Church. The paper aims at revealing the geopolitical mental maps, which are contained in the Urbi et Orbi speeches, ranging from 2000 to 2015, i.e. those uttered by the three Popes John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis. In particular, the paper focuses on spatial tensions and (dis)continuities present in the papal messages such as their state-centrism versus cosmopolitan accents, Catholic versus non-Catholic parts of the world, and the geopolitical definition of the self and the other. Particular attention is given to the spatial imagination of Europe and European integration.