People hold crosses while standing behind a statue of Christ during a re-enactment of the Crucifixion April 18 near Monterrey, Mexico. (CNS photo/Daniel Becerril, Reuters)
Posted on 12/08/2014 2:56:36 PM PST by NYer
Those interested in reviving Catholicism’s saliency in everyday life in Latin America should consider how they can make Christ front-and-center of their social outreach
It’s hardly surprising that the election of Latin America’s Pope Francis has focused more attention on Latin American Catholicism since the debates about liberation theology which shook global Christianity in the 1970s and 1980s. The sad irony, however, is that this renewed attention is highlighting something long known to many Catholics but which non-Catholics are now becoming more cognizant: that Latin America’s identity as a “Catholic continent” is fading and has been doing so for some time.
By that I don’t mean that most Latin Americans no longer identify as Catholic. That’s still the case. Indeed, in many countries south of the Rio Grande, it remains overwhelming true. But what’s clear is that Catholicism’s ability to shape Latin America’s religious context is in decline, or, from another perspective, faces some significant competitors: and not just from Evangelicals but also agnosticism and atheism.
Two recent surveys of religion in Latin America have underscored this point. The more noticed survey, conducted by Pew, illustrated that the percentage of people identifying as Catholic in almost every Latin American country has fallen significantly. And even among those who identify as Catholic, significant numbers describe themselves as being at odds with Church teaching on some key faith and morals questions. Indeed, 60 percent of converts to Evangelicalism say that one reason they left the Catholic Church was that they were looking for more assertive teaching on moral questions. This matters in societies in which, as the Pew survey indicates, most people say they adhere to what would be conventionally called conservative positions on all the usual hot-button issues.
It is true, the survey notes, that regular Mass-goers in Latin America cleave much more closely to Church teaching than those Catholics who don’t. That pattern is more-or-less universal in global Catholicism. It’s also the case that the practicing rate of Latin American Catholics puts your average Western European country to shame. That said, the survey also states that Evangelicals are generally more committed to a life of prayer, regular worship, and other church-based activities than even church-going Catholics.
One reason we can have some confidence that the Pew survey presents a relatively accurate picture of Catholic Latin America is that the results track very closely with another less-noticed survey of religion in America, released in April this year by the Latinobarómetro Corporation, one of the continent’s most respected survey organizations.
To give one example, the Latinobarómetro survey suggests that fewer than half of Hondurans today (47 percent) are Catholic. That’s down from 76 percent in 1995. By comparison, the Pew survey claims that 46 percent of Hondurans are Catholic. Two separate surveys thus confirm that the Catholic Church in Honduras, from a numbers-standpoint, is in deep trouble. No amount of happy-talk can diminish that fact that it’s hemorrhagingadherents.
Both surveys provide a fascinating amount of data about religion in Latin America which will provide sociologists with much to digest for some time. But neither survey purports to provide broad explanations either about what’s been going on in Latin American Catholicism over the past twenty years, or suggestions about the way forward. Nevertheless, they do point to some significant factors worth further contemplation.
The first is that Catholicism in Latin America is being subject to competition, and has been so for at least 30 years. To my mind, that’s a good thing. After all, a market of ideas creates a context in which people are encouraged to consider what they really believe precisely because possible alternatives are more available.
The difficulty for any institution that’s exercised a monopoly position (such as Catholicism in Latin America) in such conditions is that it usually finds adaptation to competition to be very difficult. Initially such institutions often respond by trying to block or disparage competition (which usually fails), instead of asking themselves how they can do what they do more effectively.
With regard to Latin American Catholicism, the jury is still out on whether the on-going disintegration of its once near-monopoly will result in a more energized and committed church. As the sociologist Rodney Stark illustrated in his book The Victory of Reason (2006) many of the Catholic movements that focus on solid formation and foster greater commitment—Opus Dei, Communion and Liberation, Catholic Charismatics, etc.—are flourishing in many Latin American nations. They are the ones who open new churches, have vocations, build universities, and actively evangelize people. They understand the error in simply assuming “the culture” will naturally incline people to Catholic faith.
