The Roman Catholic Church in Brazil is part of the worldwide Roman Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, curia in Rome, and the very influential Brazilian Conference of Bishops (Portuguese: Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil - CNBB), composed by over four hundred primary and auxiliary bishops and archbishops. There are over 250 dioceses and other territorial jurisdictions in the country. The primate of Brazil is Dom Murilo Ramos Krieger.
Roman Catholicism is the largest denomination in the country, where 145 million people, or 74% of the Brazilian population, are self-declared Catholics.[1] These figures makes Brazil the single country with the largest Roman Catholic community in the world.[2][3][4] However, for some sociologists of religion, Catholicism in Brazil is more of a tradition than a religious practice itself. Although it is common for Brazilian Catholics to be baptized and married in the Catholic Church, only 20% of self-declared Catholics attend Mass and participate in church activities, according to the CNBB.[3] Thus, Brazil also has the largest number of lapsed Catholics in the world.
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Tradition says that the first Mass celebrated in Brazil took place on Easter Sunday of the year 1500. It would had been celebrated by a priest who arrived in the country along with the Portuguese explorers to claim possession of the newfound land. The first diocese in Brazil was erected in 1551.
Brazil's strong Catholic heritage can be traced to the Iberian missionary zeal, with the 15th-century goal of spreading Christianity to the so-called "infidels", in other words, Native-Brazilians.[3] At a given time, the Church missions began to hamper the government policy of exploiting Natives. In 1782, the Jesuits were suppressed, and the government tightened its control over the Church. In addition to convert Natives, there were also strong efforts to enforce compliance with Catholicism, including the Inquisition, which was not formally established in Brazil but nonetheless functioned widely in Portuguese colonies.[3]
Catholicism was enforced during colonial rule, then in 1824 became the official religion of an independent Brazil that also guaranteed freedom of religion. The Brazilian government has been secular since its Constitution of 1891, though the Church remained extremely politically influential into the 1970s, and still remains influential today.[5] In the late 19th century, the Catholic population of Iberian origin was reinforced by a large number of Italian Catholics who immigrated to Brazil, as well as some Polish and German Catholic immigrants.[3] In 1889, Brazil became a republic and approved a constitution separating the Church from the State, a trend followed by all of the country's seven republican constitutions.[3] Prior to that, during the Empire of Brazil, Catholicism was the official religion of the country.[6] In practice, however, separation of Church and state in the country is very weak.[3] Government officials generally avoid taking action that may offend the Church.[3]
A recent example of the Church's influence over political questions was the change conducted by the federal government in the Third National Program of Human Rights in regard to its proposal to legalize abortion, after pressure from the National Conference of Brazilian Bishops.[7] That particular change, along with others, was denounced by the Amnesty International.[8] Nevertheless, the government kept issues that upset the Church in the Program, such as its support for same-sex marriage and same-sex adoption.[7]
In the late 20th century, the Church's liberation theology movement, which focuses on the poor as the primary recipients of Christ's message, helped in the quest for social justice.[9] The church organized Ecclesiastical Base Communities throughout the country to work for social and political causes at the local level.[3] Despite the support of the higher clergy to the military, the progressive wing managed to make the Church practically the only legitimate focus of resistance and defense of basic human rights during the military regime.[3] When then Cardinal Ratzinger became responsible for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he launched a successful campaign against the liberation theology,[9] and the conservative wing of the Church gained power.[3] Catholics then saw the rise of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement, as a way to counter the rapid growth of Pentecostal Protestantism in the country.[3] According to Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, "pentecostalism no longer is something confined outside the Roman Catholic Church, it is now firmly within the form of various charismatic tendencies and movements".[9]
During his five day visit to Brazil on May 2007, Pope Benedict XVI canonized Friar Galvão, who became the first Brazilian-born saint. Both the Pope's visit and the canonisation aimed at reinvigorating the local church.[10]
According to a poll conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, about 60 percent of the urban population of Brazil claims a Catholic affiliation.[9] Religious syncretism is widespread among Brazilian Catholics.[11][4] There is an overlay of Afro-Brazilian religions (like Candomblé, Macumba and Umbanda) with Catholic beliefs and practices, which many Catholic Brazilians do not find inconsistent with their faith.[4][11] An example is the Feast of Bonfim, a ritual in which mães-de-santo gather to wash the stairs of the Church of Nosso Senhor do Bonfim in Salvador, Bahia. Catholics are far more likely to believe in good luck charms, fortune-tellers, faith-healers and astrology than converts to Protestantism.[4] While official Catholicism rejects these beliefs as superstitious, they are a risk inherent in the Catholic imagination, which sees God as present in the objects, events and persons of his creation.[4]
More than one out of five of those who were raised Catholics leave the church, most of them to join the group of those with no religious affiliation and to Protestantism.[4] However, Catholicism has the highest rate of retention. More than two-fifths of those who were raised Protestant are no longer Protestant; the Catholic Church picks up 16 percent of those who were raised Protestants.[4] Religious change in Brazil is frequent.[4]
Brazilian Catholics have the highest score in the world on the image of God as loving and as mother.[4] They are also more likely to see human nature as good rather than corrupt, and the world as good rather than evil.[4] Brazilian Catholics are less likely to believe in the literal, word-for-word interpretation of the Bible than Protestants.[4] They are also more likely to accept premarital sex, cohabitation before marriage, homosexuality and abortion.[4] About 40 percent attend Masses at least once a month — approximately the same level as that of American Catholics.[4] Almost 75 percent pray every day, but only 12 percent engage in Church activities.[4] Only 26 percent say they are "very religious".[4]
| Rank | State | %[12] | Largest denomination |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Piauí | 90 | Catholic |
| 2 | Ceará | 86 | |
| 3 | Paraíba | 84 | |
| 4 | Rio Grande do Norte | 83 | |
| 5 | Maranhão | 82 | |
| Sergipe | |||
| 7 | Santa Catarina | 80 | |
| 8 | Alagoas | 79 | |
| 9 | Minas Gerais | 78 | |
| 10 | Tocantins | 77 | |
| 11 | Paraná | 76 | |
| Rio Grande do Sul | |||
| 13 | Pernambuco | 74 | |
| Bahia | |||
| Pará | |||
| Amapá | |||
| 17 | Mato Grosso | 73 | |
| 18 | Amazonas | 71 | |
| 19 | São Paulo | 70 | |
| 20 | Mato Grosso do Sul | 69 | |
| 21 | Acre | 68 | |
| Goiás | |||
| 23 | Roraima | 66 | |
| Federal District | |||
| 25 | Espírito Santo | 63 | |
| 26 | Rondônia | 57 | |
| 27 | Rio de Janeiro | 56 |
As the largest Catholic country in the world, Catholic education has a great tradition in Brazil. The Society of Jesus founded the first schools in the country, with the aim of evangelizing Native-Brazilians. In the late 18th century, Portuguese minister Marquis of Pombal attacked and expelled the Jesuits from Portugal and its overseas possessions. He seized the Jesuit schools and introduced educational reforms all over the Empire. Since then, public schools have been secular, but private Catholic schools are among the best in the country.
According to the Ministry of Education, there are currently over 30 Catholic universities in Brazil.[13] The first of them was the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio Grande do Sul, founded by Marist Brothers on 1931. According to the Ministry of Education, the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro is the best private university in the country, and behind only the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in the State of Rio de Janeiro.[14] The Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais had been chosen by the Ministry as the best private university in the country, and the best in Minas Gerais, the previous year.[15] In 1969, the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo became the first higher education institute in Brazil to offer a post-graduation course.[16]
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