The Role of the Roman Catholic Church in Co-Shaping Czech Foreign Policy

Abstract

This article explores the question of whether the increasing importance of
religion in international relations is also reflected in the role the Roman
Catholic Church plays in the formulation of Czech foreign policy. In the first
half of the study we will briefly investigate in what ways the role of the
Church is described in the key documents of Czech (foreign) policy and how
the Church-politics relationship is interpreted in the Czech media discourse.
Our attention will be dedicated primarily to the thematic analysis and the
actorness of the Church. In the article´s second half, we will focus on the
way(s) the Church is trying to change the situation of its relation to Czech
politics, which is currently unfavourable to it. We will identify three
fundamental strategies that can be used by the Church as a reaction to its
expulsion from the public sphere and also assess their empirical presence
in the Czech milieu.