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Religion in Chaves, Portugal |
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Geography
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A rural chapel (photo by J.B. Cesar) An introduction | Rural Religion | Festivals and Pilgrimage Sites | Superstitions | The Book of Saint Cyprian
To
be Portuguese is to be Catholic, but not necessarily religious.
Officially, well over 90% of transmontanos
(No statistics are available on the district of Vila Real) say they are
Catholic. Together with the
Minho, this is one of the highest percentages in the country.
In a recent study 89% of the Portuguese population defined
themselves as Catholic. Eighty
percent said they believe in miracles and 65% believed in Hell.
Forty three percent defined themselves as ritualistic,
puritanical, and traditional, while 46% defined themselves as nominal
Christians, individualistic, and tolerant. The
study found that the group of religious practitioners was mainly made up
of the poor, the old and the female part of the population.
These people were residents in the rural or semi-urban areas of
the Center and the North. The
high percentage of believers in Catholicism coincides with a fatalistic
vision. They are people who
see no possibilities of change in their condition, and manifest greater
conservatism with regards to questions like sexuality or the role of the
woman. The profile of this
group is that of people with a family income between 30,000 and 60,000
Escudos or 150$ and 300$ a month. There
is a disenchantment of those who are in a situation of “social
disadvantage” and who feel themselves “impotent to change the routes
of destiny.” The
other group, those who we might call more educated liberals, have more
expectations for their future, show more skepticism about miracles and
popular beliefs such as the cult of Fatima
and openly take on the stance of a rupture with traditional Catholicism,
showing more tolerant and open positions regarding abortion, the
position of women, and sexuality. This
group is mainly young and educated. In
the district of Vila Real, without reliable statistics, (census
questions do not include religion) one can only surmise that a high
percentage of people are Catholic.
A common sight in the Chaves area
Atheists
or agnostics are rare indeed, and followers of other “sects” like
Jehovah’s Witnesses, Baptists, and Mormons are rarer still.
In a small city like Chaves there are two Catholic churches and
perhaps a half dozen minuscule “meeting rooms” for the Protestant or
Spiritualist followers. The
latter are so inconspicuous that few people in town even know that they
exist. If it weren’t for
the door-to-door proselytizing by Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons no
one would believe that an alternative Christian could exist. Although
in these urban centers like Chaves and Vila Real the vast majority of
people would respond “Catholic” if asked to give their religion, a
very low percentage of the total population actually attends church,
outside the odd baptism, first communion, confirmation, wedding, and
funeral. While the bulk of
the people present at any mass are the old, and especially the women,
there are many children who attend, taken by their parents or
grandparents. These
children go to catechism until the day they do their “chrisma”
or sacrament of confirmation. When
asked why they go—after they tell you that it is boring—they say
that if they don’t do confirmation they won’t be able to get married
in church. And getting
married in church, even if you don’t attend frequently or accept the
fine points of the dogma—or even care—is still a necessary part of
being a Transmontano—for
that matter a Portuguese. Not
getting married in the church would be rare and something that only a
rebellious spirit would do. Rebellious
spirits don’t usually stay in the hinterland of Portugal but gravitate
to the large centers of the coast or go abroad.
If in the towns they wouldn’t have access to the dominant
society, in the villages they just wouldn’t exist.
If someone in a village had the intellectual curiosity to read
about religion or question church practices, he would only get such a
thing by living in an urban center.
The homogeneity of opinion in a village where people are either
cattle and sheepherders, or farmers, and are illiterate or at the most
semi-illiterate would be stifling to a free spirit. By
not getting married in the church, there would be no baptism of future
children. The parents must
have proof of a church wedding before they can participate in the
ceremony. Later these
children would have to show proof of baptism before they could get
married in church, and so on. In
the final moments of life there would be no priest to give comfort and
no place in the local parish cemetery—if connected to the church.
The result would be that the rebel would be ostracized from many
of the most important social events of society.
In a small town this would be a courageous step to take.
In a village, where every action is followed by the curious eyes
of an idle widow, it would be impossible even to conceive of such
rebelliousness. Having
said this, unlike in the United States where there are radio talk shows
based on religious themes, and television channels dedicated to religion,
religion here is not something that people wear on their sleeve.
