News

By Gudrun Schultz

  WASHINGTON, D.C., April 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Latino communities are having a significant influence on the practice of religion in the United States, according to a new study released April 25 by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life and the Pew Hispanic Center.

  Entitled Changing Faiths: Latinos and the Transformation of American Religion, the study examined the distinctive religious emphasis of the Hispanic faith communities and the resulting political views that have a growing influence on U.S. politics.

“The major findings in this study leave little doubt that a detailed understanding of religious faith among Latinos is essential to fully appreciating the evolving nature of religion in the Unites States and of the role Latinos will likely play in the country’s politics and public life,” said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum, in a press release yesterday. 

  Latinos see religion as the foundation for political views. Two-thirds of Hispanics questioned said their faith had a significant impact on their political leanings. Over half said churches should address current social and political issues, and a two-to-one margin said there has been too little expression of religious faith by political leaders, compared to those who said there had been two much.

  About one-third of all Catholics in the U.S. are now Latinos, according to the Pew Forum, and the study projected that the number of Latino Catholics in the country will continue to expand significantly over the next few decades. The growth in Hispanic communities has produced a corresponding growth in churches with a Latino emphasis across the country.

  The study examined the results of more than 4,600 interviews in the form of bilingual public opinion surveys, one of the largest examples of information collection ever conducted on the subject. 

  See full study here:
  https://pewforum.org/surveys/hispanic/hispanics-religion-07.pdf

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