Catholicism drops 13% in Latin America

[Zincman]

"Catholicism fell 13% in Latin America between 1995 and 2014 according Latinobarometer, a year after the new papacy of Francis, representing an average decline rate of 0.7% per year in the overall region"

(Spanish Link) prensalibre.com/internacional/Chile-religion-catolicismo-encuesta_0_1121288125.html

That kind of issues worry me. A lot…

I’m afraid that the never-ending attacks on the faith (mainly online) plus ignorance of mainstream believers and political manipulation will make our faith disappear.

Teens use to navigate through internet and read those famous memes, found in 9gag and social nets and are convinced that faith is stupid, all priest are pedophiles and catholicians are ignorant-violent people. In spanish we do not have cool apologist to counter this situation.

**
Sorry I posted on the wrong place before.**

 

[Zincman]

This article is very accurate. In fact I’ve been watching these numbers fall for a while. For instance, if you go to this link:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church_by_country

Mexico has Catholicism at 82%. At first this may seem good, until you realize that in the 90s this number was at 93%+

Brazil had Catholicism above 90% in the 70s and 80s but today this number is at 65%
pewforum.org/2013/07/18/brazils-changing-religious-landscape/

The reason is exactly what you posted above. The Latin American world lacks prepared apologists to defend the faith. I can testify to that because I’ve lived in Latin America for 12+ years. The expansion of protestantism and the lies told about the Catholic faith are not being defended here and there and this ultimately leads to the desertion of various individuals.

Though there is another reason I will add. The world is becoming more secularized everywhere.

This post was from ChrisRedfield47 (I moved it to the new location of the post)

 

[po18guy]

I see nothing to get hung about (Sorry, StrawberryJam). Look at John 6. Most of Jesus’ disciples left Him and went back to their former ways of life. Is the Pope, or professional apologists, or us, or anyone better evangelists than Jesus?

In Latin America, the happy-clappy bible Christians are gaining ground, as their “services” are loud and fun. They have less sins to worry about. Miss a service and no problem! But there is no substance behind the smoke and mirrors. The euphoria wears off, the endless din of pop culture Christianity becomes just one more activity to engage in. If you look at those various high-decibel groups, you will see the congregants moving between them, looking for something that lasts. And, at some point, itching ears just begin to hurt.

Just as the Lord has been patient with us, He is also patient with the spiritual prodigals. When the party is over, many of them will come back and confess their sins. What we can do to help is pray for them - pray for Christian unity in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

And not worry.

 

[ringil]

Some of this is certainly due to the Evangelicals prowling for converts.

They are especially active in the developing world and solid Catholic populations.

 

[Barricade]

I think as the years go by, even though there may be more people leaving Catholicism for Protestantism; Long term however, I see a return to the Church by many, in part due to Protestant Churches’ propensity to become too adaptive to the culture. Already I believe we are seeing many protestant pastors supporting gay marriage, not just in terms of civil law, but as true marriage. Denominations that do not have the solid foundation that Catholicism does will find themselves at greater risk to not distinguish themselves from the rest of the culture. Catholicism on the other hand necessarily must stand in contrast to the culture when the culture promotes the immoral and the false. There may come a point when protestants look around their hometowns and can’t find a single Protestant congregation that challenges the cultural whims such as support for gay marriage and are compelled to become Catholic by seeing that it has not become diluted like many Protestant sects.

 

[Charles12]

The miraculous Vatican II strikes again.

 

[Estevao]

Padre Paulo ricardo has an excellent online apostolate in Brazil. Of course the stuff he puts out is not as simple as a one-click meme that is so common among internet atheists like the OP mentioned. It’s still pretty dis-heartening seeing how the heresy of protestantism is taking away Catholics from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church in latin america.

padrepauloricardo.org/

youtube.com/user/padrepauloricardo

 

[Peebo]

If Catholics are that easily swayed from their Catholic faith then it’s the fault of the Catholic Church…not the Protestant Church…many Catholics are Catholic in name only…they don’t attend mass…or rarely do…they don’t agree with much of what the church teaches…there is no real commitment to Jesus Christ and his church…Catholicism is just a part of their culture…nothing more…they are poorly catechized in church teaching…in church history and scripture…protestants can run rings around them as far as knowing scripture…of course it’s protestant interpretation of scripture…but many Catholics don’t know that because they don’t know scripture and are easily led astray from the truth…Catholics don’t evangelize like Protestants do…ask most people who have converted to the Catholic Church from Protestantism…it mostly wasn’t because of Catholics evangelizing them…it was because they themselves were seeking the truth and found it through their study of the Catholic Church…I used to be a Protestant many years ago…until I felt God leading me home to the Catholic Church…it certainly wasn’t any of Catholics who I knew and who sometime attended mass…went to confession and led totally secular lifestyles with no hint of any Christian commitment to Jesus Christ…of course there are also many faithful Christ centered Catholics also…reading the lives of the saints was very inspirational in helping me on my journey.