A second fact worth further contemplation is that Evangelicals (a phrase which covers many theological positions) are, well, more evangelical than Catholics. That’s often the case of religious minorities, especially converts, and most Latin American Evangelicals are converts from (usually a very nominal) Catholicism. But Latin America’s Evangelicals, the survey indicates, are far more willing to speak about Christ than Catholics. The latter by contrast tend to prioritize various forms of social outreach to those in need.
There’s much truth in the well-known saying that “the Church in Latin America opted for the poor, and the poor opted for the Pentecostals.” It’s revealing, however, that even though Evangelicals put more stress on bringing people to Christ than social outreach, the Pew survey also found that, proportionately-speaking, Evangelicals do more social outreach and direct work with the poor than Catholics. They are especially good, for instance, at finding people jobs and helping others to escape alcoholism.
This fits with observations made by Stark where he cites evidence that highly-committed Catholics and Evangelicals in Latin America are far more involved in civil society and the messy work of actually helping real flesh-and-blood people in holistic ways than their co-religionists. In a word, commitment to Christ—whether in the Catholic Church or Evangelical communities—seems to produce socially beneficial and concrete side-effects, including poverty-alleviation.
It follows that Catholic leaders in Latin America interested in reviving Catholicism’s saliency in everyday life may need to consider how they can make Christ front-and-center of their social outreach. By that, I don’t mean “Christ-the-social-worker” or “Christ-the-community-organizer.” If the experiments with liberation theology’s highly-political versions tell us anything, it’s that reducing Christ to a political message undermines people’s faith. As one very wise priest who teaches Catholic social doctrine in Rome writes: “my students who are laypeople and clergy in Latin America give testimony to their experience in their parishes: wherever and whenever liberation theology has entered, people have lost their faith.”
The need to reemphasize Christ also suggests that what might be called “low-intensity Catholicism” also isn’t an option for the Latin American Church. A sure sign of low-intensity Catholicism’s prevalence is whenever you notice that Catholics who speak about the Church being “present” or “available” also seem profoundly reticent to speak about Christ Himself, let alone the content of the Faith. The effect, some might say, is to render the Church invisible, like a piece of furniture in the house that’s always there but never used, and which soon gets forgotten or placed in the attic.
It’s not a case of either/or. You need both presence and proclamation. But it also matters what you proclaim. In the 1970s and 1980s, much of Latin American Catholicism’s proclamation had much more to do with prudential political and economic questions rather than Christ.
In many cases, this may have resulted in those seeking Christ finding Him elsewhere. The Pew survey reports that people’s number-one stated reason (81 percent) for becoming Evangelical in Latin America is that they wanted a personal relationship with God. Put another way, people can find social activism anywhere. But what makes Christianity distinct is Christ. Playing down that distinction is the sure path for Catholicism to collapse, as Pope Francis has said on numerous occasions, turning the Church into just another NGO.
Over-generalizations about Latin American Catholicism should be avoided. The surveys show, for instance, that while Evangelicalism has made big inroads in some Latin American nations, in others (such as Mexico) the impact has been minimal. Likewise, anyone who has been to Latin America knows there are enormous cultural differences between, say, Venezuela and Brazil. There are also major economic variations. Uruguay and Chile are now classified as developed economies. The country physically separating them—Argentina—is a byword for economic disaster.
Yet despite these distinctions, both the Pew and Latinobarómetro surveys indicate that Latin American nations remain intensely religious societies, despite a rise in the “nones.” One (negative) illustration of religion’s continuing influence is that Latin American populist leftism invariably wraps itself in imagery that draws deeply on explicitly Christian symbolism. This is exemplified by the pseudo-religious cults of personality built up around long-deceased populist politicians such as Argentina’s Juan and Evita Peron or Venezuela’s recently-departed Hugo Chavez. Such people may have wrecked their nations’ economies and prospects for long-term political stability, but the saint-like status they are accorded by many of their compatriots is real.
In the end, of course, Catholicism is not a numbers game. Nor is the Church’s business one of gaining “market share” of a given population. Rather the Church is in the business of proclaiming the Truth. For all sorts of reasons, many people won’t accept that message. But unless the message is presented, how can it be declined in the first place? It follows that until many Catholic Latin Americans steel themselves to focus upon proclaiming the fullness of who Christ is, there’s every reason to expect a continued fading of the Catholic Church’s position in a continent where a plurality of the world’s Catholics now live.
