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Honduras RELIGION
The constitution guarantees religious freedom and the
separation
of church and state; however, the Roman Catholic Church
has been a
powerful institution in Honduras since colonial times. As
a result
of various tensions between the church and the state
throughout the
centuries, in the 1880s the Roman Catholic Church was
stripped of
some of its economic and political power. Nevertheless, in
the
twentieth century the church has remained an important
social
actor, and the vast majority of Hondurans have remained
Roman
Catholic. Church schools receive government subsidies, and
religious instruction is part of the public school
curriculum.
The Roman Catholic Church in Honduras launched an
ambitious
evangelical campaign in the 1950s. The program's aim was
to
invigorate church membership and encourage more active
participation in church activities. By the 1960s and
1970s, this
activism had grown among certain sectors of the church
into
denunciations of the military's repression and the
government's
exploitation of the poor
(see Advocates for Social Change
, this
ch.). This social activist phase in the Roman Catholic
Church ended
after large landowners in Olancho brutally murdered ten
peasants,
two students, and two priests in 1975. After this
incident, the
government took measures to dissuade the more activist
factions in
the church from continuing their actions. Expulsions and
arrests of
foreign priests took place, and some peasant centers with
ties to
the church were forced to close. The Roman Catholic Church
retreated from its emphasis on social activism during the
last half
of the 1970s but resumed its criticism of government
policies
during the 1980s.
Protestant, especially evangelical, churches have
undergone a
tremendous growth in membership during the 1980s. The
largest
numbers are found in Methodist, Church of God, Seventh Day
Adventist, and Assemblies of God denominations. These
churches
sponsor social service programs in many communities,
making them
attractive to the lower classes. The evangelical
leadership
generally exerts a conservative influence on the political
process.
Although Protestant membership was estimated at only
100,000 in
1990, growth of Protestant churches is apparently seen as
a threat
by Roman Catholic leaders. Instances of criticism leveled
at
evangelicals by Roman Catholic leaders have increased;
however,
such criticisms have generally been ineffective in
stemming the
rise of converts to Protestant denominations.
Data as of December 1993
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