The Catholic Church is, by its very nature, global, that is, universal. According to the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium (23), the worldwide Catholic Church exists in and is constituted by the local churches throughout the world (in eis et ex eis una et unica Ecclesia catholica existit). This is not mere rhetoric: in the Catholic Church, all local churches are truly united by the bonds of faith and ecclesial order. The Bishop of Rome or the Pope serves as the sign and guarantor of the Church’s universality and true catholicity. For this reason, the papacy is such a profound gift to the global Church.
The final words of Jesus Christ to his disciples before returning to the Father were: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). From this missionary command arises the Church’s global character: the Church cannot but remain faithful to her Lord by bringing his salvation to the whole world. The missionary zeal enkindled by the Holy Spirit led Paul, Augustine of Canterbury, Henry, Francis Xavier, Daniele Comboni, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and countless others to carry the Church to every corner of the earth. The spread of the Catholic Church throughout the entire world – its admirabilis propagatio (see Dei Filius III) – stands as a compelling sign of its unique divine mission in human history.
The global character of the Catholic Church also attracts the attention of academic scholars, regardless of their personal faith commitments. In recent years, an entirely new academic field has emerged: the study of “Global Catholicism” explores the worldwide reality and diversity of the Catholic Church. With 1.4 billion members, the Catholic Church is such a unique institution that it offers an inexhaustible subject for study. For a believing Catholic, a scholarly approach to one’s own Church may at first feel somewhat foreign, yet it can also open up fresh and illuminating perspectives on what it means to be Catholic.
On August 15, 2025, the first Finnish-language overview of global Catholicism was published. The volume was edited by Finnish experts in global Catholicism – Petra Kuivala, Mikko Ketola, and Jyri Komulainen – and released by Gaudeamus under the fitting title Roomasta mailman ääriin: globaali katolisuus (or in English, From Rome to the Ends of the Earth: Global Catholicism). The study of global Catholicism can, in truth, only be carried out through collaboration among scholars, and this book exemplifies that spirit. It consists of ten scholarly essays, each shedding light on different dimensions of the global Church. All contributions are academically rigorous and together offer a rather comprehensive perspective on global Catholicism. The Catholic contributors to the volume are Vera La Mela and the present author.
Within the book, Latin American and Asian Catholicism are especially prominent. At times, the focus may lean somewhat toward extreme or marginal phenomena, but this serves to reveal something of the astonishing diversity that constitutes global Catholicism in the lived experience of the faithful. Unfortunately, African Catholicism receives little attention, even though the Church is expanding rapidly south of the Sahara, driven by high birth rates. Otherwise, the book strikes a fine balance between the perspectives of the papacy and Roman central administration on one hand, and those of the world’s various local churches on the other. This balance touches the theological core question of ecclesial globality: how can one both recognize the significance of Rome as the guarantor of unity and at the same time live out Catholicity concretely within one’s own cultural context?
A particular temptation of Catholicism – especially during the second Christian millennium – has been an excessive Rome-centeredness. The assumption has been that everything will go smoothly as long as one follows the decrees and directives of the Pope and the Roman Curia to the letter. Such papal centralism has at times even hindered or stifled the Church’s growth, as occurred, for instance,
in 17th-century China. For local churches to develop across the world, they must be granted freedom to enter deeply into their local cultures and to renew them from within through the word of the Gospel. Inculturation is a vital condition for the life of the global Church.
Roomasta maailman ääriin also includes a concise overview of the Catholic local Church in Finland. This chapter raises an important question: to what extent has Catholicism truly become inculturated in Finland, that is, become an integral part of Finnish society and culture? Or is Catholicism still perceived as something foreign, an exotic import from elsewhere? How do Catholics in Finland themselves contribute to the inculturation of their faith? Inculturation does not happen automatically; it depends on all of us who belong to the Catholic Church.
I believe that the tension between the Church’s universality and locality is not a zero-sum game, as if one had to choose between the global and the local. On the contrary, the more authentically a local church draws life from its surrounding culture, the more powerfully it can contribute to the richness of the universal Church. Conversely, a global perspective helps us to better understand the distinctive character of our own local church, to situate it within, and sometimes to correct it in light of, the wider reality of the world Church. In the global Church, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, as Pope Francis wrote in his apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium (235).
I warmly recommend embarking on the literary journey Roomasta mailman ääriin to all who wish, with open minds, to reflect on the Church’s global diversity. The book can also serve as inspiration – perhaps at the church coffee – for conversations about the distinctive character of Finnish Catholicism and its relationship to the global Church. How can the Catholic Church in Finland be both a Catholic Church and, in a special way, the Catholic Church in Finland? The Church’s global nature is, for all of us, both a gift and a mission.
Alpo Penttinen