Latin America's Changing Identity

Latin America, since the Spanish and Portugese conquistadors arrived, has had an identity intricately linked to Catholicism. Since this time and currently, the great majority of people in the region are Roman Catholics. However, since the 1980's, the Catholic Church has slowly been losing ground to protestant Christians, in particular, Evangelical Christian denominations.

Latin America through the 19th and 20th centuries has had their share of dictators and tyrants, so unfortunately their Catholic identity couldn't prevent that. Today, however, it is the socialist left that are perhaps the biggest threat to Catholic orthodoxy in the region. In the most recent Mexican elections, the socialist party was narrowly defeated by the family and church friendly party. The fact that these elections are close is evidence enough of strong backing that these movements and ideology have in Latin America. Several Latin American countries have socialist governments in power presently.

Abortion is another example of the shifting identity of Latin America. For many years most of the region held laws strictly prohibiting abortion but as it stands at the moment El Salvador and Chile are the only Latin American nations to completely prohibit abortions.

Please pray for Latin America to stay close and true to its Catholic identity.