Irreligion in Uruguay

During the Spanish Colonial Period, the Church had less imposition on Uruguay than on other Hispanic territories because of the relatively small number of indigenous peoples. This allowed Catholicism to be easily introduced to Spaniards and Mestizos. However, until the first half of the nineteenth century, the Church regulated the State, several institutions, and lands such as other countries in Latin America.[7] According to some historians, the Uruguayan dioceses were the least powerful in the continent. For this reason, the priests (both Spanish and future Italian migrants) were less capable of teaching religion and preferred to evangelize the rural poor. After the formation of the Republic after the Great War, Uruguay started to receive Spanish, Italian, and French immigrants. French immigrants in Uruguay were traditionally anti-clerical and Compte followers. Many Spanish and Italians came as Catholics but due to little Church influence, took independence from religion.

In later years previous the definitely independence both Spain and Brazilian Empire, many Uruguayans with higher education were influenced by skeptical European writers and Ancient Greek Philosophy. After their independence, more cultured Uruguayans started to argue secular and humanistic political views against the Catholic Church and the tiny but growing number of Afro-Brazilian beliefs practitioners. The earliest positive results occurred in 1859 by the renovation apostolic vicar and in 1861 when control of cemeteries passed to State authority, abolishing mandatory religious funeral ceremonies.[8] In the mid-1860s, the Colorado Party was consolidated in the Uruguayan Government, bringing secular reformations that included consolidation of civil marriage and secularization of buildings, along with an increase of technology and urban areas. Thousands with a poor understanding of Catholicism were becoming irreligious due to a lack of religious knowledge rather than a real conscience of disbelief. In 1877, Jose Pedro Varela promoted secular education in Uruguay. Although many Catholic leaders showed contra-political resistance, several intellectual citizens supported this idea with the creation of secular schools with scientific education. A decade later, archbishop Mariano Soler established the liberty of Catholic impartation and the protection for public Catholic Schools.[9]

In the 1890s, the secular outbreak subsided until the early 1900s, when Jose Batlle y Ordoñez argued aggressive secular politics such as the right of women to decide to divorce, the prohibition of religious symbols in children's hospitals, and the changing of departmental denominations. The Batllismo movement was consolidated with the total separation of Church and State in 1917, with a secular Constitution and economics reforms inspired by Marxist beliefs. After the Battlist period (1903–1931), the Church focused its efforts on educating Catholics and on being a Christian spiritual refuge for all citizens. At the same time, the rules and influence of the Colorado Party were losing impact with a relative end in 1956.[10]

Facts:

1. By 1900, about ten percent of all nonreligious people in the world were living in Uruguay.[13] Today, that percentage is now 0.1% due to the boom of the world's growth in population accompanied by the growth of nonreligious peoples since the Communist State and post-modernism influence.
2. In the table of timeline evolution into nones, Christians, and others, the sources demonstrate stable trends in more than a century. However, the National Census (INE) demonstrates that the irreligious population is usually approximately two-fifths of the population. In Pew Forum statistics round a third with a decrease between 1910 and 1970 and growth in 2014. Until 1963 were separated atheists/agnostics to deists, in 1908 approximately 37% of the population reported themselves as non-believers the atheist/agnostic group growth from 6 to 14% between 1963 and 1994. According to Latinobarometro, irreligious Uruguayans grew rapidly from 18% in 1995 to 38% in 2013.
3. Statistically, Catholics still a relative majority even during the Batllist Government, although the ´Catholic Ghetto´ was known since 1920's the Catholic Uruguayans who still fought to evangelize the nation along with rural poor Catholics, differentiated for the secular and urban society inhabited by a convivience of nonreligious peoples and open-minded Catholics.

According to Pew Forum projections, the nonreligious population will be around 40% of the total population, at 42.1%, by 2050. The irreligious natality rate is insignificantly higher than Christians with both Christian and nonreligious women giving birth to 2 kids as of 2010.[14] Other sources and experts think that religion and spirituality are further developing in Uruguayan society. The idea of religion with ecclesiastical institutions is gradually being replaced by the seeking of spiritual identity or alternative explaining why ´Irreligious´ figures are apparently growing along with the increase of spiritual centers and churches.

Jason Mandrik explains that secularism in Uruguay was an internal crisis after the loss of anticlerical politics impact, economic crisis, and dictatorial governments that predominated in Uruguay during the second half of the Twentieth Century. Those phenomena caused an increase in drug addiction, suicide, and crime, especially in low urban sectors. Previously, there was an interest in learning about other philosophies and beliefs as part of a culturized population. In his investigation, only ethno-religious practitioners are growing far from the national growth (0.3%), contrary to nonreligious that even demographically has negatives growths representing 27% of population as of 2010, by 2025 was projected under a quarter part.

Gerardo Caetano said in the late 1990s that the strength of Uruguayan ´laïcité´ is losing force in the country, slowly in the densely populated cities, but in marginal areas with more nature contact, syncretism is today stronger than ever. Several non-practicing Catholics are looking alternative churches specially into Evangelicals, Jehovah Witness and Scientology. Other historians argue about the new age boom that includes centers of energy renovation and alternative medicine. Parallel of rest Latin American countries when public life is just changing to be more secular (depending the grade between countries), the situation of Uruguay is an increase of importance about religious views in society that could drop fundamentalist secularism.