The Pope of course has no involvement in this, but is it wise to be suddenly picking popes from a continent, by birth or adoption, that seems so dysfunctional, and in which the Church, over at least the past seventy years, has displayed only an ability to alienate much of the population? I would note that from my point of view Peru has a strong conservative movement that has done much good, but turmoil still constantly roils the nation. The Latin American nations have been independent, almost all of them, only a bit less than the United States, but in many ways they still are mission territory for the Church. If we are going to choose popes from the peripheries, in the clunky phrase of Pope Francis, perhaps it could be from a periphery not so utterly screwed up?
The Pope’s Old Stomping Ground
- 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.
Yes, Latin America is often screwed up.
However, Italy has seldom been cohesive *or* tranquil – and we have gotten good, holy, even saintly popes from it.
I will continue to ask St Thomas a Beckett to intercede – so that the powers that be get more than they bargained for!
Brazil accounts for about 1/3 of the population of Latin America and is the continent’s bellwether. Life expectancy at birth in Brazil is now 75 years, the literacy rate for those over the age of 15 is now about 95% and for those between 15 and 25 about 99%. If you bracket out fuel and mineral exports and correct for the country’s abnormally skewed distribution of income, real incomes in Brazil are about 20% of those in the United States. (The United States has seen a five-fold increase in per capita product since 1929). Latin America is not doing badly compared to tropical Africa or India or the Arab world. It’s most notable defect is high rates of violent crime.
Poland, 1978.
The contrast with South America is startling Pinky. A vigorous, and orthodox Catholic Church in Poland defending a people kept down by a foreign communist power.
That article is about Latin America in general. I’m not going to pretend to know how the Church is doing in Peru, but Wikipedia has Catholicism at 76% of the population.
Down from the high nineties Pinky. In many countries in South America the Church is in free fall:
https://bccatholic.ca/voices/msgr-pedro-lopez-gallo-bccath/the-decline-of-catholicism-in-latin-america
https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253488/where-is-mass-attendance-highest-one-country-is-the-clear-leader
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This survey research suggests Mass attendance among nominal Catholics in Brazil is quite poor but that ten other Latin American countries compare favorably to the situation in the United States and Canada.
Seriously, when I first glanced at the photos and the headline “The Pope’s Old Stomping Grounds” I thought this was going to be about ICE raids in Chicago…