This edited volume engages a long-standing religious power, the Holy See, to discuss the impact of the structural and postsecular transformations of international relations through the emergence of a global and digital public sphere. Despite the legal construction that enables the separation of the Holy See as a distinct legal entity, it is also an instrument for the papacy to represent externally and regulate internally the global and transnational Catholic Church. The Holy See is also the tool that enables the papacy to address a transnational or a global public beyond Catholic adherence ¿ most prominently through journeys that are often at the same time state visits and pastoral journeys. Instead of understanding these hybrid roles as an irregular exemption, the contributions of the book argue that the Holy See should be seen as a certainly special but nevertheless quite normal actor of international and public diplomacy.

Mariano P. Barbato is Heisenberg Fellow at the Center for Religion and Modernity, University of Münster, and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Passau, Germany.

Chapter 1. The Holy See, Public Spheres and Postsecular Transformations of International Relations: An Introduction.- Part 1. Media Formats.- Chapter 2. Papal Diplomacy and the Rise of @pontifex.- Chapter 3. The "Media Pope" as a Challenger of Socialism: Pope John Paul II's First Trip to Poland.- Chapter 4. "I put no stock in consensus": The Young Pope and the Progressive/Conservative Cleavage in Filmic Narrations of Papal Power.- Part 2. Geopolitical Stages.- Chapter 5. The Holy See's Vision of an Abrahamic Middle East: Islam, Israel, and Oriental Churches.- Chapter 6. Papal Presence in East and South Asia: China, India and Beyond.- Chapter 7. Thought and Pilgrimage: Polish Heritage of St. John Paul II.- Chapter 8. Spectacle and Power: Sites and Spaces of Papal Visits in Spain.- Part 3. Global Transformation.- Chapter 9. Transatlantic Solidarities: Ultramontanism and Papal Mobilization in Latin America.- Chapter 10. Holy Alliance? The Establishment of Diplomatic Relationsbetween the USA and the Holy See.- Chapter 11. The Holy See as Hybrid Actor: Religion in International, Transnational, and World Society