Thread: Beliefs

What beliefs?

In Brazil you have - Catholicism

Most people agree that Brazil is the largest Roman Catholic country in the world, but the truth is that there are all varieties of religious beliefs and practices to be found in the country. Brazil was officially Catholic for 4 centuries, from the 1500's up until the fall of the Portuguse Empire, in 1889. There is also, Candomblé this is a religion that was brought to Brazil by the slaves from Nigeria and Benin. Testimonials from slave-owners and Catholic officialssaid that African slaves had to be converted to Christianity and were therefore prohibited from performing their Candomblé rituals. In order to continue their traditional practices while still contenting their owners, the slaves coupled their deities with corresponding personalities in Catholicism. For instance, Oxalá, a male god of procreation and harvest, was identified with Jesus; and Iemanjá, goddess of the sea, was associated with "Our Lady of Conception". The Catholic Church was content to let matters lie, hoping that over the years, African traditions would eventually die out and that Christian beliefs would be strengthened. However, this has not been the case. Today, especially in the North-East, many Brazilians of all socio-economic classes practice both Catholicism and Candomblé. Umbanda, a religion derived from candomblé coupled with the Christian and spiritist beliefs found in Kardecism, is also practiced widely.

Then of course there is Protestantism which has grown in recent decades. Protestantism has grown rapidly in Brazil. According to the 2000 Census, approximately 15 percent of the population identify themselves as Protestants, an estimated 85 percent of which are Pentecostal/Evangelical. These Evangelical churches have different denominations which include the Assembly of God and the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Lutherans and Baptists make up the bulk of the remaining Protestants and are centered in the southern part of the country, where the majority of German and northern European immigrants concentrated during the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Christianity is the major religion in Brazil with over 70 percent declaring themselves as Roman Catholics. Brazil is the largest country in the world whose predominant religion is Roman Catholicism. According to the IBGE census of 2000, 15.4% are followers of Protestantism and 7.4% (about 12 million) consider themselves agnostics, atheists or having no religious affiliation. African syncretic religions such as Candomblé have millions of followers, mainly Afro-Brazilians. They are concentrated mainly in large urban centers in the Northeast.

Brazil is the largest Catholic country in the world even though the percentage of Brazilians who belong to the Catholic Church has declined in recent years, down from 95 percent in the 1950s. Today about 73 percent of Brazilians identify themselves as Catholic but an unknown number are Catholics by tradition, not by faith.

Danno has posted an excellent text about the religions in Brazil. Very good.

I just wanted to say that one thing is to say that someone is a Catholic, and other thing is to say if the person really practices the Catholicism.

There are many people in Brazil who says that are Catholic when they are asked to answer (when applying for a job, for example), but they don´t practice the Catholicism as the Catholics would have to do.

I know many countries in the world but Brazil is so peculiar when you talk about beliefs! Brazilians have a real mixed spiritual beliefs, as you can find catholic people on spiritism centers, or have spiritual believers getting married on catholic churchs. The catholick marriage become a social practice and has few to do with beliefs. We are seeing now the arise of fundamental protestants groups, with can lead to a social change towards to right and conservatism.