Rachel M McCleary the American Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, conducts research on the political economy of religion, focusing on how religion interacts with economic performance and the political and social behavior of individuals and institutions across societies. McCleary along with her husband Robert Barro have published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Popes, Saints, and Religious Competition’ in which they state “The election of the first non-European pope is long overdue. After all, Pope Francis’s native region, Latin America, is currently home to nearly half (44%) of the world’s Catholics. But the Catholic Church is increasingly losing out to Protestant competition there and elsewhere. …The Catholic Church understands this competition, but it confronts a chronic shortage of priests. As a result, the creation of saints is becoming an important way of retaining the faithful. Indeed, the choice of a Latin American pope echoes a prior shift in the geographical distribution of new saints. …The rationale for this shift is to use national saints to inspire Catholics – and thereby counter the competition from Protestants, especially Evangelicals. This phenomenon is most clear in Latin America, but it applies to North America, Asia, and Africa as well. …The idea of using saints to compete with evangelicals in Latin America goes back a long way – the friars accompanying conquering Spanish troops introduced patron saints in every nucleated community. Coupled with persistent shortages of priests, the worship of saints in Latin America became more embedded in the region’s culture than in that of Europe. …The combination of the highest share of Catholics in the world with a decline in the share of religious adherents leaves Francis facing a strategic dilemma. Either he can focus on regaining Latin America for the Catholic Church, or he can place longer-term bets on Sub-Saharan Africa, where both the population and Catholicism are now growing faster than anywhere else in the world. Where will the next saints come from?”  Inspired by Rachel McCleary & Robert Barro, Project Syndicate ow.ly/k2RKa Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/k2RF9 Where will the next saints come from? (May 1 2013)

 

Rachel M McCleary the American Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, conducts research on the political economy of religion, focusing on how religion interacts with economic performance and the political and social behavior of individuals and institutions across societies. McCleary along with her husband Robert Barro have published an article on Project Syndicate titled ‘Popes, Saints, and Religious Competition’ in which they state “The election of the first non-European pope is long overdue. After all, Pope Francis’s native region, Latin America, is currently home to nearly half (44%) of the world’s Catholics. But the Catholic Church is increasingly losing out to Protestant competition there and elsewhere. …The Catholic Church understands this competition, but it confronts a chronic shortage of priests. As a result, the creation of saints is becoming an important way of retaining the faithful. Indeed, the choice of a Latin American pope echoes a prior shift in the geographical distribution of new saints. …The rationale for this shift is to use national saints to inspire Catholics – and thereby counter the competition from Protestants, especially Evangelicals. This phenomenon is most clear in Latin America, but it applies to North America, Asia, and Africa as well. …The idea of using saints to compete with evangelicals in Latin America goes back a long way – the friars accompanying conquering Spanish troops introduced patron saints in every nucleated community. Coupled with persistent shortages of priests, the worship of saints in Latin America became more embedded in the region’s culture than in that of Europe. …The combination of the highest share of Catholics in the world with a decline in the share of religious adherents leaves Francis facing a strategic dilemma. Either he can focus on regaining Latin America for the Catholic Church, or he can place longer-term bets on Sub-Saharan Africa, where both the population and Catholicism are now growing faster than anywhere else in the world. Where will the next saints come from?”

 

Inspired by Rachel McCleary & Robert Barro, Project Syndicate ow.ly/k2RKa Image source LinkedIn ow.ly/k2RF9