The modernist ape-of-the-church continues to decline in Latin America. OSV had a headline that read Catholicism down in Latin America, but belief in God remains high. Chris Jackson stated that this headline reads as an “obituary.”
Why an obituary? Because, as Jackson stated, “this is the true fruit of the post Vatican II missionary strategy. A region formed by Catholic identity is being de Catholicized. The ‘nones’ rise. Protestantism holds steady or grows modestly in places. Belief in God persists. So the hunger remains, the institutional Church shrinks, and the spiritual vacuum gets filled by whatever is loudest and simplest.”
In other words, even if satan can’t convince Latinos to stop believing in God, they will still feel the need to avoid liberation-theology and syncretistic worship services. And I don’t blame them.
Even Sr. Briege McKenna, a charismatic nun, admitted Latinos flocked to Protestant communities from Catholic parishes in the 1980s. She said this was not due to American evangelicals funding them. Rather, Sr. Briege (a non-traditionalist Irish religious sister) admitted the bigger reason was because we priests stopped preaching the Gospel.
Sr. Briege then told the heartbreaking story of a priest in Central America who built soup-kitchens, food pantries and clothing banks in the 1980s. Yet, all his people flocked to the local evangelical tent-revival after only a few months presence in his small town. Heartbroken, the Catholic priest asked one of his best former-parishioners why she left. Sadly, she told him, “Father, you gave us everything we wanted—food, clothing, shelter. But that pastor gave us Jesus. And we need Jesus.”
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