Catholicism in South America

[NorthTexan88]

Is the situation of Catholics in the South American countries really as bad as everyone makes it seem? I’m talking about droves of people leaving for the evangelical churches. And if this is in fact the case what exactly can be done to stop people from leaving and get back those who have left.
Also, do you think Pope Francis apologizing to charismatics in Italy will be used as justification to leave the CC and join one of those groups?

 

[SuperLuigi]

It’s never good when anyone leaves the Catholic Church. For one thing, a lot of the religions that are offshoots of the Catholic Church are going struggling to maintain orderly principles from social issues in the First World to violence in the Middle East.

I would say certain claims are overexaggerated and that Protestant influence has hit a maxmia based on the fact a lot of people in Latin American just want to be able to celebrate services and in many cases can’t do so because of an ironic shortage of priests.

I also suspect that Protestants focus some attention there as opposed to other places in the Old World were Christians are now routinely persecuted.

See, we are talking about countries that were nearly 95-99% Catholic at one point, and the fact is states are diversifying all over the world with religion even in places of extreme persecution.

The Church has actually been growing in Latin America simply due to natural population increase. I’m thinking the declining birth rate is now more of a threat than someone just switching denominations for personal (although still selfish) reasons.