Showing posts with label Latin America. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Latin America. Show all posts

Tuesday 25 November 2014

Identification with Catholicism has declined throughout the Latin American region

English: Common geographical regions of Latin ...
English: Common geographical regions of Latin America Español: Regiones geográficas típicas de América Latina (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Latin America is home to more than 425 million Catholics – nearly 40% of the world’s total Catholic population – and the Roman Catholic Church now has a Latin American pope for the first time in its history. Yet identification with Catholicism has declined throughout the region, according to a major new Pew Research Center survey that examines religious affiliations, beliefs and practices in 18 Latin American countries and one U.S. territory (Puerto Rico).

Historical data suggest that for most of the 20th century, from 1900 through the 1960s, at least 90% of Latin America’s population was Catholic. Today, the Pew Research survey shows, 69% of adults across the region identify as Catholic. In nearly every country surveyed, the Catholic Church has experienced net losses from religious switching, as many Latin Americans have joined evangelical Protestant churches or rejected organized religion altogether.
On Nov. 13, 2014, the Pew Research Center brought together members of the Latin America community, religious leaders, scholars, members of the media and other experts for a round-table discussion about the latest data on religion in Latin America.
Speakers:
Jim Bell, Director of International Survey Research, Pew Research Center
Neha Sahgal, Senior Researcher, Pew Research Center
Andrew Chesnut, Professor of Religious Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University
Moderator:
Alan Cooperman, Director of Religion Research, Pew Research Center

> Event Transcript: Religion in Latin America


Wednesday 15 May 2013

Pope Francis Raises Hopes for an Ecological Church

The new pope’s choice of the name Francis, to honour the Catholic Church’s patron saint of animals and the environment, has awakened the hopes of ecologists and others who are concerned about rampant consumerism and the deterioration of the planet.
The Basilica of Aparecida
The Basilica of Aparecida (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


In Latin America and Africa, “environmental problems are closely linked to poverty, with the poor living in areas that are the most vulnerable to climate change and the degradation of the soil,” he said.

Both environmentalists and bishops in Latin America criticise consumerism and urge people to follow a simpler lifestyle.
The pope’s homily was in line with the recommendations set forth in the final document of the 5th General Conference of the Council of Latin American Bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007.

Read more: Pope Francis Raises Hopes for an Ecological Church

Indigenous women fetching water from a well near San Cristóbal de las Casas in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. Credit: Mauricio Ramos/IPS


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