The Catholic Church and Its Third Sector Organizations

Abstract

During much of the 20^th century European intellectuals considered church and religion an obsolete phenomenon of “premodern” times, determined to disappear completely from the political agenda of modern societies sooner or later. But today there is a new empirical skepticism about this strong thesis of secularization (Casanova, 1994). In many countries a clear continuity or even a new upsurge of religious attitudes and religious presence in the public sphere can be detected — dealing not only with “private” religious convictions and beliefs but also with politically contentious questions of human rights, political liberty, democracy and — even more so — with special claims on welfare and social justice for the poor and disadvantaged.