May 30, 2005

SÃO PAULO, Brazil – In recent years the Catholic Church has not only lost thousands of faithful but also its capacity for political influence and its prerogative to speak in the name of the masses, affirmed Sociologist Reginaldo Prandi in a note published in the influential daily Folha of Sao Paulo.

"Today the Catholic cathedrals compete in Brazil, with the cathedrals of the believers in terms of visibility and importance," said Prandi, professor at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and author of the book "Segredos Guardados" (Guarded Secrets) whose central theme is Candomble.

Prandi added that Catholicism has difficulty placing itself in the partisan-political arena, while Evangelicals easily elect representatives.

In his book Prandi analyzes, among other themes, the decline of Catholicism in Brazil. With the election of Benedict XVI, Catholicism will continue to lose support in the country, the sociologist predicted.

"Latin American had already lost a great deal with the Papacy of John Paul II, who turned his back on the region. This lack of interest is going to get worse," he predicted.

Prandi told the Folha de Sao Paulo that the Churches that have television channels are not necessarily the ones that grow. "The audience of these Churches on TV is very small. What still counts is the presence of the faithful in the temple. What changed a great deal is that today the temple is more adapted to life in the big city and there are temples that operate 24 hours a day," he said.

The USP professor admitted that Brazilian society is tolerant of different religions but this does not mean that the religions are equally tolerant. As an example he mentioned the fact that Evangelical denominations are aggressive toward Afro-Brazilian religions.

According to Prandi, there is a theological explication for the aggression. For Neo-Pentecostal religions, the source of evil is the devil. According to these Neo-Pentecostals, the devil is present in Afro-Brazilian religions."

Candomble is the religion that has grown the most in recent years. This growth, however, has not compensated the loss of faithful to Umbanda. Candomble has gone through a type of "whitewash," due to the growing middle class interest in the places of religious celebration, known as the "terreiros."

Today the Candomble is the "religion with the highest educational level of all religions. Why. Because of this middle class that came from the counterculture" of the 1960s in the past century, when the phenomenon to search for roots, traditions, began.

Prandi pointed to another change in the religious focus. "The history of religion showed that it was more connected to the world of values. today religion is used to ask, to obtain things that not only refer to a spiritual life, but also to a material life. It is a return to the world of ritual," he affirmed.

Evangelical Churches and Afro-Brazilian religions adapted well to this new religious profile. While the Evangelicals developed the theology of prosperity, in Afro beliefs, said the sociologist, it is possible to have access to magic services without becoming committed to the religion. "For this, each terreiro has a higher number of clients than devout," he concluded.

Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency (ALC)