Panama RELIGION
The Golden Altar in the Church of San José, Panama City
Courtesy Agency for International Development
The Constitution prescribes that there shall be no prejudice
with respect to religious freedom, and the practice of all forms of
worship is authorized. However, the Constitution recognizes that
the Roman Catholic faith is the country's predominant religion and
contains a provision that it be taught in the public schools. Such
instruction or other religious activity is not, however, compulsory .
The Constitution does not specifically provide for the
separation of church and state, but it implies the independent
functioning of each. Members of the clergy may not hold civil or
military public office, except such posts as may be concerned with
social welfare or public instruction. The Constitution stipulates
that senior officials of the church hierarchy in Panama must be
native-born citizens.
The majority of Panamanians in the late 1980s were at least
nominal Roman Catholics. The Antillean black community, however,
was largely Protestant. Indians followed their own indigenous
belief systems, although both Protestant and Catholic missionaries
were active among the various tribes. Roman Catholicism permeated
the social environment culturally as well as religiously. The
devout regarded church attendance and the observance of religious
duties as regular features of everyday life, and even the most
casual or nominal Roman Catholics adjusted the orientation of their
daily lives to the prevailing norms of the religious calendar.
Although some sacraments were observed more scrupulously than
others, baptism was almost universal, and the last rites of the
church were administered to many who during their lives had been
indifferent to the precepts of the faith or its religious rituals.
In the mid-1980s, when nearly 90 percent of the population was
Roman Catholic, there were fewer than 300 priests in the country.
Virtually every town had its Roman Catholic church, but many did
not have a priest in residence. Many rural inhabitants in the more
remote areas received only an occasional visit from a busy priest
who traveled among a number of isolated villages.
Religious attitudes, customs, and beliefs differed somewhat
between urban and rural areas, although many members of the urban
working class, often recent migrants from rural regions, presumably
retained their folk beliefs. According to one anthropologist, the
belief system of the campesinos centered on God, the Devil, the
saints, and the Virgin. Christ was viewed as more or less the chief
saint, but as peripheral to the lives of men. The Virgin Mary
served as an inspiration and model to women, but there was no
comparable model for men.
Although the campesinos believed that each individual "is born
with a destiny set by God," they also believed that the destiny
could be altered if the individual succumbed to the constant
blandishments and enticements of the Devil. The rural dwellers
possessed a clear sense of reward and punishment that centered on
All Souls' Day. On that day all who died during the previous year
are summoned to judgment before God and the Devil. The life record
of each person is recited by Saint Peter, and the good and bad
deeds are weighed out on a Roman balance scale, thus determining
the person's afterlife.
Throughout the society, birth and death were marked by
religious rites observed by all but a very few. One of the first
social functions in which newly born members of the family
participated was the sacrament of baptism, which symbolized their
entry into society and brought them into the church community. In
the cities, church facilities were readily available, but in rural
areas families often had to travel some distance to the nearest
parish center for the ceremony. The trip was considered of great
importance and was willingly undertaken. In fact, baptism was
generally considered the most significant religious rite.
If the family lived near a church that had a priest in regular
attendance, children received an early exposure to the formal
teachings of the church and were usually taken to mass regularly by
their mothers. As they grew older, they took an increasing part in
church liturgy and by the age of ten were usually full participants
in such activities as catechism classes, communion, and confession.
As they approached manhood, boys tended to drift away from the
church and from conscientious observation of church ritual. Few
young men attended services regularly, and even fewer took an
active part in the religious life of the community, although they
continued to consider themselves Roman Catholics.
Girls, on the other hand, were encouraged to continue their
religious devotions and observe the moral tenets of their faith.
Women were more involved in the church than men, and the community
and clerics accepted this as a basic axiom. There was social
pressure on women to become involved in church affairs, and most
women, particularly in urban areas, responded. As a rule, they
attended mass regularly and took an active part in church and
church-sponsored activities. Religious gatherings and observances
were among the principal forms of diversion for women outside the
home, and to a great extent these activities were social as much as
devotional.
Data as of December 1987
|