Catholicism vs. Evangelicalism in Brazil

[HondurasKeiser]

Interesting case… whereas the diocese has more local control (and thus local funding). In America they just close parishes when there aren’t enough priests and force consolidation. If a parish wants to fight to stay open the parishioners have to put in the legwork to recruit a priest. My own diocese I live in has this going on in several places.

It is a tougher sell in rural Latin America where marriage and family is far more socially obligatory than in the US. There is basically no adult singles life in most of rural Latin America. And the undeveloped transportation and communications networks make it tougher for a single person to cover multiple towns. The big cities are perhaps different. But they aren't where the priest shortages exist.

Yet somehow Catholicism thrived and become dominant in the past, when presumably family life was even more important and transportation and communication was less developed.

I think it thrived because there were more priests and because there was no competition from Protestant churches.

[Ken]

Interesting case… whereas the diocese has more local control (and thus local funding). In America they just close parishes when there aren’t enough priests and force consolidation. If a parish wants to fight to stay open the parishioners have to put in the legwork to recruit a priest. My own diocese I live in has this going on in several places.

It is a tougher sell in rural Latin America where marriage and family is far more socially obligatory than in the US. There is basically no adult singles life in most of rural Latin America. And the undeveloped transportation and communications networks make it tougher for a single person to cover multiple towns. The big cities are perhaps different. But they aren't where the priest shortages exist.

Yet somehow Catholicism thrived and become dominant in the past, when presumably family life was even more important and transportation and communication was less developed.

Yes, in the past there wasn't much for single people to do other than join the priesthood or religious order. Traditionally if a family had 3 sons, the eldest would the heir to take over the estate or family business and the younger sons would go into the military/politics or priesthood. Those days are long over.

Today the big cities of Latin America are all modern international cities with the same opportunities as anywhere else. But the rural areas are still very traditional in terms of gender roles and family life.

[Pelerin]

I was surprised to read that Protestantism may have “officially” overtaken Catholicism in Brazil. I knew Protestantism and Pentecostalism was strong across Latin America and growing stronger but Catholicism is the cultural incumbent so a lot of people would be officially counted Catholic by default unless they actively choose otherwise.

[Ken]

I was surprised to read that Protestantism may have “officially” overtaken Catholicism in Brazil. I knew Protestantism and Pentecostalism was strong across Latin America and growing stronger but Catholicism is the cultural incumbent so a lot of people would be officially counted Catholic by default unless they actively choose otherwise.

It is the incumbent religion and virtually every single town and village in Latin America (outside of perhaps frontier zones like the Amazon) has a Catholic church, usually in the center of town on the town plaza. However many of them stand empty most or all of the year.

The Catholic church has been nearly AWOL in much of rural Latin America and evangelical groups (mostly Pentecostal) have been rushing in to fill the gap. Even where there are priests, they are often elderly and often not from the area or even the country and so not really doing much to check the tide of evangelical Protestantism that has been sweeping across Latin America for decades. Most of it home-grown and not led by outside missionaries or North American denominations

Here is a photo I took decades ago of small Catholic church in a small village where I worked in Guatemala showing how it was in use back then. You see more and more of this sort of thing today. The buildings eventually get recycled to other uses. Who knows when the last time a priest was back in this village. People move on with their lives. This is the small village of San Jose el Yalu in central Guatemala. I see from Google Maps that they now have an Iglesia Asamblea De Dios, Rios De Agua Viva (Assembly of God) church that wasn't there before. Predictable.

[Josh]

This is somewhat similar to the typical (United) Methodist church in rural areas of America. They will send out random preachers (often with no input from the congregation, or what's left of it). They are well financed to maintain their buildings but that seems like all they want to do. They gradually just dwindle and die... and eventually the regional conference sells off the building and pockets the cash.

[Neto]

I'm surprised that I somehow missed this discussion until now. Since the Rio Purus is mentioned in the article, I tried to pinpoint where these river settlements are located.

Because the Rio Banawa is a tributary of Rio Piranha, which in turn is a tributary of Rio Tapaua, which flows into the Rio Purus. The first time I went to the village we started off in the river town of Labrea, Amazonas, on the Rio Purus, and went down river till the mouth of the Rio Tapaua, and then up each of the others until the reached the mouth of the Rio Banawa, which is really not much more than a creek.