And that cannot be good for the universal Church.
Thus I aspire to proclaim the gospel not where Christ has already been named, so that I do not build on another's foundation, but as it is written: "Those who have never been told of him shall see, and those who have never heard of him shall understand."
Romans 15:20-21
Ping!
Indeed.
I don't believe that. I DO believe that numbers game is at least a contributor to the Church undermining the Rule of Law in the USA...the Bastion of Liberty that saved the Church from utter destruction on at least two occasions I can think of.
The problem is that the Church became a social services organization in Latin America, while the people wanted a religion. The only thing that has kept the Faith alive in Latin America has been the popular devotions, and of course the Vatican II bishops and clergy were very opposed to them.
Catholics either dropped away altogether, or went to one of the many Pentecostal or Evangelical churches that sprang up everywhere, mostly funded by US money. One of the big secrets of these churches, which boast of their “success,” is that they have a terrible retention rate, meaning that the “converts” stay only until the emotional high has worn off or perhaps only as long as the particular pastor they liked is there, and then they drift off, either to secularism...or to Islam.
The Muslims made great strides in Chiapas, for example, which had a radical leftwing Catholic bishop who drove away the faithful, who then became Pentecostals and then ended up becoming a windfall for the Islamic recruiters who are all through Latin America. This is because Islam offers them certainty and a law by which to live, no matter how distorted both of them may be, which is something the Church used to offer people until it became passe in the opinion of Vatican II and its clergy. People need it.
The problems of the Church in Latin America are due to the fact that THE POPES appointed hundreds of Communist bishops over a span of fifty years. Basically the same reason the Church is collapsing in North America. And the worst thing any Pope has done to the Church in the last thousand years (or maybe two thousand), Mass in the vernacular. Much worse than the Novus Ordo. It was the vernacular, not the Novus Ordo itself, that unleashed the egomaniacal improvisers to give us Clown Masses, Disco Masses, Leather Masses, Polka Masses, Tango Masses, etc., etc., as well as the run-of-mill weekday Mass where Father just changes all the stuff he doesn’t like.
No, Latin Americans want RELATIONSHIP with Jesus. They don’t need rules and regulations to tell them “how” to live. The entire point of this article was to demonstrate that Evangelicals have “walked the walk” a little more than the average Latin American Roman Catholic. For you to wave them off as a flash in the pan is shortsighted. Christians all over the world want authentic faith that results in connection with their Heavenly Father.
....the survey also states that Evangelicals are generally more committed to a life of prayer, regular worship, and other church-based activities than even church-going Catholics.
May God bring this kind of problem to every country!
But they are the ones relegated to being "deficient in grace," mainly the Catholic RP, which they think they obtain spiritual life from, while few truly have been born again, and realized its profound changes in heart and life.
That has been my observation on a larger scope. While certain RCs assert media bias as the reason for dismissing stats that are negative about their church, i have found overall consistency among a wide number of researchers over many years.
Prove it. Actually least likely to covert to Islam are evangelicals, as they usually are so because found Christ, being born again, and are no longer as those who were raised in institutionalized religion, which carcass Islam has historically fed off of. As evangelicals tend to be the most committed, by God's grace, and the most committed are less likely to convert than the typical RC.
