At least 1 million in evangelical march in Brazil
PAULO — Brazilian police say at least 1 million evangelical Christians are taking part in Saturday's annual "March for Jesus" in Sao Paulo.
An estimated two million people parade to promote peace and harmony, bringing together Christians of all denominations in the 20th annual March for Jesus in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, July 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Christians raise their hands as they parade in the 20th annual March for Jesus in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, July 14, 2012. An estimated two million people marched to promote peace and harmony, bringing together Christians of all denominations. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
Christians chant gospel and raise their hands as they parade in the 20th annual March for Jesus in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Saturday, July 14, 2012. An estimated two million people marched to promote peace and harmony, bringing together Christians of all denominations. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)
The event is organized by the Reborn in Christ Church and draws faithful from hundreds of Protestant churches in Brazil, which is the world's largest Roman Catholic country.
Police Capt. Luis Fernando Otaviano says that "the number of people participating is extremely high — at least 1 million."
Organizers have described the march as the "largest Christian event in the world," saying they expected at least 5 million people to rally behind 15 sound trucks and attend religious music shows likely to last well into the night.
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More than 175 million Brazilians are Christian, making the country’s Christian population the largest outside the United States. By way of comparison, Brazil has more than twice as many Christians as Nigeria and about three times as many as Germany. Indeed, nearly one-in-twelve Christians in the world (8%) are Brazilian, and an overwhelming majority of Brazilians (90%) identify themselves as Christian.
Since the Portuguese conquest of Brazil in the 16th century, the country has been overwhelmingly Catholic. In 1950, almost 94% of Brazilians identified with Catholicism; as recently as 1980, Catholic affiliation approached 90%. Between 1980 and 2000, however, the Catholic share of Brazil’s population fell by 15 percentage points to 74%.1 Despite the decline, Brazil’s Catholic population of about 134 million remains by far the largest in the world. (Mexico’s Catholic population is a distant second at 96 million.) About one-in-eight Catholics worldwide (12%) are Brazilian.
Catholicism’s historical dominance in Brazil has given way to increasing Christian diversity. In 1940, only 2.6% of Brazil’s population was Protestant.2 Now about 21% of the population is Protestant. This fastgrowing Protestant community is overwhelmingly pentecostal; according to a 2006 Pew Forum survey, 72% of Protestants interviewed indicated they were pentecostal. 3 (For more details on pentecostals, see Defining Christian Movements.)
Pentecostal beliefs and practices also are changing the way many of Brazil’s Catholics practice their faith. The 2006 Pew Forum survey found that more than half of Brazilian Catholics identify with the charismatic movement, which includes members of non-pentecostal denominations who engage in at least some spiritual practices associated with pentecostalism, such as divine healing and speaking in tongues. 4
Footnotes:
1 Figures cited in this sidebar are from Brazil’s national decennial census. For more details on religious trends in Brazil, see Luis Lugo, “ Pope to Visit ‘Pentecostalized’ Brazil,” Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, 2007. (return to text)
2 The figure is from Brazil’s national census. See Emilio Willems, Followers of the New Faith; Culture Change and the Rise of Protestantism in Brazil and Chile, Vanderbilt University Press, 1967, pages 66-67. (return to text)
3 Approximately eight-in-ten Protestants interviewed indicated they were either pentecostal or charismatic. Survey results suggest that the Assemblies of God is the single largest pentecostal church, accounting for four-in-ten pentecostals. The survey was based on a probability sample of Brazilian cities and surrounding areas and excluded rural parts of the country. See Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals, 2006. (return to text)
4 Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life, Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals, 2006. (return to text)
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