The Politics of Catholic NGO Networks

The Politics of Catholic NGO Networks asks ‘Who speaks for the Catholic Church during a humanitarian crisis?’ and answers that there is no single voice; only a plurality of Catholic actors whose relationships with the Holy See differ sharply, and whose humanitarian work is shaped as much by internal organisational dynamics and Church politics as by the crises they respond to.

This book offers the first comparative study of three of the world's most significant Catholic humanitarian networks: the Caritas confederation, the Jesuit Refugee Service, and the Community of Sant'Egidio, through drawing on over thirty interviews and extensive fieldwork in Rome and the Vatican. Each network occupies a distinct status (dependent, semi-dependent, and independent organisations) in relation to Church hierarchy, producing strikingly different approaches to assisting refugees and forced migrants. Moving between the internal governance of the Church and the external landscape of secular humanitarianism, the book exposes a persistent and more nuanced "religious literacy gap" among UN agencies, donors, and NGOs working alongside faith-based partners. Combining an interpretivist, practitioner-informed methodology at the intersection of IR, religion, and humanitarianism, Dr Intropido directly engaged with diplomats, humanitarian workers, and Church officials, offering both a new theoretical account of religious actors in world politics and a practical checklist for anyone partnering with Catholic humanitarian organisations.

The Politics of Catholic NGO Networks will be essential reading for students and scholars of religion and politics, international relations, sociology and anthropology of religion, humanitarian, development, and migration studies, and for practitioners navigating the increasingly visible role of religion in global affairs.