Posted on 08/08/2012 9:03:55 AM PDT by Dr. Thorne
At least 1 million evangelical Christians took part in Saturday's annual "March for Jesus" in Sao Paulo, demonstrating the growing trend of Protestantism in Brazil.
With 123.2 million of 191 million Brazilians identifying as Catholic according to 2010 census data, the South American nation still holds the world's largest Catholic population, but adherents to the faith have been steadily declining over several decades, while Protestantism, particularly evangelical Christianity, has been on the rise.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
Theologically, I feel like I am still a Catholic.
Politically?
I am sick to death of the “Social Justice” types who seem to have taken over.
“Subsidiarity” is still valid Catholic doctrine, but it is hard to find a Priest or Bishop who understands the evils of Socialism.
I am guessing the same is true is Brazil.
I thought the REAL religion of Brazil was Macumba. Just about EVERYONE practices it in one form or another.
Funny how they buried the impact of Liberation Theology alienating the working class of Brazil halfway into the article.
Catholics don’t want Clerical Marxism, they want their faith. Of course the Social Justice types will continue to trumpet their poison as it further corrodes the Church.
A Brazilian friend of mine has given me reports on the ground about this.
These Evangelical churches bring joy, and a genuine sense of celebration over the Good News of Jesus Christ. This is very motivating, particularly to young people.
Meanwhile our Church puts out a new missal containing the Portugese equivalent of words like Consubstantial.
When times are good - they are in a boon - living the faith of sacrifice is too hard, enjoying the faith of the prosperity gospel is appealing.
Doesn’t matter that they’re going to black and white from full color, they’re feeling emotional and active, which the Church was not doing.
Decades of poor formation (catechesis) leads to this and the formation they did get was from the Liberation Marxists, so it was bent.
So the Church, like at the time of the Reformation, has cleaned up its act but it is too late to stop the masses made ignorant by them in the first place. They will come back when they’re lives need full color - like the Anglicans are doing.
May God protect them - may they fall in deeper love with Jesus and never stop until they see where home truly is and come back to a righted ship, one that is always in need of reform and renewal of its human followers, the catholic Church.
But the reporter doesn't seem capable of making that distinction.
Protestantism, however, is a fragmented, diverse world which is an umbrella for a wide spectrum of non-Catholic religions. Brazilians who are embracing "Protestantism" are in fact embracing a variety of independent, Pentecostal churches which profess a variety of different theologies and in some cases, no theology. A collection of custom made churches.
That's entirely in keeping with my cultural experience of modern Brazil and its chaotic, haphazard society. On reflection, it's a miracle that Catholicism has been dominant in Brazil for so long, given the Brazilian love of improvisation and spontaneity.
I guess they want to be just like Americans.
Simply put: bring back the Traditional Latin Mass, and ditch liberation theology in favor of scholastic theology. Better to have more faithful, well-formed priests in smaller numbers than to have greater amounts of less well-formed priests. Also better for formation of the faithful. I know that this isn’t a complete answer, and that such things are always more complex than a single article, or indeed my feeble understanding will convey, but these words keep coming to mind, and I am sure they are the key: Lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi.
(As we worship, we believe. As we believe, we live.)
But for starters, remove every trace of liberation theology.
All churches have a theology. All churches grounded primarily in Scripture have very similar theologies. Many of the core beliefs of the confessional reformation churches had a good representation within pre-Trent Catholicism as Augustinians. Jesus teaches in Revelation that no individual church is safe from losing its candlestick. He will not tolerate the lukewarm. Those who are not already passionate for Him must come home to Him, regardless of the name or history of their church. Those who love Him above all else, who love and obey his word, who are led by His spirit, are already home.
Peace,
SR
You need to “fix” your ignorance. Prosperity gospel preaching is actually a very rare phenomena in Protestant chuches and the dudes that do this sort of preaching on TV need to have their heads and their faith examined. Then again, looking at some of the Catholic advertisements for various religious medals and trinkets with the notion pushed that wearing these medals will allow the wearer some extra influence with God, I see huxsterism can be found in Catholic as well as Protestant publications and TV ads.
Nothing at all complicated here. The masses have discovered that it is more important to love the Lord more than the “church”. (political, money loving,controlling)
What's wrong with the word consubstantial?
“Protestantism” is NOT a synonym for “prosperity gospel”
We talked about this, and he said his parents were just “cultural” Catholics, and when he started to be interested in God, he couldn't find much support at his local church.
Bad teaching for generations leaves people hungry. Many left for places that were not just going through the motions.
He did say there is a “revival” movement going on in some Catholic churches. That may help, but there is a lot of cultural things working against them.
Q. 1. Why do Catholics wear and bless religious medals?
A. 1. In summary, the wearing of a medal that represents a Patron Saint is an expression of faith. The blessing of such a medal acknowledges the approval of the Catholic Church to allow the medal as a sacred symbol of the supernatural protection offered directly by our Lord, Blessed Mother or a saint. This blessing sets apart the medal as an expression of faith rather than an item of worship that has pagan roots.
A religious medal is never worn as a "charm," but rather as a constant physical reminder of the love and fidelity that we share with Almighty God and the communion of saints. The Catholic is very clear in its teachings, whether a religious medal is blessed or not, it has no built-in power. Such a belief is superstitious and condemned by the Catholic Church.
In the early days of the Church, there were many pagan practices in the community. The Catholic Church implemented many spiritual practices to combat those pagan practices. The wearing of religious medals was one such practice. Medals were used to remind the believers of Jesus, Mary, the Sainst, Shrines they had visited or even their having received the Sacrament of Baptism. Religious medals served as reminders to Catholics to pray, to perform acts of charity, to show reverence to God or the Lord Jesus, etc... Religious medals containing the images of Saints Peter and Paul were found in graves dating back to the second century. The blessing of religious medals did not commence until Pope Pius V implemented this practice in the 1500s. Religious medals are blessed by the priests of the Catholic Church.
As a non-Catholic, you are entirely free to reject all of that. Cheers.
If anything is black and white, or gray, it is Roman Catholicism.
Rather than leaving good evangelical churches due to deeper love of Jesus (a wonderful sentiment though) to find “full color” in Roman Catholicism, the opposite is what is most manifest.
As with me about 30 years ago, most evangelical converts from Rome left due to the spiritual deficiency of Rome, and not for an easier conservative faith, as Rome overall is more liberal. See http://www.peacebyjesus.com/RC-Stats_vs._Evang.html
And such churches abound with converts from Roman Catholicism who manifestly did not know the new birth, resulting in a Scripture-based relationship with the Lord in living color. They do need to learn more theologically and from history though, and the evangelical church has its own remnant out of necessity.
Meanwhile, i have heard Catholic priests rejoice at how converts from evangelical churches, the relative few there are, enliven their pews. As my old priest used to exhort us, “sing like Protestants.”
As for the prosperity gospel, that is not the majority, thank God, and is a result of conforming to the culture which is evident in both faiths, while the strongest “faith Christians” are those in the persecuted church. For faith not only can see escape from the sword, but enable us to be sawn asunder. (Heb. 11:34,37)
Good post. May i have a single heart for Him to died for us and rose again.
I rejoice with the spread of The Gospel. The Christian evangelism sweeping south and central America is so exciting. It's exciting first and foremost because so many are coming to know the Lord as their Savior. Also, from a political perspective the stronger the Evangelical Christian influence in this region of the world the less likely it is to fall into socialism and state control of people. I think of these people as our neighbors down the street and not only want to see them saved, but want to get along well with them.
Is that an anti-America dig, or a hope?
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