Latin Us citizens have commonly embraced Pope Francis, the Argentine-born Jesuit bishop elected to guide the Catholic Church after Pope Benedict XVI resigned in 2013. Favorable views regarding the brand new pontiff prevail throughout the area, with two-thirds or higher for the populace generally in most nations expressing an optimistic viewpoint of Pope Francis if the study ended up being carried out in belated 2013 and early 2014.
Latin catholics that are american especially excited about Pope Francis, with clear majorities throughout the area rating him positively. Certainly, in 14 regarding the nations surveyed, at minimum half of Catholics state they will have a extremely favorable viewpoint of Francis.
Former Catholics, in contrast, are ambivalent in regards to the brand new pope. Explicitly negative views of Pope Francis are reasonably uncommon among this team, but so might be overwhelmingly reactions that are positive except in Francis’ home country of Argentina. For several former Catholics, the jury remains away. In many places surveyed, a 3rd or even more of ex-Catholics either provide no viewpoint 
on Francis or volunteer that it’s too quickly to evaluate him.
The study additionally asked perhaps the election of Pope Francis signals a significant modification, a small change or no modification after all for the Catholic Church. Half or even more of Catholics in 16 associated with nations polled see the choice associated with the previous Argentine bishop being a major modification. Previous Catholics are less particular; just in Argentina do up to half (53%) start to see the brand brand new pope as representing a change that is major. As utilizing the pope’s overall favorability, significant percentages of previous Catholics state it’s too early to inform whether Francis represents much modification.
Aside from their assessments of whether modification is happening, numerous Catholics think some of these church’s teachings should always be revised. As an example, across Latin America, a median of 66% of Catholics say the church should allow Catholics to utilize synthetic method of contraception, plus in Chile, Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay, approximately eight-in-ten Catholics favor a modification of church teaching on contraception. Within the U.S., 72% of Hispanic Catholics think the Catholic Church should enable the usage of contraceptives.
There is also support that is substantial Latin American Catholics (a local median of 60%) for ending the church’s prohibition on breakup. once Again, Catholics in Chile (82%), Uruguay (78%) and Argentina (77%) are being among the most more likely to sound support for modification.
Catholics in Latin America are far more split regarding alterations in the priesthood. Over the national nations polled, a median of 48per cent of Catholics think priests ought to be permitted to marry. a comparable share (regional median of 42%) say the church should allow ladies to be ordained as priests. For each problem, many Hispanic Catholics in the U.S. benefit altering the Catholic Church’s old-fashioned jobs: 59% state priests should always be permitted to marry, and 55% think ladies should always be qualified to provide into the priesthood.
Reputation for Religious Change
In 1910, a projected 94% of Latin Us citizens had been Catholic, about 1% had been Protestant. But Catholics started decreasing being a share of this region’s population in the 1970s, according to Brazilian and Mexican census information and historic quotes through the World Religion Database.
At the time of 2014, the brand new Pew Research Center study discovers that 69% of Latin Us americans identify as Catholic, while 19% belong to Protestant churches and 8% are consistently unaffiliated (atheist, agnostic or no specific faith). The residual 4% include Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Spiritists and adherents of Afro-Caribbean, Afro-Brazilian or religions that are indigenous Umbanda and Candomble. (begin to see the glossary.)
Scholars of faith in Latin America provide a few feasible sociological explanations for the increase of Protestantism, and specially its Pentecostal variant. One concept posits that Pentecostalism’s compatibility with native religions enhanced its appeal among Latin People in the us. By emphasizing individual experience of the divine through faith recovery, talking in tongues and prophesying, Pentecostalism draws people who share an affinity with native religions that traditionally incorporate opinions and methods related to direct interaction aided by the “spirit globe.”
Another explanation that is potential the practical main reasons why Pentecostalism could have gained an after . Pentecostals usually stress upward social and economic flexibility and thrift. Consequently, supporters of Pentecostalism could begin to see the faith much more conducive to prosperity that is economic. 6 historic estimates for specific Latin US nations underscore that the change far from Catholicism is just a fairly present event in many places. The quotes expose just two locations where experienced double-digit decreases in Catholic identification between 1910 and 1970: Chile (a decrease of 20 percentage points) and Puerto Rico (a 13-point decrease). In Colombia, the portion defined as Catholic really increased by 15 portion points between 1910 and 1970.
in contrast, the time between 1970 and 2014 is marked by significant decreases when you look at the percentages of Catholics in almost all of this countries surveyed – ranging from the 47-point fall in Honduras up to a 5-point decline in Paraguay.
The Pew Research Center formerly noted declines that are post-1970 Catholic identification in Brazil and Chile. (begin to see the 2006 Pew Research report “Spirit and energy: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals” and the 2013 report “Brazil’s Changing landscape.” this is certainly spiritual
About the study
This report findings from the Pew Research Center survey carried out with nice capital through the Pew Charitable Trusts plus the John Templeton Foundation. The study occurred October 2013 to February 2014 among nationally samples that are representative 18 nations additionally the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico. Together, these nations and Puerto Rico account fully for significantly more than 95per cent associated with the population that is total of America. The study ended up being carried out through face-to-face interviews in Spanish, Portuguese and Guarani. Sample sizes and margins of mistake by nation are available below. For more information, begin to see the survey methodology.
Many Pew researching workers contributed to your growth of this study and accompanying report. James Bell and Neha Sahgal had been the researchers that are principal the lead writers of this report. Alan Cooperman had been the lead editor. Steve Schwarzer, Fatima Ghani and Michael Robbins aided design sampling plans, monitor field work and evaluate information quality. Ghani drafted Chapter 9 (Views of Pope Francis while the Catholic Church) and Juan Carlos Donoso drafted Chapter 8 (Religion and Science). Phillip Connor drafted the parts from the past reputation for spiritual improvement in the spot. Cary Funk, Jessica Martinez, Juan Carlos Esparza Ochoa and Ana Gonzalez-Barrera assisted in questionnaire development; Martinez, Jill Carle, Kat Devlin, Elizabeth Sciupac, Claire Gecewicz, Besheer Mohamed and Angelina Theodorou assisted with number checking. Sandra Stencel, Michael Lipka and Aleksandra Sandstrom offered review that is editorial content editing. Stacy Rosenberg, Bill Webster, Adam Nekola, Ben Wormald and Diana Yoo designed the graphics and online interactive presentation. Other people during the Pew Research Center whom contributed towards the report consist of Conrad Hackett, Mark Lopez, Claudia Deane, Michael Dimock, Anne Shi, Katie Simmons and Jessica Schillinger. Luis Lugo, previous manager regarding the center’s Religion & Public lifetime venture, had been instrumental in conceiving the study and offered guidance throughout its execution.
