Portugal RELIGION AND THE ROLE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Streetcar in Lisbon
Courtesy Daničle Köhler
Children playing in a Lisbon courtyard
Courtesy Daničle Köhler
Portugal was profoundly Roman Catholic. According to
common
saying, "to be Portuguese is to be Catholic," and
approximately
97 percent of the population considered itself Roman
Catholic--the highest percentage in Western Europe. Only
about
one-third of the population attended mass and took the
sacraments
regularly, but nearly all Portuguese wished to be baptized
and
married in the church and to receive its last rites.
Portugal was Roman Catholic not only in a religious
sense,
but also socially and culturally. Although church and
state were
formally separated during the First Republic (1910-26), a
separation reiterated in the constitution of 1976, the two
still
formed a seamless web in many areas of life. Catholic
precepts
historically undergirded the society, as well as the
polity. The
traditional notions of authority, hierarchy, and accepting
one's
station in life all stemmed from Roman Catholic teachings.
Many
Portuguese holidays and festivals had religious origins,
and the
country's moral and legal codes derived from Roman
Catholic
precepts. The educational and health care systems were
long the
church's preserve, and whenever a building, bridge, or
highway
was opened, it received the blessing of the clergy. Hence,
although church and state were formally separated,
absolute
separation was not possible in practice.
Data as of January 1993
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