Poverty, the bad example of some Catholics, bad initial Catechesis that allowed the old beliefs to be assimilated into Catholicism, and the bad example of Liberation Theologians.
Communism is the anti-Catholicism.
Since Captain Obvious is not available today, I will try to answer this rhetorical question.
Catholicism today works by example, not by coercion or intimidation.
Murder, intimidation and coercion are the most effective tools today to achieve any sort of effect, positive or otherwise. It is the worldwide standard tool.
Q.E.D.
Vatican II.
That was when we dropped the personal ethics component of Catholicism and decided that all moral problems were the result of not enough social workers and not enough government handouts.
Maybe the question should be: How much worse would the countries be if they weren't Catholic?
Satan had a stranglehold on the place before 1492!
The Church put an end to the human sacrifice and cannibalism being practiced by the natives.
Our Lady at Guadalupe blessed the people by her presence there crushing the serpent!
All very very positive!
VIVA CRISTO REY!
I will tell you why: because Catholicism (not Catholics) doesn't really believe in private property. Their Canon law recognizes it, but that is not put into practice.
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I have noticed that very frequently, even well into the early 20th century, the usual signatures of brides, grooms, parents, godparents, etc. are missing from the parish registers. The priest typically wrote down the names of those in attendance, but noted that they were unable to sign their own names. I found it shocking to see the amount of illiteracy that was typical in French Canadian society. Contemporary records among my own English and New England ancestors show a far higher rate of literacy.
This seems to me to be a failure on the part of the Church. It had a major influence on every facet of Québecois culture and society, and it really should have done a better job of educating the peasants.
-ccm
Some are never satisfied.
A very intriguing title. Ping to read & respond(?) later.
I don't think enough people understand how secularized much of Latin America has become. Speaking as someone who has spent a considerable amount of time in Panama, to say nothing of Costa Rica and Mexico, I can tell you that while certain sectors of the population are turning toward Pentecostalism, an even greater share, particularly in the cities, has turned away from religion en totem, not even bothering to baptise their children.
Funny... Any check I can find of the success of the Catholic Church in Latin America shows it to be rather minimal. The historic absence of any denomination hardly means that everyone is Catholic. I think we could all agree that a very strong measure of the Catholicity of any group is the number of priests. But historically, Latin America has been virtually devoid of priests. Instead, what has existed is a very small Catholic community ministering very inadequately to an enormous indigenous community under harsh suppression of anti-clerical regimes which were often funded by Anglosphere leaders who happened to be Protestant (i.e., Roosevelt, Eisenhower, etc.)
Only since John Paul II has a true evangelization of Latin America taken place.
The brutal repression of Catholicism in Latin America is best exemplified by Mexico, a Marxist-Troskyite regime older than the Soviet Union, wherein tens of thousands of Catholic priests and nuns were slaughtered.
**Why hasn't Catholicism had a more positive effect?**
The fact is, Catholicism had had a tremendous effect on the world.
Consider the issues of:
abortion
euthanasia
stem-cell research
contraception
same-sex marriage
And stories like
Fatima
Lepanto
Lanciano
Divine Mercy
The Passion of the Christ.
Does anyone want me to go on?
Or can we all admit that it really is open season on Jesus and especially Catholicism???
Just as the author describes - few true conversions.
"Why hasn't Catholicism had a more positive effect?"
Long term corruption?
It's not Catholicism, it's the Spanish. Anywhere the Spanish settled they tended to enslave and exploit the local population, as opposed to the British who did the same thing but also brought law, infrastructure, and most importantly the British education system. Look at a map of the world, former colonies that are doing well are almost all former colonies of the British Empire.
The latter is because the people have had no power in Latin America, it typically instead residing in the hands of corrupt oligarchs and dictators until that past few decades. The Masonic inspired expulsion of clergy at independence, combined with periodic pogroms against the few clergy in country (as in Mexico during the 1920's and 1930's in the Cristero revolt) has hardly helped.
The mass violence in Latin American society is a modern trend mirroring the mass violence in America since the 1960's, and is a result of the drug trade.
Ah yes, and the World Health Organization has the perfect solution - abortion! That would bring the murder rate down to a percentage more in line with the "enlightened" nations. (as long as you don't include the murdered infants)