 

[Zincman]

The other thing affecting the faith are those “tribal beliefs” where people, just “pray” to any statue on a “santeria” shop. Here people pray to false no-no icons as “san la muerte” (kinda grim reaper) a skeleton hellish icon worshipped by thiefs and killers as it was a kind of true saint.

Ignorance, plus evangelists hustlers; make people think that traditional church is false, conspirative, and those who are better informed tend to be atheist, internet and the new age **** tends them to feel ‘cool’ or ‘smart’ only by being atheist, lets say that being a catholician is no more something of being proud of.

Davinci code and zeitgeist movements just worsen the whole situation. Homosexual marriage is the other nail to our faith, we are seen as the “dumb-bad closed-mind ones”.

We need a more scientific approach if we want to keep our members. We need to show we are not dumb. Not at all.

 

[Peebo]

The other thing affecting the faith are those “tribal beliefs” where people, just “pray” to any statue on a “santeria” shop. Here people pray to false no-no icons as “san la muerte” (kinda grim reaper) a skeleton hellish icon worshipped by thiefs and killers as it was a kind of true saint.

Ignorance, plus evangelists hustlers; make people think that traditional church is false, conspirative, and those who are better informed tend to be atheist, internet and the new age **** tends them to feel ‘cool’ or ‘smart’ only by being atheist, lets say that being a catholician is no more something of being proud of.

Davinci code and zeitgeist movements just worsen the whole situation. Homosexual marriage is the other nail to our faith, we are seen as the “dumb-bad closed-mind ones”.

We need a more scientific approach if we want to keep our members. We need to show we are not dumb. Not at all.

I see you are from Argentina…a Catholic who I worked with and who actually knew scripture and who helped me understand Catholic interpretation of scripture was also from Argentina

 

[Zincman]

I see you are from Argentina…a Catholic who I worked with and who actually knew scripture and who helped me understand Catholic interpretation of scripture was also from Argentina

Yes, but sadly I’m not so well informed in scripture issues.

I’ll make a blog to translate some of the main articles con catholic apologetics, in order to see if that can help.

 

[NorthTexan88]

As a convert, I think I remember hearing one time a quote that went like this:

“The protestants get all the bad Catholics, and the Catholic Church gets all of the good protestants” --I’m going to say this is pretty true.

Hopefully Papa Francis can help stem the tide of those leaving the Church in Latin America and elsewhere. I think we need a much stronger Catholic identity, aka Catholic liturgy. If Catholics act like protestants, then Catholics are going to leave the Church to become protestant…

 

[FollowChrist34]

If Catholics are that easily swayed from their Catholic faith then it’s the fault of the Catholic Church…not the Protestant Church…many Catholics are Catholic in name only…they don’t attend mass…or rarely do…they don’t agree with much of what the church teaches…there is no real commitment to Jesus Christ and his church…Catholicism is just a part of their culture…nothing more…they are poorly catechized in church teaching…in church history and scripture…protestants can run rings around them as far as knowing scripture…of course it’s protestant interpretation of scripture…but many Catholics don’t know that because they don’t know scripture and are easily led astray from the truth…Catholics don’t evangelize like Protestants do…ask most people who have converted to the Catholic Church from Protestantism…it mostly wasn’t because of Catholics evangelizing them…it was because they themselves were seeking the truth and found it through their study of the Catholic Church…I used to be a Protestant many years ago…until I felt God leading me home to the Catholic Church…it certainly wasn’t any of Catholics who I knew and who sometime attended mass…went to confession and led totally secular lifestyles with no hint of any Christian commitment to Jesus Christ…of course there are also many faithful Christ centered Catholics also…reading the lives of the saints was very inspirational in helping me on my journey.

You nailed it. Thanks for the post. I was Catholic as a kid (until 5 anyway), then came back as an adult. Not a single Catholic I knew around me had anything to do with it. (Other than the memory of my grandmother, mother, and one guy at a Jesuit parish who talked to me a couple years earlier that I remembered (I wasn’t serious about joining at the time)). I went to a couple of Protestant churches - couldn’t get out the door without an invitation to lunch or coffee, not a single time. A good friend of mine was (and still is) Evangelical - quoted scripture all the time to me. You can actually go to a Catholic parish - nobody talks to you. During her time up north, Flannery O’Connor sat daily in a New York parish for, what, six months? No one ever spoke to her. I just don’t think it’s in the cradle Catholic blood to reach out; they expect you to climb in.

 

[CatholicWhovian]

That is sad… And I sort of have the same sympathy with the Latin Americans since I’m Filipino and we were once basically under one overlord - Madre España. At least the Spanish-speaking ones.

