>
> On Wed, 11 Jan 1995 DrJTO@aol.com wrote:
>
> > Can anyone give me the stats (snail-mail,e-mail,fax,etc.) on church
> > attendance in Mexico during the early part of this century. In particular, I
> > am looking for info. on the percentage of women, as opposed to men, attended
> > mass,church,temple,etc. on a regular basis.
> >
> > I thank you in advance.
> > Jeffrey Oxford
> > DrJTO@aol.com
> >
>
> Roderick Ai Camp has recently published an article in
> Latin American Research Review , Vol29#3:69-100
> (1994) that presents data on the relationship between
> religious behavior and ideology, and politics.
> He questions the widespread view that
> church attendance in Mexico is low. He states:
> "...Mexicans are religious, do attend church regularly, and
> place substantial confidence in the church..." (75).
>
> Hope this reference helps.
>
> Robert D. Shadow
> Departamento de Antropologia
> Universidad de las Americas-Puebla
> Sta. Catarina Martir
> 72820 Puebla, Mexico
> Tel (011-52-22)29-20-48
> FAX (011-52-22)29-26-35
> E-mail: rshadow@udlapvms.pue.udlap.mx
>
>
>
This may be true for the current period, but most scholars concur that
Church attendance (but not necessarily belief) was quite low prior to the
1970s. Considering the dramatic shortage of clergy in the region --
Mexico had approximately 1.9 clergy (religious and secular) for every
10,000 Catholics circa 1970, compared with 9.8 for the U.S. and 6.7 for
Poland -- it is not surprising that most people did not attend Mass,
there just weren't enough priests to go around! I have argued elsewhere
that monopoly religions undersupply religious services, a condition that
holds true for Protestant Europe as well. This is not to say that the
Mexican population is not religious -- quite the contrary, there is a
huge unmet demand for adequate religious services that is only now
recieving adequate attention (consider the phenomenal growth of
Pentecostalism in So. Mexico). Also, the ever-present phenomenon of "folk
Catholicism" demonstrates that a demand always existed, but was never
supplied by the institutional Church.
Tony Gill
University of Washington
tgill@u.washington.edu