The first figures of the last census in Chile have been released and everyone is looking for those that interest them the most. In our case, the data on religiosity. The first thing to note is that the data refer to people over 15 years of age. That is to say, those under 15 years of age do not count in the statistics and it is to them that we dedicate the most time of formation and they are the future Catholics. There are also many young people in Protestant evangelism. The data is important and distorts the reality a little.
Essential results of the 2024 census
Of the population over 15 years of age, 74.2 % report professing some religion or creed. 25.8 % have no religion or creed, which is a notable increase from 8.3 % in 2002. Catholics are 54 % of the population, down from 76.9 % in 1992. Evangelicals or Protestants are 16.3 % in 2024, up 13.2 % from 1992 and 15.1 % in 2002. In 1930, almost 98 % of the population identified themselves as Catholic; this proportion has been gradually decreasing over the decades Protestantism, on the other hand, went from minimum levels (1.5 % in 1930) to 16 % and has remained at these figures in recent decades. Belief in a personal God has declined from 93 % in 2007 to about 70 % in 2022.
The 2024 census confirms that approximately three out of every four Chileans over the age of 15 have a religion, discarding the idea of a generalized "irreligiousness". What is observed is a growing preference for new spiritualities, a diversification of faiths and a greater distrust of traditional forms of religious institutionality. There is a notable gender gap: among those who claim to have religion, 54.5 % are women and 45.5 % are men. The regions with the highest religiosity are Maule (81.7 %), Ñuble (80.1 %) and O'Higgins (79.4 %), all figures that exceed the national average.
Some general conclusions
A well-known fact is evident. The Catholic faith continues to be the majority, although in decline. The Evangelical or Protestant faith remains in the known margins. The other religions (Jews, Muslims, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc.) have very minor percentages. But it should be noted that there is a very large increase in the number of those who have no religion. It is possible that the figures are not always very accurate, because we know that a census is a very difficult task and does not reach the entire population. But, in general, the figures are a true indication. And from them we can draw some initial conclusions. A census is always a challenge in its figures and an impulse towards new goals.
It is evident that our population has become secularized. Benedict XVI He described it as a process in which God is "increasingly expelled from our societyand the history of man's relationship with God remains "...".locked in an increasingly remote past". He also affirmed that "all too often it has erased the link between temporal realities and their Creator," going so far as to neglect the safeguarding of the transcendent dignity of the human being and respect for life itself. A sign of this is the infinity of laws that trample on the dignity of persons, especially those that refer to respect for life. In our case, abortion on three grounds and then the attempt of free abortion and euthanasia are clear proof of this, as well as the attempts, still in the making, of surrogate motherhood.
Possible causes, among many.
We could try to discover causes that explain this process. One of them is the replacement of God by earthly goods, today abundant and easy. Another is the replacement of the salvation that comes from Jesus Christ by the self-referentiality of man, as Francis said, who constitutes himself as the center of himself. In its latest escalation, this is represented in all gender thinking, which seeks to erase nature and recreate it as it pleases. Perhaps even in AI there is something to explain the figures. But a self-examination of how the religious confessions, and especially the Catholic Church, have approached this process, its errors and successes, is also necessary.
The effect of sexual abuse by the clergy, which in Chile has had a very strong impact on the adherence to the Catholic faith and has created a very high degree of distrust, must be considered in all its reality. It should also be mentioned that the politicization of the life of the Church - especially in the decades from the 60's to the 90's - distracted or reduced the process of evangelization, causing a break in the transmission of the faith in the family and in the school. The abrupt and systematic fall in priestly and religious vocations and marriages has also had an effect on census figures.
A commitment to bring God out of ordinary life
It cannot be overlooked that there is also "radical secularism", which imposes - with means and perseverance - a vision of the world and of humanity without reference to transcendence, invading all aspects of daily life and developing a mentality in which God is effectively absent, totally or partially, from human life and conscience. The whole process of secularization of the laws on marriage, beginning with the disregard of religious marriage, up to the last stage, changing the very definition and arriving at "marriage" between persons of the same sex, has distorted the essential concept of family and the transmission of human and evangelical values in it.
