Present Situation
The CIA World Factbook reports that 85% of the population of Puerto Rico is Roman Catholic, with the remaining 15% divided among Protestantism, Islam, and Judaism. Some people put the Catholic percentage at 70% or more. Approximately 3,400,000 Puerto Ricans practice Catholicism. Administratively, the Catholic Church in Puerto Rico is divided into five dioceses and one archdiocese.
Puerto Rico is a U.S. commonwealth, the world's oldest colony. "Its deepest roots are Latino", Archbishop Roberto Gonzalez Nieves of San Juan said in 2007, "U.S. rule began in 1898, at the end of the Spanish-American War, but indigenous, African and Spanish cultures "shaped its identity for 400 years" and that influence "cannot be undone overnight." The shift from Spanish to U.S. rule brought a wave of anti-Catholic sentiment that led to the prohibition of the processions that are a mainstay of Latin American religious practice, as well as government policies that prohibited schools from teaching in Spanish. Since the approval of a Puerto Rican Constitution in 1952, however, popular religious traditions such as processions and festivals honoring communities' patron saints have taken root again.
Read more about this topic: Roman Catholicism In Puerto Rico
Famous quotes containing the words present and/or situation:
“Thus hulling in
The wild sea of my conscience, I did steer
Toward this remedy, whereupon we are
Now present here together.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“An actress reading a part for the first time tries many ways to say the same line before she settles into the one she believes suits the character and situation best. There’s an aspect of the rehearsing actress about the girl on the verge of her teens. Playfully, she is starting to try out ways to be a grown-up person.”
—Stella Chess (20th century)