Sorry, Pope Francis: Protestants Are Converting Catholics Across Latin America
'Francis effect' may yet materialize. But for now, Catholics have hit record low across 19 nations and territories.
[ posted 11/13/2014 11:17AM ]
Pew Research Center
Enthusiasm for the first pope picked from Latin America has prompted
predictions of a “Francis effect” revival among the region’s Roman
Catholics. Time will tell, but a new report shows exactly what the
former Archbishop Bergoglio of Buenos Aires is up against in his own
backyard: Protestants are remarkably ascendent across 18 nations and one
US territory.
For most of the last century, more than 90 percent of Latin Americans
identified as Catholics. But now that number has hit a new low: 69
percent, according to a thorough report on this "widespread change" released today by the Pew Research Center.
"Evangelization efforts by Protestant churches seem to be having an
impact," notes Pew. Regionally, 84 percent of Latin American adults were
raised as Catholics. But nearly 1 in 5 adults (19 percent) now identify
as Protestants, while only 1 in 10 (9 percent) were raised as
Protestants. (Similarly, the religiously unaffiliated have doubled from 4
percent as children to 8 percent as adults.)
"In nearly every country surveyed, the Catholic Church has experienced
net losses from religious switching," notes Pew, and "much of the
movement ... has occurred in the span of a single lifetime."
In most countries, more than one-third of current Protestants were
raised as Catholics, and more than half were baptized as Catholics.
The trend holds true across "people of all ages and socioeconomic
levels," but in most countries, pluralities converted before the age of
25.
Pew’s findings corroborate a recent examination of 18 nations
by Latinobarómetro. “In the past, Latin America was completely
dominated by Catholicism,” noted the respected Chilean research group in
an April report. “Today, it’s a region where clearly more than one
religion exists.”
Pew researchers conducted face-to-face interviews with more than 30,000
residents of 18 Latin American countries and Puerto Rico as part of the
Pew-Templeton Global Religious Futures Project. (Cuba was the only
Spanish-speaking country omitted.)
Latin America contains more than 425 million Catholics—nearly 40
percent of the world's total Catholic population, according to Pew.
“It is too soon to know whether Francis can stop or reverse the
church’s losses in the region,” notes Pew. (The majority of surveys were
conducted before Francis had concluded his first year in office.)
However, Pew's report does identify the primary reasons former Catholics became Protestants.
"Of the eight possible explanations offered on the survey, the most
frequently cited was that they were seeking a more personal connection
with God," notes Pew [see chart]. "Many former Catholics also said they
became Protestants because they wanted a different style of worship or a
church that helps its members more." More than half also "wanted a
greater emphasis on morality." Marriage to a non-Catholic was only cited
by 9 percent.
Notably, more than half of former Catholics (58 percent) say their new Protestant church reached out to them.
The countries where Catholics have experienced the largest declines:
Nicaragua, Uruguay, Brazil, and El Salvador, all down approximatley 20
or more percentage points. (By comparison, US Hispanics have lost 22
percentage points.)
However, despite their substantial growth, Protestants have yet to break into the majority in any Latin American country.
The countries where Protestants have experienced the largest gains:
Honduras (41 percent), Guatemala (41 percent), Nicaragua (40 percent),
and El Salvador (36 percent).
As many as 74 percent of Colombian Protestants were raised Catholic,
while only 15 percent of Panamanian Protestants converted from
Catholicism. By comparison, nearly half of US Hispanics (47 percent)
left Catholicism for Protestantism.
The survey suggests that the majority of former Catholics are skeptical
about Pope Francis. Argentina, the pope’s homeland, and neighboring
Uruguay are the only countries where majorities of former Catholics positively view the pope.
“In every other country in the survey, no more than roughly half of
ex-Catholics view Francis favorably, and relatively few see his papacy
as a major change in the Catholic Church,” notes Pew. “Many say it is
too soon to have an opinion about the pope.”
Latin American Protestants also have different views than Catholics on
the "most important way Christians can help the poor." Protestants
believe "bringing the poor and needy to Christ" (47 percent) is more
important than "performing charity work for the poor" (37 percent) or
"persuading the government to protect the poor" (11 percent). By
comparison, Catholics believe charity work (50 percent) is more
important than evangelism (24 percent) or governmental efforts (19
percent).
Twelve Latin American countries still contain solid Catholic
majorities, according to the Latinobarómetro study. In two countries,
Chile and El Salvador, Catholics make up between 50 and 60 percent of
the population, while in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Uruguay,
the Catholic Church no longer owns a majority.
Researchers also measured the yearly changes between the Protestant and
Catholic populations from 1995 and 2013. “You can observe that in every
country, with the exception of the Dominican Republic and Mexico, there
has been a loss of Catholics occurring at the same time as the number
of evangelicals has increased,” noted Latinobarómetro.
Below are the results for Honduras, Nicaragua, and Brazil. Researchers
identified Honduras as the country with the “fastest and strongest
change in religious beliefs out of all 18 Latin American countries.”
Nicaragua was close behind.
CT first reported Protestants’ ascendency in Latin America in a 1992
cover story, and examined in 2009 whether the rapidly growing church was on the right track.
Regional coverage includes Brazil’s evangelicals making their voting bloc debut in 2010, a popular but controversial Christian parade, a notable church unity effort in Buenos Aires, Colombia being one of the world’s most violent mission fields, split political loyalties among Venezuelan evangelicals, Honduran evangelicals as agents of political change, and how missionary efforts in Ecuador finally yielded fruit.
