Posted on 11/13/2014 1:35:24 PM PST by SeekAndFind
A new Pew survey found that Latin American Catholics are increasingly leaving the Catholic Church, either to join evangelical Protestant churches or are abandoning religion altogether. The survey participants cited a search for a personal connection with God as the biggest reason for their shift.
The wide-ranging survey, released on Thursday, reported that although 69 percent of adults across the region identify as Catholic, in almost every country surveyed there was a reported net loss of Catholics in terms of people raised Catholic and currently Catholic. Overall for Latin America as a whole, 84 percent of the population was raised Catholic, but only 69 percent identify as part of the Catholic Church now. By contrast, only nine percept of Latin America's population was raised in the Protestant tradition, but today 19 percent identify as Protestant. The number of religiously unaffiliated people is also rising, going from four percent raised without religion to currently eight percent identifying as no religion today.
As for various reasons why Latin Americans are leaving the Catholic Church, 81 percent of those who responded said that they are seeking a personal connection with God; 69 percent said they enjoy the style of worship at a new church, while 60 percent said that they wanted a greater emphasis on morality.
"Much of the movement away from Catholicism and toward Protestantism in Latin America has occurred in the span of a single lifetime. Indeed, in most of the countries surveyed, at least a third of current Protestants were raised in the Catholic Church, and half or more say they were baptized as Catholics," Pew pointed out.
Pew also highlighted that although Pope Francis has drawn much attention since his appointment in March 2013, only in his home country of Argentina, as well as in Uruguay, do the majority of ex-Catholics express a favorable view of the pope. In the other Latin American countries, only roughly half of ex-Catholics have a favorable view of the pontiff.
Uruguay has also been identified as having the largest percentage of religiously unaffiliated adults in Latin America, with close to 37 percent of its population. That number varies considerably across the region, with Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay all having less than 5 percent religiously unaffiliated people.
Young Hispanics in the United States have also been leaving the church and joining Protestant denominations according to reports. A Boston College study released earlier this year found that 59 percent of priests who serve Hispanic communities are older than 55, creating a generational gap.
"There are very few efforts in the Catholic Church to reach out to Hispanic youth, that's a major red flag for our institution because more than 55 percent of Catholic youth in the U.S. are Hispanic. If the Church doesn't reach out to this generation, we're going to risk losing them," Hosffman Ospino, an assistant professor of theology and ministry at Boston College and lead author of the report, told The Christian Post at the time.
I guess they are coming home to Jesus and leaving the payers to the so-called saints behind. Which Is Called The One True Church.
A friend of mine from Brazil confirms this. Evangelical churches are feeding the spiritual hunger that the Catholic Church is failing to do. Particularly among the young.
Are they leaving the Catholic Church, or is the Catholic Church leaving them? I would say the latter with Pope Francis. I am not Catholic, but if I were I would have to rethink the church with him at the helm.
He only took office 20 months ago, and any effect he had, if any, didn't start on day one.
Maybe they just want a church service that doubles as entertainment and to be told that Jesus wants them to be fat, happy, and most of all, rich.
Great news anytime someone entrusts themselves to Christ!
Maybe a solution to the corruption can finally be implemented. Time will tell.
That’s what I’m going through right now. It is squandering away it’s chances to educate and instruct it’s flock as to ALL of the cultural rot that is destroying the Western world.
They need golden domes and fancy robes and stuff for that
“Maybe they just want a church service that doubles as entertainment and to be told that Jesus wants them to be fat, happy, and most of all, rich.”
Well, apparently they don’t want a church service that doubles as a Marxist cell group and tells them that Jesus wants them to pick up a gun and kill the rich!
;P
That’s true, but it is also true that he has exposed how radicals within the church are firmly in control. The changes before were more incremental and somewhat obscured. Now it’s an in your face type of changes happening. Something this Pope obviously agrees with and fully supports.
Irrelevant to this thread, I don’t think this thread is about the last few months, or the last year.
Nearly as many are leaving because they want to “enjoy the style of worship” at a different church. They aren’t coming home to anyone — their reasons for changing churches are totally superficial.
That's incorrect. What's actually happening is that Catholics are being scattered among a multitude of sects and faith communities which are unified, for the purposes of this survey, under the umbrella term "Protestant". However there's no unity in what's happening. Those who leave Catholicism actually embrace a variety of different beliefs and doctrines almost as numerous as the preachers who sell it. I can't see that as a good thing unless one subscribes to the idea that anything is better than Catholicism.
As for rapid growth of religions, currently the fastest growing world religion, in terms of numbers, is Islam.
Just sayin'..........
All churches are subject to corruption as they are run by men. The question you need to ask yourself is a different question. You need to ask what church did Jesus found?
The answer is the Catholic Church.
Oh my!! Taking short break to make popcorn.
As if any two Catholics actually believe the same thing. Please. I visit with Catholics all the time and Heinz 57 Varieties are more unified than they are.
I rather think it was Paul.
Why didn’t Jesus, then well into his ministry, Christianize the Lord’s Prayer rather than use an already familiar Hebrew formulary (the Amidah) which in fact, gives it its more universal appeal?
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