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Brazil has the world's largest Catholic population. The history of the Catholic Church in Brazil begins with the region's colonization by the Portuguese. Jesuits played an important role in the early colonies before eventually being expelled. The Catholic Church supported Brazilian independence and worked to secure its place within the country.
In comparison to Europe and other Western nations, the Catholic Church still has a major influence in Latin American society. The vast majority of Latin Americans are Christians (90%), [1] mostly Catholics belonging to the Latin Church. [2] In 2012 Latin America constitutes, in absolute terms, the world's second largest Christian population ...
Although Mexico is the second largest Catholic country in the world in terms of members, Catholicism has been declining over the past 30 years, from 89.7% of the population in 1990 to 77.7% in 2020. The number of Catholics in Mexico have decreased by 20.5% since 1950. [92] [93] In 2020, 8.1% of Mexicans did not identify with any religion. [94]
The majority of Latin Americans are Catholics. About 84% of the people would say that they were raised Catholic, though only 69% of the population are Catholic today. The 15% decline is mostly due to the spread of Pentecostalism in Latin America. [1] Like Pentecostalism, the Catholic charismatic renewal began in the United States.
The Brazilian Catholic Church, or Catholic Church in Brazil, is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome, and the influential National Conference of Bishops of Brazil (Portuguese: Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil - CNBB), composed of over 400 primary and auxiliary bishops and archbishops.
The predominant religion in Brazil is Christianity, with Catholicism being its largest denomination. In 1891, when the first Brazilian Republican Constitution was set forth, Brazil ceased to have an official religion and has remained secular ever since, though the Catholic Church remained politically influential into the 1970s.
There were already Jesuit missions in the area and the refugees from Guayrá were also joined by Guaraní refugees from Uruguay and Tapé (in present-day Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil) who had suffered similar experiences. [21] In the 1630s, the Jesuits also established short-lived missions in the Itatín region of present-day Mato Grosso do Sul ...
With the Catholic population increasing steadily [9] and the number of priests declining, the number of laypeople per priest has climbed from 875:1 in 1981 to 1,113:1 in 1991, 1,429:1 in 2001 and 2,000:1 in 2012 (a 130 percent increase). The declining number of priests in parish ministry is producing a marked increase in the number of ...