I can see the same trend here. Many “disenchanted” Catholics move towards non-denominational and Evangelical Protestant churches because of their “attractive” “evangelizing”. I remember a tweet from a priest that I’m following (was it Fr. James Martin SJ or Fr. Robert Barron?) saying that evangelization and advertising are two different things. From my experience with these non-denominational churches (it’s a long story), their “evangelization” seems to have a goal of merely attracting more members for the sake of having more members. Which is wrong.

I disagree that it’s the Catholic Church’s own fault that these faithful are no longer faithful. It has to do with the faithful themselves and how they accept the teachings of Christ and the Church. I myself am a cradle Catholic and I have constantly kindled my love of the Church and its teachings since I was a kid. Others in my generation in my country unfortunately know even less.

I think it has to do more with Latin America’s (and the Philippines’) colonial history and how most people would associate the Church with the corrupt Spanish colonial regime. This leads to an over-generalization of the Church both in history and today. And that’s sad.

 

[DAML72]

If Catholics are that easily swayed from their Catholic faith then it’s the fault of the Catholic Church…not the Protestant Church…many Catholics are Catholic in name only…they don’t attend mass…or rarely do…they don’t agree with much of what the church teaches…there is no real commitment to Jesus Christ and his church…Catholicism is just a part of their culture…nothing more…they are poorly catechized in church teaching…in church history and scripture…protestants can run rings around them as far as knowing scripture…of course it’s protestant interpretation of scripture…but many Catholics don’t know that because they don’t know scripture and are easily led astray from the truth…Catholics don’t evangelize like Protestants do…ask most people who have converted to the Catholic Church from Protestantism…it mostly wasn’t because of Catholics evangelizing them…it was because they themselves were seeking the truth and found it through their study of the Catholic Church…I used to be a Protestant many years ago…until I felt God leading me home to the Catholic Church…it certainly wasn’t any of Catholics who I knew and who sometime attended mass…went to confession and led totally secular lifestyles with no hint of any Christian commitment to Jesus Christ…of course there are also many faithful Christ centered Catholics also…reading the lives of the saints was very inspirational in helping me on my journey.

So true!

 

[DAML72]

I see you are from Argentina…a Catholic who I worked with and who actually knew scripture and who helped me understand Catholic interpretation of scripture was also from Argentina

Ha - I spent a year as an exchange student living in Argentina. The time I spent there played a major role in my conversion, albeit 20 years later.

Hmmm - I see a pattern here - hopefully our Argentine Pope will be bringing a lot of people home to the Catholic church!

 

[DAML72]

As a convert, I think I remember hearing one time a quote that went like this:

“The protestants get all the bad Catholics, and the Catholic Church gets all of the good protestants” --I’m going to say this is pretty true.

…

Love it!

 

[DAML72]

You nailed it. Thanks for the post. I was Catholic as a kid (until 5 anyway), then came back as an adult. Not a single Catholic I knew around me had anything to do with it. (Other than the memory of my grandmother, mother, and one guy at a Jesuit parish who talked to me a couple years earlier that I remembered (I wasn’t serious about joining at the time)). I went to a couple of Protestant churches - couldn’t get out the door without an invitation to lunch or coffee, not a single time. A good friend of mine was (and still is) Evangelical - quoted scripture all the time to me. You can actually go to a Catholic parish - nobody talks to you. During her time up north, Flannery O’Connor sat daily in a New York parish for, what, six months? No one ever spoke to her. I just don’t think it’s in the cradle Catholic blood to reach out; they expect you to climb in.

Very true - it can be a very lonely experience converting from Protestantism to Catholicism. Many, many converts feel this.

 

[CarmelJerome]

"Catholicism fell 13% in Latin America between 1995 and 2014 according Latinobarometer, a year after the new papacy of Francis, representing an average decline rate of 0.7% per year in the overall region"

(Spanish Link) prensalibre.com/internacional/Chile-religion-catolicismo-encuesta_0_1121288125.html

That kind of issues worry me. A lot…

I’m afraid that the never-ending attacks on the faith (mainly online) plus ignorance of mainstream believers and political manipulation will make our faith disappear.

Teens use to navigate through internet and read those famous memes, found in 9gag and social nets and are convinced that faith is stupid, all priest are pedophiles and catholicians are ignorant-violent people. In spanish we do not have cool apologist to counter this situation.

**
Sorry I posted on the wrong place before.**

St. John Paul said years ago to North Americans, "You are all [South and North Americans] one America." Our North American culture could use the joy & warmth so characteristic of much of the Latin American Catholics; the Latino Catholics need the catechetical and apologetic passions that come from the years of exposure to Protestant culture in North America and anglo-culture in general.

 

[canis73]

St. John Paul said years ago to North Americans, “You are all [South and North Americans] one America.” Our North American culture could use the joy & warmth so characteristic of much of the Latin American Catholics; the Latino Catholics need the catechetical and apologetic passions that come from the years of exposure to Protestant culture in North America and anglo-culture in general.

Having lived in both places I must admit that your remark is amazingly accurate. You gave me something to think about, thx!