Religion, masculinity and transnational mobility: Migrant Catholic men and the politics of evangelization

This chapter draws from ethnographic research conducted in Rome with Catholic Indian and Filipino men and explores the nexus between religion, masculinity, and transnationalism. It highlights how membership of Italian Catholic congregations allows migrant men to appeal to a more “universalist” morality and to more “legitimate” gendered subjectivities, while also to withdraw from demeaning representations as “ethnic Catholics”. The paper analyses how migrant men who are religiously trained in Italy become agents of re-evangelizations to be sent “back” to Asian countries by Italian Catholic institutions. In the process, transnational mobility does not only mold deep transformations in everyday gendered religiosity, but also indicates ongoing changes in the institutional features of this world religion.