The religious situation of the Southern Cone of Latin America. From catholic hegemony to religious diversity

VERONICA GIMENEZ BELIVEAU

Baku, Azerbaijan

Conferencia; Conference dedicated to the 40th anniversary of the Organization of the Islamic Conference: nter-civilizational dialogue: Insight from Azerbaijan; 2009

A diffuse religiosity has settled in America’s Southern Cone (the region includes the following countries: Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay). This kind of religiosity, little obedient to institutional directives, almost auto-constructed, is also inserted in a context of widely spread cultural Catholicism where different social actors re–utilize catholic symbols. Catholicism has marked, since European Americas’ conquest during XVI century, habitants’ religiosity, but this Catholicism is a wide social fact, not confined into the religious field. Understanding Catholicism involves the analysis of its implications with political, social and cultural spheres.