Catholics Head List of Those in Mexico Who Have Modified Their Religious Beliefs Astrid Sanchez - El Universal
go to original June 18, 2017

Mexico is considered the most Catholic country in the world, but for the last decades, it has gone through accelerated changes and transformations regarding religious diversity.

“Currently there are many changes, rearrangements, and re-compositions in the heart of Catholicism. Catholics are, at the same time, more Catholics in their own way, but are taking more distance from the institution, dogmas, values, and norms, and they are even rehabilitating other forms of believing and practices very differents from those dictated by the Catholic hierarchy,” said Renée de la Torre Castellanos, of the Center for Research and Higher Studies in Social Anthropology.

During the presentation of the National Survey of Religious Beliefs and Practices in Mexico 2016, he reported that, of the interviewed people, 4.9% said they do not practice any religion and 10.4% changed it or left it.

Among those who do not practice any religion some said that it is because they consider themselves “freethinkers” and that all doctrines are false. The percentage of devout persons who have changed or abandoned their religion predominates among Catholics, with 57.1%, and in second place are Jehovah's Witnesses, with 11.2%.

“The survey marks a very important variable of change and the first concern is dissatisfaction, meaning, the formal structures of Ecclesiastic Catholicism are unsatisfactory for people,” commented Bernardo Barranco, a sociologist specialized in religious beliefs and culture.

Of the people who identified with and practice a religion, 41.8% said they are believers because of tradition. The belief as a result of conviction registered 28.3%; those who practice their faith in their own way were 17.9,%; and persons who practice a dogma 5.3%.

Read the rest at El Universal

Related: 'Some Rise By Sin': A Priest's Struggle with a Mexican Drug Gang (Post-Gazette)

Related: Catholic Church Calls for Actions Against Increased Crimes in Mexico (Prensa Latina)

Related: Mexico Is Still the Most Dangerous Nation to Be a Priest (The Fulano Forum)

Related: Archbishop Accused of Hiding Pedophilia: Former Priest Files Accusation Against Cardinal Rivera (Mexico News Daily)



Top photo: Cristopher Rogel Blanquet/El Universal

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