A deeply Catholic country...
Colombia is one of the most Catholic countries in the world. There is no official census on the religion of Colombians, and figures vary widely, but most studies indicate that between 75% and 80% of Colombians are Catholic. Churches and prayerhalls (salas de oración) can be found just about everywhere (airports, shopping malls, etc.), while rosaries and other devotional objects are everywhere, in cars, homes and on stalls in tourist markets. The majority of Colombians are baptized, and many attend mass, at least on Sundays. The place given to God is omnipresent in daily life. Don't be surprised to see your bus driver making the sign of the cross at the start of the journey and every time he passes a church, or to hear expressions such as Gracias a Dios (Thanks be to God), Si Dios quiere (If God wills), Qué Dios me perdone (May God forgive me), Qué la Virgen te acompañe (May the Virgin accompany you), Qué Dios te bendiga y la Virgen te cuide (May God bless you and the Virgin protect you), and so on. Traditional religious feasts, such as Easter and Holy Week, are always the focus of attention, and most of these days are public holidays. In some towns, such as Popayan, Mompox, Tunja, Pasto and Pamplona, Holy Week is celebrated in long processions. Earlier in the year, on Ash Wednesday(miércoles de Ceniza), which marks the start of Lent forty days before Easter, many Colombians have a cross drawn in ashes on their foreheads before going to work. Of course, we also celebrate the Ascension of Christ and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Corpus Christi, 60 days after Resurrection Sunday, and the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul (San Pedro y San Pablo), between June and July. Our Lady of Chiquinquirá is the patron saint of Colombia, and every city has its own patron saint, such as the Virgen de la Candelaria (Our Lady of Candelaria) in Cartagena and Medellín, San Francisco (St. Francis of Assisi) in Quibdo, Santiago Apóstol (St. James) in Cali, and so on. December 8 is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Events begin the evening before. During this Día de la velitas ("day of the little candles"), which lasts late into the night, locals light candles outside their homes to celebrate the start of the Nativity festivities. From December 16 to 24 is the Novena de Aguinaldos (or novena to the Infant Jesus): during the nine days leading up to Christmas, friends and families gather in each other's homes every evening to read and sing carols. These celebrations, held only in Colombia (and in certain regions of Venezuela and Ecuador), can be quite boisterous, and people quickly get into the groove to the rhythms of cumbias, or the latest reggaeton hits (with "not very Catholic" lyrics!).
Which does not prevent a great religious diversity
Catholicism is predominant, but other religions have found their place in Colombia. There are Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, animists... Coexistence between religious groups is quite good, and tolerance is encouraged by the 1991 Constitution, which recognizes freedom of worship.
Protestants are becoming increasingly numerous. They account for around 13% of Colombians, although figures vary from 12% to 35% depending on the study. The first Protestants to arrive in Colombia were English soldiers who came to support Colombian rebels in their fight for independence in the early 19th century. Presbyterian pastors arrived a few years later. They were followed in the first half of the 20th century by Baptist, Mennonite and Evangelical missionaries. In the 1960s, more fundamentalist and proselytizing movements arrived from the USA: Pentecostals, Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons... Over the last few decades, neo-Pentecostal and evangelical churches have gained considerable ground, especially among the working classes and in certain regions, such as the Caribbean coast. One example is the Council of the Assemblies of God in Colombia, which is said to have 1,200 churches across the country and around 360,000 members. These new churches, with their enormous financial resources, seem to find it easier to respond to the urgent expectations of the population, particularly the poorest, who are no longer content with Si Dios quiere ("God willing") but are looking for concrete solutions to their existential problems. Multi-millionaire pastors know how to fire up the crowds gathered in their mega-churches. And there's no need to enter these ostentatious mega-churches : on public transport, for example, it's not uncommon to see preachers inviting fellow passengers to listen to the word of God and join their saving church...
Syncretism. Most indigenous and Afro-Colombians identify themselves as Catholics or Protestants. But in rural communities, the practice of Christianity is often combined with ancestral rites. At the time of colonization, Amerindian and African slaves were forced to adopt the Catholic religion. To convince them to save their souls, when brutality and threats were not enough, missionaries had to accept the presence of traditional rites in the practice of the Christian faith. For the slaves, this was a question of survival, a form of resistance. The integration of white religion into traditional ceremonies was facilitated by the fact that Jesus Christ and especially the Virgin Mary were presented as supernatural beings at the origin of the universe or of life. They were thus associated with other indigenous creative divinities, with the soul of Mother Earth, or with the spirits of animals or ancestors. This religious syncretism has survived the centuries, and ancestral practices still accompany the worship of monotheistic religions in some communities.
Judaism and Islam have a few thousand members (around 5,000 and 15,000 respectively), mainly in the north of the country, particularly in Barranquilla, where Near Eastern communities have been established since the end of the 19th century. In Maicao, Guajira, the Omar Ibn-al-Khattâb mosque is the second largest in Latin America.
There arealso a fair number of Hindus, mostly from the Hare Krishna movement, who often run vegetarian restaurants and yoga centers, and a few Buddhists in the larger towns. To conclude this panorama, it should be noted that more and more Colombians, especially young people, declare themselves to be believers, but do not identify with any particular religion. Agnostics and atheists account for almost 5% of the population.
The weight of religion in political life
Since independence in the early 19th century, the separation of Church and State has been a contentious issue among the ruling Creole elite. The bolivaristas (supporters of Simón Bolívar's ideas, who would later form the Colombian Conservative Party) wanted to preserve a Catholic state, delegating important powers to the Church, such as school education. The Santanderistas (supporters of the ideas of Francisco de Paula Santander, later to form the Liberal Party), on the other hand, advocated a secular state. These differences (among others) between conservatives and liberals gave rise to several civil wars, including the terrible period of La Violencia (1946-1958). In 1991, a new constitution was adopted. Much more progressive, it replaced the 1886 Constitution, which had instituted Catholicism as the state religion. Colombia officially became a secular state. In practice, however, religion still plays a major role in political life. The Catholic Church remains influential in the upper echelons of power. Traditionally conservative in Colombia, the Catholic Church regularly makes its voice heard in social debates, such as questions surrounding the role of the family, abortion or the rights of LGBTI people. But it has also promoted dialogue and mediated the release of hostages, as well as peace talks between the state and the guerrillas. Pope Francis' visit in September 2017, was interpreted as an endorsement of Juan Manuel Santos' policy, a year after the signing of peace agreements with FARC. For the occasion the government and the still-active ELN guerrillas had even signed a temporary 100-day ceasefire, the first in 53 years of armed struggle. More recently, part of the Church has denounced police violence in the major demonstrations of 2019 and 2021, while a much more conservative part has supported the crackdown on demonstrators branded as "terrorists". For their part, politicians like to use religious language and Christian morality to rally the population to their cause. This was the case, for example, during the Covid-19 crisis, when President Ivan Duque and Vice-President Martha Lucía Ramírez publicly implored the help of Our Lady of Fátima and Our Lady of Chiquinquirá. But the Catholic Church is not alone in influencing public life. Some Pentecostal and evangelical movements have even created ultra-conservative political parties, regularly courted by the hard right.
