The process of elucidating the relationship between secularization and religion cannot be reduced to an understanding of social change alone. Secularization should not be understood merely as a decline in religious influence; rather, it must be interp...
The process of elucidating the relationship between secularization and religion cannot be reduced to an understanding of social change alone. Secularization should not be understood merely as a decline in religious influence; rather, it must be interpreted as a complex process in which the social influence and authority of religion are deeply intertwined.
Although the Church has existed amid historical transformations, the evangelization of the world has always remained one of its essential missions. In order to fulfill this mission, the Church has continually sought to discern the signs of the times and to reinterpret its vocation in response to changing historical circumstances. Evangelization, therefore, is not simply a pastoral concern, but a theological and ontological task directly related to the very existence of the Church.
The Church commonly understands the French Revolution as a decisive starting point of modern secularization. Alongside the rapid transformations of nineteenth-century European society, the Christian culture that had long formed its foundation began to fragment. Through the Napoleonic wars, revolutionary ideals spread across Europe. As the Church experienced the Vienna settlement and the process of Italian unification, it was placed in a position that demanded a response to modernization. The actions of Pope Pius IX—particularly his articulation of opposition to modernism through a series of documents and the convocation of the First Vatican Council—can also be understood as one such response.
In the course of secularization, the Church appeared to lose its long-held social authority and influence and to be pushed helplessly from the center of society to its margins. Yet within this very process of change, the Church was able to rediscover and reaffirm its identity and mission.
Within this context, the election of Pope Pius XI and the emergence of the Catholic Action movement may be understood as historical developments aimed at restoring the value of evangelization in a secularized world, reflecting both the Church’s theological self-understanding and its practical response. By rediscovering the importance of the role and activity of the laity, Catholic Action not only served as a channel reconnecting the Church and the world, but also, in a broader perspective, became a foundation for the Church’s transition from a predominantly defensive posture toward modern society to a more active stance of dialogue with the world.
Accordingly, the significance of this study lies not only in its effort to concretize the Church’s experience within the process of European secularization—an area that has not been sufficiently examined—but also in its contribution to meaningful reflection for
the contemporary Church, which continues to be called to reinterpret its identity and mission amid an ever-changing world.