This volume examines the cultural contribution of religious institutes, men and women religious, and their role in the constitution of Catholic communities of communication in England, Germany, Liechtenstein, the Low Countries, the Nordic countries, and Switzerland. The authors focus on social and cultural history by comparing both discourses and cultural and social practices, as well as examining international networks and cultural transference. Among the questions addressed are: How did religious institutes function as cultural elites in the production and mediation of knowledge, ideologies, cultural codes, and practices? What kind of discursive and operational strategies did they use to help construct and propagate social Catholicism, ultramontanism, and confessionalism, and to establish and promote the Catholic communication system? What were the central mechanisms in the production of knowledge and how were they incorporated within identity politics? The volume also takes a broad perspective on the role of religious institutes in the production and propagation of religious, cultural, and social practices, and in the socialization of the Catholic population. The focus is on cultural practices, the transmission and transformation of attitudes, and the rites and customs in everyday religious and social practices. Contributors: Urs Altermatt (University of Fribourg), Patrick Bircher + (Trier University), Jan De Maeyer (KADOC-KU Leuven), Katherine Harper (University of York), Franziska Metzger (University of Fribourg), Marit Monteiro (Radboud University Nijmegen), Joachim Schmiedl (Vallendar Theological Faculty), Martina Sochin D'Elia (Liechtenstein-Institute Bendern), Kristien Suenens (KADOC-KU Leuven), Esther Vorburger-Bossart (University of Lucerne), Yvonne Maria Werner (University of Lund)