The present dissertation explores the impact that female Catholic missionary congregations have had in multicultural spaces at the margins of neoliberal capitalism in the Uraba region, western Colombia and the Manggarai region, western Flores, eastern Indonesia. It shows the different ways through which the Catholic Church has re-signified the concept of "mission" in frontier spaces characterized by ethnic and religious diversity, and determined by unequal dynamics of wealth and land distribution as well as environmental degradation. The project relies on critical theory for its methodological approach to assess the complex relation of Catholic missionaries with developmental and environmental discourses in the societies studied, both in colonial and postcolonial periods in order to gauge the significance of missionary congregations in these peripheral regions. It focuses on female orders because their work is seldom acknowledged in scholarly literature despite the influential role they have had among indigenous populations in frontier spaces. The research design follows a comparative approach in order to contrast the diverse ways through which the Catholic Church re-signifies its theological discourses and pastoral practices in two different contexts. Qualitative methods are the main source of information. Participant observation and interviews with congregation members and indigenous leaders of the studied societies as well as literature review provided the main input from where conclusions are drawn. The dissertation aims to fill the existing gap in religious studies on religious and development, as well as on women agency and on the influence that third world theologies have had on social and environmental issues in Latin America and Southeast Asia. I argue that grassroots cooperation between missionaries and indigenous groups has been successful in advancing collective interests of indigenous and ethnic communities while generating creative multicultural encounters. Finally, it shows how these peripheral discourses and practices are now penetrating the core of the Church Magisterium under the leadership of Pope Francis.
Key Words: Catholic Mission, Lauritas, SSpS, Indigenous Peoples, New Social Movements, Contextual Theologies, Liberation Theology, Embera, Manggarai, Religious Change, Intercultural Dialogue, Animism, Good Living, Neoliberalism, Development, Environmentality, Lauda