MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Catholic Church rapidly loosing ground to evangelists in Brazil
Only 64% of Brazilians identify themselves as Catholic shows the 2010 census Less than two-thirds of Brazilians identify as Catholics, marking a record decline in what is considered to be the world's largest Catholic country, new figures showed Friday.
Just over 64% of the Brazilian population of 191 million identifies as Catholic, said the figures, taken from the 2010 census.
In the year 2000, when the last census was carried out, Catholics comprised almost 74% of the population, down significantly from almost 92% in 1970.
Meanwhile, the number of Brazilian Christian evangelists has risen, up roughly seven percentage points to 22.2% from 15.4% in 2000.
On the other hand 8% of Brazilians reported being atheist in 2010.
Pope Benedict XVI is expected to travel to Brazil in July 2013 for a youth festival.
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Read all commentsIt's my observation that the Evangelical church leaders request an even larger proportion of the earnings of the poor than the Catholics themselves.
Jul 02nd, 2012 - 10:39 am 0Such is the entry price to heaven.
Bad news. Evangelical churches behave like a cult, trying to overtake every aspect of adhernts lives, including how they vote, what they read and kind of music they listen to. Uneducated guttersnipes, those evangelicals.
Jul 02nd, 2012 - 01:42 pm 0I agree with both GeoffWard2 and Forgeti86 comments about the Evangelical Churches – it’s more about the money then Jesus, but in a country with a fertility rate less than 2 children per woman and a Woman President, the Catholic Church’s misogynistic views towards woman and birth control only aid in its decline. I think this Pope would rather have a much smaller ‘Pure’ church, than one that reflects the modern world.
Jul 02nd, 2012 - 06:01 pm 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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