Demographics
According to a poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, about 60 percent of the urban population of Brazil claims a Catholic affiliation. Religious syncretism is widespread among Brazilian Catholics. There is an overlay of Afro-Brazilian religions (like Candomblé, Quimbanda and Umbanda) with Catholic beliefs and practices, which many Catholic Brazilians do not find inconsistent with their faith. An example is the Feast of Bonfim, a ritual in which mães-de-santo gather to wash the stairs of the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim in Salvador, Bahia. Catholics are far more likely to believe in good luck charms, fortune-tellers, faith-healers and astrology than converts to Protestantism. While official Catholicism rejects these beliefs as superstitious, they are a risk inherent in the Catholic imagination, which sees God as present in the objects, events and persons of his creation.
More than one out of five of those who were raised Catholics leave the church, most of them to join the group of those with no religious affiliation and Protestantism. However, Catholicism has the highest rate of retention. More than two-fifths of those who were raised Protestant are no longer Protestant; the Catholic Church picks up 16 percent of those who were raised Protestants. Religious change in Brazil is frequent.
According to America Magazine's visitors pen article, Brazilian Catholics have the highest score in the world on the image of God as loving and as mother. They are also more likely to see human nature as good rather than corrupt, and the world as good rather than evil. Brazilian Catholics are less likely to believe in the literal, word-for-word interpretation of the Bible than Protestants. They are also more likely to accept premarital sex, cohabitation before marriage, homosexuality and abortion. About 40 percent attend Masses at least once a month — approximately the same level as that of American Catholics. Almost 75 percent pray every day, but only 12 percent engage in Church activities. Only 26 percent say they are "very religious".
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholicism In Brazil |