The Republic of Portugal is a secular country in which the church is officially separated from the state. The country's constitution (art. 41) declares inviolable freedom of conscience, religion and worship, and guarantees freedom of preaching. The constitution also prohibits religious discrimination.
Most Portuguese citizens profess Christianity (according to various estimates, from 90% to 95% of the population in 2010) [1] [2] .
Content
- 1 Christianity
- 2 Islam
- 3 Judaism
- 4 others
- 5 notes
- 6 See also
Christianity
Christianity penetrated the territory of modern Portugal in the II century. Portugal at that time was a part of the Roman Empire , most of its territory was part of the province of Lusitania . During the years of the Suev kingdom , Arianism spread throughout Portugal. In 711, Arabs invaded the Iberian Peninsula. During the Reconquista in Portugal, the Catholic Church was finally established. In 1276-77 years. the pope was John XXI , who to this day remains the only pope of Portuguese descent.
Currently, up to 90% of the country's population are Catholics [3] . Most of them adhere to the Latin rite . The country also has the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and a number of very small groups of non-Roman Catholics.
The first Protestant community in Portugal arose in the 17th century among British subjects. The preaching of Protestantism among the Portuguese was not begun until the 19th century. In the first half of the 20th century, Pentecostals began to serve in the country, which soon became the largest Protestant denomination. Since the second half of the 20th century, non-Pentecostalism has spread in the country. According to 2010 data, 373 thousand Protestants lived in Portugal [3] . Most of them (289 thousand [3] ) are Pentecostals . Adventists , Baptists , Plymouth brothers , Anglicans and a number of other faiths also operate in the country.
Over the past 25 years, in connection with mass labor migration from Eastern Europe to Portugal, the number of Orthodox (60-80 thousand) has noticeably increased [4] [3] . Most of them belong to the Constantinople , Russian or Romanian Orthodox churches. In Portugal, there are also supporters of non-canonical Orthodoxy. First of all, it is the Catholic Orthodox Church of Portugal .
Another 135 thousand Portuguese are followers of various pseudo-Christian religious organizations [1] ; these are primarily Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons .
Islam
Islam began to spread in Portugal in 711, after the invasion of the Moors Iberian Peninsula. The heyday of Islam came in the years of the Cordoba Caliphate , however, during the Reconquista, Muslims were driven out of the peninsula.
At present, according to various estimates, 26 to 65 thousand Muslims live in the country [1] [5] . Most of them come from Portuguese Africa. The number of Muslims is increasing due to the influx of workers from Morocco and refugees from North Africa.
The prevailing trend in Islam is Sunnism , mainly of the Malikite madhhab . In Portugal there are also followers of the Ahmadiye movement.
Judaism
Tombstones and other inscriptions indicate the presence of Jews in Portugal, possibly already in the 1st century AD. n e. Despite discrimination, the Jewish community existed in Portugal almost continuously for a millennium; By the end of the 13th century, there were about 40,000 Jews in Portugal. In the 11th – 13th centuries, the Jewish community of Portugal flourished; its representatives occupied key positions in the country's economy and played an important role at the royal court. After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain, some of them moved to Portugal, but soon persecution began in Portugal. Some Jews fled, some converted to Christianity ( Marranas ) and were later known as new Christians .
Jews who openly profess Judaism again began to settle in Portugal in the 18th century. Mostly it was the Sephardim from Gibraltar, having British citizenship. In 1850, a synagogue was opened in Lisbon, after the 1910 revolution, Jewish communities received official status. During the Second World War, 45,000 Jews who fled from the Nazi countries of Europe followed in transit through Portugal; some of them received permission to reside permanently in the country.
In the second half of the 20th century, mainly due to assimilation, the number of followers of Judaism was continuously declining. By 2010, there were 460 Jews in Portugal [1] , almost all of whom live in Lisbon. There are two synagogues in the country.
Others
A very prominent religious community in Portugal is Buddhists (60 thousand [1] or 0.6% of the country's population [6] ). Most of them are from Southeast Asia. Among the Chinese living in the country, there are supporters of the Chinese folk religion (22 thousand [1] ). Hinduism in Portugal (6.5 thousand [3] ) is represented mainly by Gujaratis from Mozambique who moved to the country after 1974. Most Hindus live in Lisbon and the county. The country also has movements of reformed Hinduism and neo-Hinduism .
Among immigrants from Brazil there are supporters of various spiritualist movements (4 thousand [1] ). Traditional religions (1.6 thousand [1] ) adhere mainly to immigrants from Angola and Mozambique. According to the World Christian Database in 2005, the Bahá'í community numbered 2 thousand people in the country [7] ; The first Bahá'í meeting was organized in Lisbon in 1946.
During the general census in 2011, 615 thousand inhabitants of Portugal (6.8% of the population) called themselves non-religious [8] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Tiago Santos, Pedro Soares, and Miguel Farias. Portugal // Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices / J. Gordon Melton , Martin Baumann. - Oxford, England: ABC CLIO, 2010 .-- S. 2278. - 3200 p. - ISBN 1-57607-223-1 .
- ↑ Christian Population as Percentages of Total Population by Country . The Pew Research Center's Religion and Public Life Project (12-19-2011). Date of treatment December 25, 2014. Archived January 7, 2012.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 Jason Mandryk. Portugal // Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation. - InterVarsity Press, 2010 .-- P. 692-694. - 978 p. - (Operation World Set). - ISBN 0-8308-5724-9 .
- ↑ Global Christianity . The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life (December 19, 2011). Date of treatment May 13, 2013. Archived May 22, 2013.
- ↑ The Future of the Global Muslim Population (inaccessible link) . Pew Research Center (January 2011). Date of treatment March 7, 2014. Archived February 11, 2014.
- ↑ The Global Religious Landscape . A Report on the Size and Distribution of the World's Major Religious Groups as of 2010 (pdf) (link not available) . Pew Research Center (December 2012) . Date of treatment July 2, 2015. Archived September 24, 2015.
- ↑ Most Baha'i Nations (2005 ) . The Association of Religion Data Archives. Date of treatment March 7, 2014.
- ↑ Instituto Nacional de Estatistica Statistics Portugal. POPULACAO RESIDENTE COM 15 OU MAIS ANOS, SEGUNDO A RESPOSTA A PERGUNTA SOBRE RELIGIAO // Censos 2011 Resultados Definitivos - Portugal / Alda de Caetano Carvalho. - Lisbon: Instituto Nacional de Estatistica, IP, 2013 .-- P. 530. - 560 p. - ISBN 978-989-25-0181-9 .
See also
- Christianity in Portugal
- Protestantism in Portugal
- Catholicism in Portugal
- Orthodoxy in Portugal
- Islam in Portugal