The Catholicism and Global Cultures Project is an initiative to study Catholicism's history, presence, conflicts, and compromises in and with relationship to "global cultures" or people and places beyond Rome, particularly in South America, Asia, and Africa, and tangentially, in relation to the U.S.A. and the ongoing encounter between Catholicism and American culture. In addition, a purpose of the Project is to gain a better understanding of the function of religion in public life generally. 

Since Catholicism was introduced to global cultures as a foreign faith, the study of the moment when the acceptance and/or rejection of its practices occurred provides information on when and how issues developed. Also, considering that religion and public life have come to the forefront of critical study since the events of September 11, 2001, the Catholicism and Global Cultures Project could be a model by which to examine, in the future, other religions in international milieus, such as an "Islam and Global Cultures Project" or a "Judaism and Global Cultures Project."

Past Topics of the Catholicism and Global Cultures Project

• “The Catholic Church and Brazil,” by Dr. Christine Kearney, Politics Department, Saint Anselm College
  
  
• “Catholicism in a North Indian Village,” by Dr. Matthew Schmalz, Department of Religious Studies, College of the Holy Cross
  
  
•  “Catholicism, Vodou, and Haiti,” by Dr. Leslie Desmangles, Department of Religion, Trinity College, CT
  
  
• “Peruvian Catholics and Biblical Interpretation: Theory, Method, and Conclusions,” by Dr. Dennis Sweetland, Theology Department, Saint Anselm College