This secularization is not only an external threat to believers, but has been manifesting itself "for some time now in the heart of the Church itself," Benedict says, profoundly distorting the Christian faith from within and, consequently, the lifestyle and daily behavior of believers.
One could conclude that secularism in America has reduced religious belief to a "lowest common denominator," where faith becomes a passive acceptance that certain things are true, but does not require adherence and is for others. Faith loses practical relevance to everyday life. This leads to a growing separation between faith and life, living as if God does not exist. This situation is aggravated by an individualistic and relativistic approach to faith, where each person believes he or she has the right to choose and select, maintaining external social ties, but without an integral and interior conversion to the law of Christ.
The contrast with other realities
It is interesting to note that our process of secularization contrasts, for example,
the rapid growth in the number of African Catholics in two centuries is an exceptional achievement by any standards. Globally, Catholic populations are projected to increase significantly between 2004 and 2050: by 146% in Africa, 63% in Asia and 42% in Latin America and the Caribbean. In contrast, the Catholic population is expected to decrease in Europe and North America. North and South America recorded more than 666.2 million Catholics in 2022, with an increase of more than 5.9 million Catholics. From this it can be deduced that our country represents a picture of regression of religious beliefs that is worrisome. We have proven this time and again with the immigrant populations coming from Venezuela and Colombia and other South American countries, whose religiosity and adherence to a religious faith is much higher than ours and in this sense they are a great contribution to the evangelization of the country.
A call to purification and fidelity
But positive elements also emerge from this secularization. Despite the challenges, Benedict XVI also saw in secularization a possible "profound liberation of the Church from forms of worldliness," which Francis also strongly denounced, and which leads to her "purification and interior reform." In these processes, the Church "puts aside her worldly wealth and embraces again completely her worldly poverty", which allows her to share the destiny of the tribe of Levi in the Old Testament, who had no land of their own and took God Himself as their portion. In this way, the Church's missionary activity regains credibility.
Mission land
Chile has become a mission land; it is a territory or socio-cultural context where Christ and his Gospel are little known, or where Christian communities are not mature enough to incarnate the faith in their own environment and proclaim it to other groups. This cannot become, as Francis warned, a pessimism that leads us to stop trusting in the spiritual means to bring the Gospel to those who seek God, but rather a spur to do so with greater depth and confidence that adherence to the Christian faith is a work of the Holy Spirit, not of our strategies, often taken from worldly processes, but which do not always include divine grace. An expression of this reality is the number of foreign priests who come on mission to our country to make up for the deficit of our own religious and priestly vocations. The seminaries of Chile are reduced in practice to three and there are less than 100 seminarians in them, many of them foreigners. The same can be said of religious life, both masculine and feminine, but much more aggravated.
What paths should we follow?
The secularization of Chilean society should lead us to reaffirm the truth of Christian revelation, promoting harmony between faith and reason, and a healthy understanding of freedom as liberation from sin for an authentic and full life, in coherence with the Gospel. To preach the Gospel in an integral way as an attractive and true response, both intellectually and practically, to real human problems. To continue to seek dialogue with society and culture and with the cultural movements of the time, especially on important issues such as those related to life and in a more proper sphere to continue - slowly but surely - evangelization and a catechesis that speaks to the hearts of young people who, despite exposure to messages contrary to the Gospel, continue to thirst for authenticity, goodness and truth, reaffirming the just autonomy of the secular order that cannot be divorced from God the Creator and his plan of salvation for all people.
In the current Pastoral Guidelines, the Episcopal Conference has summarized these paths with four main lines of pastoral action: 1) Encourage and strengthen evangelizing processes based on the centrality of Jesus Christ. 2) To foster more evangelical relationships and more synodal structures in our way of being Church. 3) To live our prophetic mission in the midst of the world in dialogue with the culture and going out to meet the poor and the young. 4) Continue to promote in our Church a culture of care and good treatment.
Bishop of San Bernardo (Chile)
