Brazil
POPULATION 176,029,560
ROMAN CATHOLIC 75.0 percent
HISTORICAL PROTESTANT 12.5 percent
PENTECOSTAL AND NEO-PENTECOSTAL 7.0 percent
SPIRIT 3.0 percent
AFRO-BRAZILIAN 1.5 percent
SHINTO, BUDDHIST, JEWISH, INDIGENOUS 1.0 percent
Country Overview
Introduction
Brazil, known officially as the Federative Republic of Brazil, is located on the east coast of South America. It is that continent's largest country, both in area and population, and is its only Portuguese-speaking country. It has a religious landscape that reflects the successive waves of migration that brought European and Asian settlers and African slaves to interact with the small (and soon to be eliminated) indigenous populations. In his first official act after claiming Brazil for Portugal in 1500, Pedro Álvares Cabral celebrated a Roman Catholic Mass. Jesuit missionaries built on this symbolic foundation to evangelize in native communities. The goal of economic development, however, has long outweighed the pursuit of doctrinal purity in Brazil. When Jesuit efforts to educate and protect indigenous peoples angered plantation owners who sought to enslave the Indians, the colonial government expelled the Jesuits in 1759. Although Brazil has grown to become the largest Roman Catholic country in the world, census figures do not capture the tendency of Brazilians to affiliate with more than one religion.
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