Most people think, “I’m Portuguese, so I’m Catholic, but
let’s change the subject and talk about football.”
There are almost no public manifestations of religion in the
larger towns—in 9 years of life in Chaves this writer has yet to see a
procession. Even on Easter,
unlike in Spain where entire towns participate in lugubrious but
fascinating processions through the streets, dressed in capes and faces
covered in hoods, holding aloft a statue of Christ, all to the eerie
sound of drums and trumpets, in Chaves absolutely nothing occurs outside
the walls of the church. People
in the towns, although nominally Catholic as we have seen, do not attend
church avidly. According to
one study, in the north of Portugal as a whole 40% are regular
churchgoers as opposed to 10% in the south.
The church has seen its numbers of actual participating members
dwindle through the years. The
reasons for this are hard to quantify.
Perhaps there has been a decline in religiosity—but the masses
of people at the Santuario
de Fatima say the contrary. Young
people tend to say the same thing:
“It’s a “seca”,
meaning it’s a “drag.” The
old fashioned ceremony in the dark, musty buildings doesn’t offer much
to the teenagers who have been brought up on Dragon Ball Z and MTV. As
a foreigner who is not a believer, it is easy to live in such a society.
There is a “live, let live” atmosphere, which goes hand in
hand with the Portuguese reputation for tolerance and diplomacy.
In a recent study done in the EU Portugal had the lowest
percentage of people expressing discomfort around followers of other
religions. Perhaps this is
because Catholicism is the dominant belief system and doesn’t need to
remind people that it is there. But
people tend to shy away from discussions about religion.
It is a taboo subject in conversation because it could cause
animosity and displeasure, and the Portuguese don’t like to be part of
a conversation in which someone might be offended.
American style confrontation and frankness is not part of this
society. This is not an
“in your face” culture. The
concept of putting a bumper sticker on your car, letting everybody know
that you love Jesus or that you support or oppose a woman’s right to
have an abortion is completely alien. A
good example of Portuguese tolerance for other beliefs is the fact that
the Jehovah’s Witnesses—who are always Portuguese—are not treated
violently when they knock at people’s doors.
The door might not be opened when their identity is made clear,
but rarely are they treated rudely.
They do confine their visits to the larger towns though.
One is curious as to how they would be treated if they ventured
into the small villages. Probably
not badly though, since most of the villagers are now too old to care
about defending any religious idea with much passion. The
Mormons are also not mistreated. In
the major towns of Chaves and Vila Real the church maintains two
missionaries each. Followers,
it was once candidly admitted, are few and far between.
In Chaves, after ten years of work, there were fewer than 10
members. It must be strange
to talk to young American boys, just out of high school, whose sole goal
in life is to convert someone—such an alien concept to a Portuguese—and
would have him follow a doctrine that is so totally foreign to his
culture that it is almost incomprehensible.
Not surprisingly few people have converted. Another
group which has had better success than the Mormons is the Spiritualist
Church, a doctrine based on reincarnation and inspired by the ideas of
the French spiritualist of the last century, Alan Kardec.
This new “sect” was brought to Portugal by emigrants
returning from Brazil or by Brazilian immigrants to Portugal.
With no attempt to change the basic cultural patterns of the
people, it has enjoyed some success and attracts large numbers of
observers to its sessions. This
group does not proselytize. The last group outside the mainstream of Catholic society is the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, or IURD to use its Portuguese acronym. It too was brought by Brazilians-- not by immigrants but, like the Mormons, by missionaries. There is a highly organized structure that uses television and radio to get out its message; one of Christian fundamentalism that relies on healing, emotional experiences, and vast amounts of money contributed by the followers. In Chaves and in Vila Real large spaces were rented, giving the impression of a steamroller of support. Although in the beginning there was a relative success, in recent years numbers have dwindled, especially in the hinterland of Portugal. It is stigmatized as a cult of poor, ignorant people who are brainwashed by fast-talking ministers, who,
to make matters worse, are foreigners, Brazilians.
With this group and their aggressive tactics, Portuguese
tolerance was put to the test, and some violence did take place in large
cities on the coast. In
Tras-os Montes the outcome was only a drying up of numbers.
For all intents and purposes, in this backward region at least,
IURD has been forgotten. Superstitions | The Book of Saint Cyprian | Festivals and Pilgrimage Sites
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