Latin America's religious shift reshapes regional politics

Colombia’s new president won with two evangelical parties’ backing

A commentary published Aug. 14 by United Press International argues that Catholicism’s centuries-long dominance in Latin America is ending, replaced by a more plural religious landscape of expanding evangelical churches and growing numbers of people who belong to no religion.

The author, Nibia Pizzo, a Uruguayan psychologist and academic director of Legacy of the Americas, a project of the Global Peace Foundation, writes that the shift is changing more than how people worship: it is “gradually reshaping the region’s social and political landscape.” UPI noted the views are solely those of the author.

Pizzo traces Catholicism’s deep roots in the region, noting that priests accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage in 1493 and that religious orders including the Franciscans, Dominicans and Augustinians carried out much of the continent’s evangelization. Some church figures, most famously Bartolomé de las Casas, defended Indigenous people against abuses committed by colonists, she writes. Over the centuries, the church survived the wars of independence, the secularizing movements of the 19th century and repeated conflicts with governments seeking to curb its influence.

The 20th century brought a new transformation, according to the commentary. The Second Vatican Council and the rise of liberation theology in the 1960s and 1970s drew parts of the Catholic Church into questions of poverty and social justice, and some priests and lay Catholics developed close ties to the political left, though the church itself never spoke with a single political voice. At roughly the same time, Pentecostal and evangelical churches began expanding from what had once been a marginal presence, with growth especially striking in working-class and rural communities where pastors often came from the congregations they served and worship emphasized personal conversion.

Recent Pew Research Center surveys cited in the commentary show Catholic identification declining substantially in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. Those leaving Catholicism have not all moved in one direction: some became Protestants or evangelicals, while many others now identify with no religion at all. In Chile, roughly one-third of adults surveyed in 2024 were religiously unaffiliated.

“Latin America, in other words, is not simply becoming less Catholic and more evangelical — it is becoming more religiously plural,” Pizzo writes.

The commentary argues that evangelical churches’ political significance stems from their organization, with congregations building networks of pastors and believers that reach deeply into neighborhoods and communities. In Brazil, it notes, that organization is the Bancada Evangélica, or Evangelical Parliamentary Front, which numbers roughly 244 federal deputies and senators and has become one of the country’s most influential congressional blocs, playing a prominent role in debates over abortion, sexuality, education and religious liberty.

Pizzo cautions that the influence should not be overstated, writing that evangelicals no more constitute a single political movement than Catholics do, with views differing by denomination, country and social background while collective mobilization often focuses on a limited number of issues. Still, she argues, the shift is unfolding against a broader political realignment in which conservative leaders have gained ground across the region, with concerns about crime, economic frustration and dissatisfaction with established parties playing major roles alongside religion.

Colombia offers the most recent example, Pizzo writes. Ahead of the June runoff, the country’s two evangelical political parties, Colombia Justa Libres and MIRA, both endorsed Abelardo de la Espriella, who went on to win the presidency by roughly 250,000 votes. He courted congregations directly, preaching from the pulpit at megachurches in Bogotá and Cartagena, where one pastor introduced him as the leader Colombia needed in near-biblical terms. When he was sworn in on Aug. 7, an evangelical pastor led the assembly in prayer alongside a Catholic priest and a rabbi.

The commentary concludes that the old religious monopoly is ending. The Catholic Church is not disappearing, it notes, remaining an enormous spiritual and social force, and Pope Leo XIV’s pontificate may help shape how it responds to the changes. Secularization is advancing alongside evangelical growth, particularly among younger and urban populations, and the commentary argues that Catholic, evangelical and secular currents now compete to shape how the region understands family, community and public life. “The political consequences of that competition are only beginning to unfold,” Pizzo writes.