68% of those raised Roman Catholic still are Catholic (higher than the retention rates of individual Protestant denoms, but less than Jews at 76%). 15% are now Protestant (9% evangelical); 14% are unaffiliated. Pew forum, Faith in Flux (April 27, 2009) http://pewforum.org/uploadedfiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/fullreport.pdf
80% of adults who were raised Protestant are still Protestant, but (analysis shows) 25% no longer self-identify with the Protestant denomination in which they were raised. ^
Those who have left Catholicism outnumber those who have joined the Catholic Church by nearly a four-to-one margin. 10.1% have left the Catholic Church after having been raised Catholic, while only 2.6% of adults have become Catholic after having been raised in a different faith.^
Over 75% of those who left Catholicism attended Mass at least once a week as children, versus 86% having done so who remain Catholics today.^
Regarding reasons for leaving Catholicism, less than 30% of former Catholics agreed that the clergy sexual abuse scandal played a role in their departure. ^
Over 75% of those who left Catholicism attended Mass at least once a week as children, versus 86% having done so who remain Catholics today.^ Regarding reasons for leaving Catholicism, less than 30% of former Catholics agreed that the clergy sexual abuse scandal played a role in their departure. ^ 71% of converts from Catholicism to Protestant faith said that their spiritual needs were not being met in Catholicism, with 78% of Evangelical Protestants in particular concurring, versus 43% of those now unaffiliated. ^
55% of evangelical converts from Catholicism cited dissatisfaction with Catholic teachings about the Bible was a reason for leaving Catholicism, with 46% saying the Catholic Church did not view the Bible literally enough. Only 23% (20% now evangelical) were unhappy about Catholicism's teachings on abortion/homosexuality (versus 46% of those now unaffiliated); 23% also expressed disagreement with teaching on divorce/remarriage; 16% (12% now evangelical) were dissatisfied with teachings on birth control, 70% said they found a religion the liked more in Protestantism. - http://www.peacebyjesus.com/RC-Stats_vs._Evang.html#DEMOGRAPHICS
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. For example, nearly three-quarters of current Protestants in Colombia were raised Catholic, and 84% say they were baptized as Catholics.
The survey asked former Catholics who have converted to Protestantism about the reasons they did so. Of the eight possible explanations offered on the survey, the most frequently cited was that they were seeking a more personal connection with God
Even though the Catholic Church opposes abortion and same-sex marriage, Catholics in Latin America tend to be less conservative than Protestants on these kinds of social issues. On average, Catholics are less morally opposed to abortion, homosexuality, artificial means of birth control, sex outside of marriage, divorce and drinking alcohol than are Protestants. ...
Even though Catholics are more likely than Protestants to say charity work is most important, higher percentages of Protestants report that they, personally, have joined with members of their church or others in their community to help the poor and needy. - http://www.pewforum.org/2014/11/13/religion-in-latin-america/
Although the exact number of Latino Muslims is difficult to determine, estimates range from 25,000 to 60,000. This includes second- or third-generation Hispanic Americans as well as recent immigrants.
While some Latinos were reared Muslim, many have converted from Catholicism. Latinos convert to Islam for a variety of reasons, including disenchantment with the practices of Catholicism and the church establishment. These Latinos are lured by Islam's simplicity and the Muslim's independence of a mediating clergy in his or her relationship with God. According to Juan Galvan, vice president of the Latino American Dawah Organization, "Most Hispanic converts were Catholic. - http://www.wrmea.org/2003-june/latino-muslims-a-growing-presence-in-america.html
USA:
The growth in the Hispanic Muslim population is especially prevalent in New York, Florida, California, and Texas, where Hispanic communities are largest. In Orlando, the area's largest mosque, which serves some 700 worshipers each week, is located in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood ..
The two groups tend to be family-oriented, religious, and historically conservative politically, Dr. Bagby says. Many who convert are second- and third-generation Hispanic Americans. http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0928/p03s02-ussc.html
Well, that's clearly news to SOME FRoman Catholics.
I guess that word needs to get out more.
One thing I heard from a friend who had been overseas on a short term missions trip within the last couple months, is that the local Evangelicals told him that the reason the Catholic church is collapsing and Evangelicalism is on the rise, is that the abusive priest issue is way worse there than it is in the US and the people are flat out sick of it, and sick of the RCC doing nothing about it, and voting with their feet.
>>....the survey also states that Evangelicals are generally more committed to a life of prayer, regular worship, and other church-based activities than even church-going Catholics.<<
The muslims are generally more committed to a life of prayer and regular worship to their false god, than evangelicals.
What’s your point?
Gee. I guess Muslims are more pious than Roman Catholics?
“That said, the survey also states that Evangelicals are generally more committed to a life of prayer, regular worship, and other church-based activities than even church-going Catholics. “
I find this to be evident here in Pennsylvania also.
I rejoice that any believers take their relationship with Him seriously enough to live it out - regardless of affiliation.
Sorry; but that would entail demoting the Roman Mary.
Unless 3 different kids in Portugal receive a text message; I highly doubt this will happen.
And then some...
Plus HUNGER for the WORD of God is also another factor as well.
You forget that the very first disciple of Jesus was His mother, Mary, when she said YES to become His mother.
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