Religion in Brazil
In the last census of Brazil which took place in 2000, over seventy percent of the Brazilian population declared themselves Roman Catholic. However, Brazilian religions are very diverse, and in many cases a fusion of different beliefs has taken place. Brazil is a very religious nation, with over ninety percent of the population declaring some kind of religious affiliation on the last census.
Brazil has the larges number of Catholics of any nation in the world. Roman Catholicism has been the country’s main religion since the beginning of the 16th century when it was introduced to the natives by Jesuits missionaries. It was also observed by all of the original Portuguese settlers. In colonial history there was no freedom of religion, and all settlers and natives were forcibly bound to the Catholic Church, even being forced to pay taxes. The country’s first constitution introduced freedom of religion in 1824 with Catholicism as the official religion. The Catholicism that is practiced in Brazil is influenced by popular, centuries old Portuguese traditions, and also by African and Native Brazilian culture.
Most Catholics in Brazil are concentrated in the Northeast and South, and the smallest Catholic population is in the Center-West region, where Catholics still represent about sixty-nine percent of the population.
Brazil’s citizens also practice many offshoots of Christianity. These groups include neo-Pentecostalists, Old Pentecostalists, and Traditional Protestants. Brazil also has over one million Jehovah’s Witnesses and a significant number of Seventh-Day Adventists. The majority of Protestants are found in the North, Central-West, and Southeast regions.
Other religions represented in Brazil include the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that nearly one million members, though many don’t officially affiliate with the religion, such as in the census. There is also an Eastern Orthodox Christian population that has only about fifty thousand members.
However, the indigenous Afro-Brazilian religions must also be taken into account. They are mainly concentrated in large urban centers in the Northeast, as well as in Rio de Janeiro in the Southeast. While many are prejudiced towards the “African cults” in the South of Brazil, there are also many Catholics, Protestants, and other kinds of Christians who maintain their native beliefs as well.
Some of the major native religious cults, Candomble, Umbanda, Batuque, Xango, and Tambor de Mina were originally brought to Brazil by the black slaves who were shipped there from Africa. The slaves summoned their gods, who were called Orixas, Voduns, or Inkices, with chants and dances native to Africa. These cults have been persecuted throughout Brazilian history, primarily because they were thought to be pagan or satanic. However, they were finally legalized by the Brazilian republic. People all over the country still practice their original traditions, but the highest concentration of indigenous religion is in the Amazon rainforest.
There are also followers of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, Rastafarian, and other religions, though their numbers are small and they are a minority in all areas of the country.