Processes of Agency, Negotiation and Identity Construction: Lived Religion and LGBTQ+ in relation to Catholic Norms and Practices in Europe from Historical, Ethical and Practical Theological Perspectives
Team
Giorgio Maria Millesimi (PhD Researcher)
Matt Whiffen (PhD Researcher)
Eric Martinez Tomasini (PhD Researcher)
Dries Bosschaert (Supervisor)
Annemie Dillen (Co-Supervisor)
Nenad Polgar (Co-Supervisor)
Project duration
2024-2029
Funding body
Internal funds
Research topics
LGBTQ+ matters
Church history
Digital humanities
Approaches:
Archival research
Oral history
Participant observation
PANIC- Processes of Agency, Negotiation and Identity Construction: Lived Religion and LGBTQ+ in relation to Catholic Norms and Practices in Europe from Historical, Ethical and Practical Theological Perspectives
On December 18, 2023, the blessing of same-sex unions in the Roman Catholic Church was allowed by the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Belgian bishops made a similar statement one year earlier. This sparked many reactions, ranging from enthusiasm to protest. Time and again, beliefs around Catholic identity are being debated in relation to these positions on LGBTQ+ matters. On an individual level, Catholics shape their religious identity in dialogue with past and present views on LGBTQ+ matters in church and society. The project focusses on these processes of negotiation of one’s religious identity in relation to LGBTQ+ matters within the Roman-Catholic Church in a cross-cultural perspective (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Croatia, and Italy). Various data will be analysed: interviews, historical and contemporary normative sources and social media. In this way, the project aims to shed light on epistemological questions regarding identity construction and agency, memory and memory communities and cultural interactions and will delve into the intricate relationship between individual religious identity and the social institutions, church communities, and societal context.
For more information, visit this website.
Doctoral Projects
Giorgio Maria Millesimi: Negotiating faith and identity: A qualitative cross-cultural study of Catholic perspectives on LGBTQ+ matters in Belgium, France, and Italy
This project aims to investigate the formation of Catholic religious identity in dialogue with LGBTQ+ matters through qualitative empirical methods. By doing so, it strives to shed light on the diverse ways individuals reconcile, challenge, or redefine their identities at the intersection of faith and sexuality.
Recognising both LGBTQ+ and Catholic identities as complex and dynamic, the study seeks to examine the diverse ways in which these identities interact. Through a cross-cultural approach spanning Wallonia (Belgium), France, and Italy, the research will explore how different cultural contexts further influence these identity negotiations.
Additionally, a netnography will analyse how social media shape the agency of LGBTQ+ Catholics and foster conversations surrounding the inclusion and exclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals within the Catholic world.
Ultimately, this research aspires to provide empirical insights that contribute to theological reflection and pastoral care, emphasising the importance of diverse LGBTQ+ Catholic perspectives in advancing inclusive dialogue within both the Church and secular spheres.
For more information, visit this website.
Matt Whiffen: Between Memory, Faith and Belonging: Historical Perspectives on How Shared Traditions Shape the Negotiation of Catholic and LGBTQ+ Identities in Croatia and Flanders
Catholicism has long expressed heteronormative positions regarding LGBTQ+ matters, but has over recent history also engaged in the negotiation of identities and beliefs, thus reflecting a multiplicity of individual negotiations and experiences of lived religion. This project considers the role of collective memory and tradition in the process of Catholic and LGBTQ+ identity negotiation in Croatia and Flanders from a cross-cultural, historical perspective, analysing practices, performances and spaces of particular salience in that negotiation process.
By synthesizing archival approaches and oral histories of lived religious experience, placing them in a comparative historical perspective emerging out of the long 1960s, opportunities for the consideration of marginality and centrality in understandings of lived religion, memories and their inherent contradictions will be explored, with a particular focus on the normative power of the canonical and the archival. In so doing, the project aims to throw light on the contingencies and processes of identity construction and negotiation in the context of Church and LGBTQ+ matters in the respective geographical and spatial contexts.
For more information, visit this website.
Eric Martinez Tomasini: Ethics, Discourse, and Agency: Epistemic Negotiations of Identity among LGBTQ+ Catholics in France and Belgium
Motivated by a desire to deepen the understanding of identity construction processes in the context of lived religion, this research seeks to uncover the nature, form and sources of discourse mobilized by Catholics around LGBTQ+ matters, particularly in France and Belgium.
Religious identity is far from monolithic, and always dynamically constructed: when examining it in relation to sexual practices, desires and norms, one is forced to consider fundamental epistemological questions. These include identifying the sources of mobilized discourse (theological, sociopolitical, academic) and the ethical propositions they carry. Assessing, analyzing and typifying the biopolitical assumptions underpinning these discourses will allow for a richer and more nuanced interpretation of empirical data stemming from interviews. This analysis is complemented by archival work combining historical perspectives, thus shedding light on the role of collective memory in religious identity.
Ultimately, the research interrogates the diverse forms of personal agency in the process of identity construction, and the many ways agency shapes the negotiations between religious and sexual identity among Catholics, to reveal emerging trends and patterns that can be theoretically framed, thus offering fertile ground for innovation in the fields of queer theology and theological ethics.
For more information, visit this website.
Processes of Agency, Negotiation and Identity Construction: Lived Religion and LGBTQ+ in relation to Catholic Norms and Practices in Europe from Historical, Ethical and Practical Theological Perspectives 