Brazilian Bishops Divided Regarding the Rise of Pentecostalism in their Country

The members of the Brazilian bishops’ conference met in early March 2017 to discuss the phenomenon of Catholics leaving for expanding Pentecostal sects. According to a cath.ch article from March 20, 2017, it seems that the temptation is strong for some Brazilian bishops to take a page of the Pentecostal book themselves. Bishop Enemésio Lazzaris of Balsas in the State of Maranhão in northeastern Brazil, said after the meeting that there should be more “autonomy” of the faithful with regard to the bishop, emphasizing that “one of the successes of the Evangelical churches is that each one feels that he is Church, with a greater autonomy.” He regretted the “difficulty” for the bishops to “delegate their authority.”

Bishop Francisco Biasin, the president of the conference’s commission for ecumenism and interreligious dialogue, also wished publicly that dioceses would learn from the charismatic movements that offer “the faithful who desire it a more participative and emotional liturgy, emphasizing the gifts of the Holy Ghost, exorcism, reading of Scripture, and music.”

This was, however, not the opinion of Bishop Leonardo Steiner, Secretary General of the Bishops’ conference, who said that the Church must above all focus on its mode of evangelization. According to cath.ch, he particularly regretted that

some faithful like, for example, to express their faith in a more emotional way and distance themselves from social outreach. But the Church cannot go along with this preference, for it would run counter to its fundamental mission, to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ, whole and entire.

The bishop of Sao Paulo, Bishop Odilo Scherer, said that “more missionaries” were needed to “find the faithful in their homes, in schools, in institutions, in short, to be an outward-looking Church.”

According to the Datafolha survey institute, the percentage of Brazilians who consider themselves Catholic was of 60% in 2014. Two years later, in late December 2016, the number dropped to 50%. In the same period, the Pentecostals went from 18% of the population to 22%.