It is estimated that there are as many practicing Evangelicals as practicing Catholics in the country, though most Chileans still declare allegiance to Catholicism. The challenge of Protestantism forced the Catholic Church to increase its efforts to re-evangelize the population and has resulted in a spiritual renaissance in the nation.
Religious Tolerance
In an effort to spur trade with northern Europe and the United States in the nineteenth century, Chile was one of the first Latin American countries to tolerate the religious activities of non-Catholics. Official church-state separation came in 1925, officially allowing Protestants greater religious freedom and the right to proselytize. Chile's democratic stability prior to the 1973 military coup allowed for civic tolerance between religions to develop, although the Catholic Church was given preferential legal and financial status. Catholic opposition to the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–90) prompted the government to crack down on progressive Catholic organizations. When democracy returned in the 1990s,evangelical Protestants attained legal standing similar to that of the Catholic Church, allowing them equal access to chaplaincies in prisons, state hospitals, and the military.
Major Religion
Roman Catholicism
DATE OF ORIGIN 1541 C.E.
NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS 11,860,000
History
Catholicism arrived with the Spanish colonists in the early 1500s.
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