A decade of destruction.
PopeWatch: By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Sad, but by their fruits ye shall know them….
Quick, get George Weigel. He can explain to us how if it wasn’t for Vatican II, those numbers would be much worse.
Argentina is not like the rest of Latin America in that it has strong Europeans roots. So I’m not that surprised they’ve gone the way of Europe where ditching religion is a sign of intellectual awakening. At one point there were more psychologist per capita than any other profession in Argentina. Says a lot about their cultural state.
I’m more surprised at somewhere like El Salvador or Guatemala reduced numbers not identifying as Catholic or moving away from their Faith. I wonder what the story is in those places…
El Salvador or Guatemala
The Church moved Left and American Evangelicals found a receptive audience.
Argentina is not like the rest of Latin America in that it has strong Europeans roots. So I’m not that surprised they’ve gone the way of Europe where ditching religion is a sign of intellectual awakening.
I don’t think the distinction you’re drawing is right here. Freemasonry had a lot of purchase in Latin America four generations back. If I’m not mistaken, these were not Scottish Rite lodges but Grand-Orient lodges. In Uruguay, anti-clericalism has been the default for some time. In Mexico, the regime was violently anti-clerical from 1920-40.
The Church moved Left and American Evangelicals found a receptive audience.
Yes makes sense- evangelicals moving into poorer areas, promising a way out of generational poverty where Catholicism failed and socialist ideology helped that along.
Art no- you’re wrong. Argentina can be divided geographically based on the waves of immigration which came from Europe. Which is unlike other Latin American Catholic countries which were predominantly a result of Spanish conquest and influence and therefore Catholic. Brazil is an exception Portuguese however Catholicism was also imported.
https://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/podcasts/quick-to-listen/argentina-evangelical-abortion-catholic-changing-podcast.html
“American Evangelicals found a receptive audience.”
Yep, in my ministry days I worked along with folks from the International Mission Board (that’s foreign mission board in the olden days). I knew more than one who served in the South American mission field who said Liberation Theology was the best thing that ever happened to Protestant missions in that part of the world. And it wasn’t because Protestants out promised a better life, it’s that they emphasized actual religion and God, not socio-political obsessions. One, a fellow by the name of Hughes IIRC, said that was a big difference. Believe it or not, some people are actually looking for God, and something beyond the world’s models. If all churches offer is a religious spin on the world’s models, they’ll happily keep looking. Hence why Pentecostals, among so many declining traditions, continues to grow.
Art no- you’re wrong. Argentina can be divided geographically based on the waves of immigration which came from Europe. Which is unlike other Latin American Catholic countries which were predominantly a result of Spanish conquest and influence and therefore Catholic.
So can Chile.
So can Chile.
Ok 😂 – 25% of Chilean population are European immigrant descent. 97% of Argentinian population are European immigrant descent.
And it wasn’t because Protestants out promised a better life, it’s that they emphasized actual religion and God, not socio-political obsessions.
Yes, if they reworded the question and asked how many people have a belief system rather than how many people identify as Catholic, number would be higher across Latin America. The Church attendance numbers in Argentina are very low.
Feminism has also gained momentum in Argentina, which explained the legalisation of elective abortion in 2020. It’s legal in Uruguay, Cuba and Guyana.
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7472/
Chilean ancestry is 55% white.
[…] FRANCIS ERA HAS HAD A PARTICULARLY BAD EFFECT ON THE ARGENTINE […]
“The majority of Chileans (65 percent) are of mixed European-indigenous descent (“mestizos,” though this term is not in use in Chile). Some 25 percent of Chileans are of European ancestry (mainly from Spanish, German, Italian, British, Croatian, and French origins, or combinations there of).”
https://www.everyculture.com/Bo-Co/Chile.html