|
Colombia RELIGION
In the late 1980s, Colombia remained an overwhelmingly
Roman
Catholic country. More than 95 percent of the population
had been
baptized in the Catholic Church, and the Colombian variant
was
widely renowned as one of the most conservative and
traditional in
Latin America. Colombians were among the most devout of
Latin
American Catholics. The church as an institution was
authoritarian
and paternalistic and had traditionally been associated
with elite
structures in the society.
The Concordat of 1973 defined relations between the
Colombian
government and the Vatican. The concordat replaced the
clause in
the Constitution of 1886 that had established the Catholic
Church
as the official religion with one stating that "Roman
Catholicism
is the religion of the great majority of Colombians." The
concordat
also altered the church's position on three major issues:
the
mission territories, education, and marriage. First, the
mission
territories--lands with Indian populations--ceased to be
enclaves
where Catholic missionaries had greater jurisdiction than
the
government over schools, health, and other services; by
agreement
the vast network of schools and social services was
eventually to
be transferred to the government. Second, the church
surrendered
its right to censor public university texts and enforce
the use of
the Catholic catechism in public schools. Under the new
concordat,
the church retained the right to run only its own schools
and
universities, and even these had to follow government
guidelines.
Finally, Colombians were allowed to contract civil
marriages
without abjuring the Catholic faith. The civil validity of
church
weddings was also recognized, although all marriages were
also to
be recorded on the civil registry. Catholic marriages,
however,
could only be dissolved through arbitration in a church
court.
Despite these changes, the tenacity of custom and the
church's
traditional position as a moral and social arbiter ensured
its
continued strong presence in national life. The parish
church still
was recognized as the center of nearly every community,
and the
local priest was often the major figure of authority and
leadership. Moreover, most priests were native Colombians,
in sharp
contrast to the dependence on foreign clergy generally
prevalent in
Latin America. Approximately 95 percent of diocesan
priests and 65
percent of priests belonging to religious orders were
Colombians.
Since independence, all but four bishops have been
Colombian.
In comparison with Catholicism, other religions
continued to
play a small role in the 1980s. The Protestant population
numbered
roughly 200,000; Jews were far less numerous, having only
a few
small congregations in larger cities. In the past,
restrictive
immigration policy kept most non-Catholics from entering
the
country. Although Protestant missionaries had been
officially
allowed to proselytize since the 1930s, they often met
with
opposition from members of the Catholic clergy and laity.
NonCatholics are guaranteed freedom of worship under the
Constitution,
however.
Few of the indigenous religions encountered by the
Spaniards
survived. In the 1980s, the Indians of the highlands were
at least
nominally Catholic, and only a few tribes in the most
isolated
regions continued in their traditional beliefs. The
nation's black
population also was nominally Catholic, although vestiges
of
African religion and beliefs survived in some communities.
The
black population on Isla de San Andrés and Isla de
Providencia was
Protestant, however, having originally been colonized by
Britain.
Data as of December 1988
|
