

Pope Francis holds an Argentine flag outside the Metropolitan Cathedral in Rio de Janeiro on July 25, 2013. Pope Francis is on the fourth day of his week-long visit for World Youth Day. (Stefano Rellandini/Reuters)

If any region of the world is the heart of modern Catholicism, it's Latin America. Some 425 million Catholics live there, more than 40 percent of the world's total Catholic population. Plus, for the first time in history, there is a Latin American pope — and he's quite popular, if you hadn't heard.

Despite this, a new report on religion in Latin America from Pew Research Center has come to an unmistakable conclusion: Latin America, the world's most Catholic region, has become dramatically less Catholic over the past few decades.

Pew has collected data from 18 countries and one U.S. territory (Puerto Rico) across Latin America and the Caribbean. For much of the 20th century, more than nine in ten people across the region identified as Catholic. However, over the past few decades, that number has dropped significantly, to fewer than one in seven.



(Pew Research Center)

Things get even more stark when you break it down to the national levels. In less than 45 years, the report notes, some countries have seen their Catholic population fall by more than 40 percent.



(Pew Research Center)

What lies behind Latin America losing its religion? Well, as the report lays out, it often isn't really a loss. A significant number of people raised Catholic have converted to Protestant churches, usually evangelical Pentecostal churches. In many countries, the report found, more than 50 percent of Protestants had been raised Catholic.

Their reasons for leaving one Christian church and joining another are complicated: Across the region, the report found, more than 80 percent of former Catholics who had joined the Protestant church did so because they were seeking a "personal connection with God," while 69 percent said they enjoyed the new style of worship at their new church. Fifty-eight percent said they had converted after the church reached out to them, the report noted.

Pew's report also points to a smaller, yet still considerable, number of people who don't profess a religion — the "unaffiliated." These people tend to be younger than Catholics and Protestants and don't necessarily see themselves as agnostic or atheist: Most just have "no particular religion," the report notes.

But what of Pope Francis, the Argentine pope who has charmed the world with his cafeteria-eating, bill-paying, grand apartment-shunning, gay-embracing, evolution-accepting ways? Pew notes that its own data may not show the "Francis Effect," as he only took the papal position in March 2013. However, the report then adds:

[Former] Catholics are more skeptical about Pope Francis. Only in Argentina and Uruguay do majorities of ex-Catholics express a favorable view of the pope. In every other country in the survey, no more than roughly half of ex-Catholics view Francis favorably, and relatively few see his papacy as a major change for the Catholic Church. Many say it is too soon to have an opinion about the pope.

A look across the data also shows that Latin America's Protestants are usually more conservative on subjects such as homosexuality, abortion and divorce, while Catholics across the region are more accepting of the concept of evolution. Those ideological divides may not be a good sign for the "Francis Effect."

Pew's report makes for interesting reading for anyone wondering about the future of the Catholic Church. The selection of Jorge Mario Bergoglio (Pope Francis) to become the first leader of the church from the new world seemed likely to be a belated acknowledgement of demographics: The Catholic's Churches center of gravity was no longer Europe. But Pew's findings suggest that it might not hold sway over Latin America for much longer, either.