Labrea is at the western end of the Trans-Amazon highway, coming all the way across Brazil from the eastern side. (I think it goes into Forteleza, Ceara, where we studied Portuguese. That's around a 1000 miles. This highway was originally going to go through Peru, clear to the Pacific Ocean, but the project stalled at Labrea.) The Rio Purus starts up in the mountain area of Peru, as I recall. (I have never been up-river from Labrea, although we have been in that town off and on over the years, often because the weather was too bad to land on - or in the years before GPS, to even find - the Banawa airstrip. The Catholic church sits across the main plaza from "Danny's Posada", a place where we stayed night once during Carnival, stranded there by weather conditions.)

The mention of radio broadcasts, cattle ranches, and even television tells me that this is far from anything we ever saw along the Purus, much farther down river. (It eventually enters the Rio Amazonas - Amazon River - near Manaus, the capitol of Amazonas state. It takes about 3 weeks to get from our part of the Purus down to Manaus by river boat. We were in the part of the Purus river water shed called the Medio-Puris - the Middle Purus.)

In case anyone is interested, this map shows the path of the Rio Purus.

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fig ... _313790607

The map in the article posted by Ken names the Boca do Acre. The Banawa reserve is partly in the municipality of Labrea, and partly in Tapaua. The village is in the municipality of Tapaua, but the town of Labrea is closer than the town of Tapaua, so if the people go to town, they go to Labrea. (Some now get retirement funds, and they are required to pick it up in person. It is three days walk from the village to Labrea, longer by river, because they have to go so far down the other rivers before they even get to Rio Purus.)

Now about the actual subject of the article. I've mentioned before how a Catholic priest came to the village once many years before we made our first visit there. The only priest I ever met in the village (and probably the only one who ever came there since that earlier visit decades before our arrival) was a German priest who visited lots of tribal areas. His main objective was to get the tribal areas officially demarcated by the government. He never lead any religious meetings in the village, at least not when we were there as well. The main 'Evangelical' influence in the Brazilian river communities in our area was through the work of JOCUM, the Brazilian YWAM. They are, of course, basically 'Pentecostal', but not "wildly so".

A few years ago there was consideration given to allowing a married priesthood in the Amazon area, to be able to better serve their members. But that was rejected in the end.

I'll just say one more thing - that some of our Wycliffe fellow members worked closely with the Catholic priests who were in the same language areas, and generally these relationships were mutually productive. We never attended a service in a Catholic church during our time in Brazil, but I sometimes listened to the Catholic radio station (out at the mission center, near Porto Velho, Rondonia), and there was one Easter message that has stuck with me. When I tell 'Evangelicals' about what he said, they will often tell me "That could not have been a Catholic priest saying that." He preached the Gospel. I don't know what his other sermons were like, but that one was spot on.

[Judas Maccabeus]

A few years ago there was consideration given to allowing a married priesthood in the Amazon area, to be able to better serve their members. But that was rejected in the end.

It will sooner or later occur, that is, if they wish to survive.

There needs to be someone accessible for "Life Cycle" ministry. People to conduct weddings, funerals, console the bereaved and celebrate the joyous events that are so much a part of life. If the Catholic Church won't send someone, someone will fill the gap. That gap seems to be filled by the Pentecostals. May their tribe increase!

[Judas Maccabeus]

This is somewhat similar to the typical (United) Methodist church in rural areas of America. They will send out random preachers (often with no input from the congregation, or what's left of it). They are well financed to maintain their buildings but that seems like all they want to do. They gradually just dwindle and die... and eventually the regional conference sells off the building and pockets the cash.

They frequently rent them out during the week as day cares, normally unconnected to the church. That is how my late mother in law's presbyterian church keeps the doors open.

[barnhart]

They frequently rent them out during the week as day cares, normally unconnected to the church. That is how my late mother in law's presbyterian church keeps the doors open.

The mainline protestant churches here are dwindling unless they have an African or Asian component from past missions. Two blocks from my house a Presbyterian building is slipping into oblivion, the roof is no longer being repaired. The Catholic churches are doing better because they have the courage and spiritual insight to embrace immigration, which I admire.

[Josh]

They frequently rent them out during the week as day cares, normally unconnected to the church. That is how my late mother in law's presbyterian church keeps the doors open.

The mainline protestant churches here are dwindling unless they have an African or Asian component from past missions. Two blocks from my house a Presbyterian building is slipping into oblivion, the roof is no longer being repaired. The Catholic churches are doing better because they have the courage and spiritual insight to embrace immigration, which I admire.

Perhaps instead of “embracing immigration”, they could support their parishes which already exist in Guatemala instead of sending a priest once a year.