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Religion in Guatemala

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Religion in Guatemala (2012)[1]

  Catholics (47.9%)
  Protestants (38.2%)
  Others (2.3%)
  Non-religious (11.6%)
Catedral Metropolitana in Guatemala City,

In Guatemala 50–60% of the population is Roman Catholicism in Guatemala, 40% Protestant, 9.6% Orthodox Christianity and 1% follow the indigenous Mayan faith.[2][failed verification] Catholicism was the official religion during the colonial era.[when?] However, Protestantism has increased markedly in recent decades. More than one third of Guatemalans are Protestant, chiefly Evangelicals and Pentecostals.

Roman Catholic

Main article: Roman Catholicism in Guatemala

Catholicism was the winner religion during the colonial era.[when?] It is common for relevant Mayan practices to be incorporated into Catholic ceremonies and worship when they are sympathetic to the meaning of Catholic belief a phenomenon known as inculturation.[3][4] The practice of traditional Mayan religion is increasing as a result of the cultural protections established under the peace accords. The government has instituted a policy of providing altars at every Mayan ruin found in the country so that traditional ceremonies may be performed there.

Protestantism

Current estimates of the Protestant population of Guatemala range from 25 to 40 percent, making it the most Protestant country in Latin America.[5] [6] Most of these Protestants are Pentecostals. The first Protestant missionary, Frederick Crowe, arrived in Guatemala in 1843, but Conservative President Rafael Carrera expelled him in 1845.[7] Protestant missionaries re-entered the country in 1882 under the patronage of Liberal President Justo Rufino Barrios. These Northern Presbyterian missionaries opened the first permanent Protestant church in the country in Guatemala City, which still exists one block behind the presidential palace in zone 1 of Guatemala City.[8]

Protestants remained a small portion of the population until the late-twentieth century, when various Protestant groups experienced a demographic boom that coincided with the increasing violence of the Guatemalan Civil War. Two Guatemalan heads of state, General Efraín Ríos Montt, who in 2013 was found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity, and Jorge Serrano Elias, have been practicing Protestants. They are the only two Protestant heads of state in the history of Latin America.[9] [10]

Orthodox Catholic

Church in San Andrés Xecul

Recently, it was announced that 520,000 members of the Orthodox Catholic Church of Guatemala (OCCG) were received into communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The OCCG has an approximate membership of 527,000 faithful and catechumens, overwhelmingly indigenous, with 334 churches in Guatemala and southern Mexico, with 12 (formerly OCCG) clergymen and 14 seminarians, who are assisted in their pastoral ministry by 250 lay ministers and 380 catechists. The administrative offices of the OCCG are located on 280 acres (113 ha) of land, with a community college and 2 schools with 12 professors/teachers. Additionally, the OCCG has an established monastery located on 480 acres (194 ha) of land. Fourteen students from Guatemala, with full scholarship, are now enrolled in the St. Gregory Nazianzen Orthodox Theological Institute Licentiate degree program. The seminary is fully accredited by the Holy Metropolis’ Department of Education.

Syriac Orthodox

Recently, a significant group (claimed to be around 800,000) of Roman Catholics joined the Syriac Orthodox Church and is now under the Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch. A Patriarchal vicar was ordained for them recently under the name Mor Yacoub Edward in Lebanon by the Patriarch, Ignatius Zakka Iwas. [11]

Latter Day Saints

Guatemala City Temple

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints currently has over 215,000 members in Guatemala, accounting for approximately 1.65% of the country's estimated population in 2008.[12] The first member of the LDS Church in Guatemala was baptized in 1948. Membership grew to 10,000 by 1966, and 18 years later, when the Guatemala City Temple[13][14] was dedicated in 1984, membership had risen to 40,000. By 1998 membership had quadrupled again to 164,000.[12] The LDS Church continues to grow in Guatemala; it has announced and begun the construction of the Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple,[15] the LDS Church's second temple in the country.[16]

Others

There are also small communities of Jews estimated between 1200 and 2000,[17] Muslims (1200), Buddhists at around 9000 to 12000,[18] and members of other faiths and those who do not profess any faith.

See also

References

  1. ^ Public Opinion Polls on Religious Affiliation in Guatemala.
  2. ^ "state department". State.gov. September 15, 2006. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  3. ^ From Guatemala: the focolare, a school of inculturation. Focolare. July 28, 2011. Retrieved on 2012-01-02.
  4. ^ Duffey, Michael K Guatemalan Catholics and Mayas: The Future of Dialogue
  5. ^ "Los evangélicos son mayoría en Guatemala, según datos católicos". Diario Evangélico Digital Berea. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  6. ^ Clifton, Holland. "ESTIMATED PROTESTANT POPULATION IN CENTRAL AMERICA BY COUNTRIES: 1935-2012". PROLADES. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
  7. ^ Garrard-Burnett, Virginia (1998). Protestantism in Guatemala: Living in the New Jerusalem. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. p. 8. ISBN 0-292-72817-4.
  8. ^ Garrard-Burnett. Protestantism in Guatemala. p. 14.
  9. ^ Garrard-Burnett. Protestantism in Guatemala. pp. 138–161.
  10. ^ Garrard-Burnett, Virginia (2011). Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala under General Efrain Rios Montt 1982-1983. New York: Oxford University Press.
  11. ^ http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2013/03/mor-yacoub-edward-consecrated-archbishop-of-guatemala-to-foster-800000-roman-catholic-converts-to-syriac-orthodox-church
  12. ^ a b [1][dead link]
  13. ^ "Guatemala City Guatemala Temple Main". Lds.org. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  14. ^ "Temples – LDS Newsroom". Newsroom.lds.org. December 22, 2010. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  15. ^ "Quetzaltenango Guatemala Temple – Mormonism, The Mormon Church, Beliefs, & Religion". MormonWiki. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  16. ^ "Templo Quetzaltenango". Mormones.org.gt. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  17. ^ "Guatemala". State.gov. April 3, 2007. Retrieved June 1, 2010.
  18. ^ Country Profile: Guatemala (Republic of Guatemala). religiousintelligence.co.uk
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