Chilean census reveals sharp decline in Catholicism: what is the current percentage of Catholics? – ZENIT

(ZENIT News / Santiago de Chile, 07.10.2025).- In the wake of Chile’s 2024 national census, a stark new reality confronts the country’s Catholic leadership: less than 55% of Chileans over the age of 15 now identify as Catholic. This marks a dramatic drop of 16 percentage points over two decades in a country where Catholicism once stood as an unquestioned pillar of national identity.

The latest figures, released by the National Institute of Statistics, show a simultaneous surge in those claiming no religious affiliation—now more than one in four Chilean adults. The trend places Chile squarely within a broader pattern seen across much of Latin America, where religious pluralism and secularism are reshaping once monolithically Catholic societies.

But rather than retreat into defensiveness or denial, Archbishop René Rebolledo Salinas, president of the Chilean Bishops’ Conference and metropolitan of La Serena, is urging a different response: reflection, repentance, and renewal.

Writing in a widely read op-ed for «La Tercera», Rebolledo acknowledged the institutional unease sparked by the census results. “These numbers challenge us,” he said, “and they must be discussed at every level.” Without dismissing the data as a passing anomaly, the archbishop called for a sober process of discernment marked by “self-criticism and spiritual attentiveness.”

Rebolledo noted that the era in which cultural tradition alone could sustain religious belonging has ended. “Faith today,” he reflected, “is not inherited—it is embraced. It must be proposed, not imposed.” The Church’s future, he argued, depends not on rebuilding old structures of influence but on rediscovering the foundations of Christian life: the centrality of Christ, the joy of the Gospel, and meaningful proximity to people’s everyday struggles.

This emphasis on authenticity and personal conviction carries special weight in a context where many, particularly the young, have drifted away from organized religion not out of hostility but out of indifference. For Rebolledo, such drift is not inevitable—it is a call to reimagine the Church’s presence in society: “We need communities that are simpler, more prayerful, creative, credible, and in solidarity with the suffering.”

The archbishop did not shy away from acknowledging one of the most painful factors driving the exodus: the Church’s failures in the face of sexual abuse. “There are many reasons for the disaffection,” he admitted, “but our responsibility in the crisis of abuse is among them—and it is not a minor one. These are crimes that have caused a profound wound.”

He recalled Pope Francis’ intervention in the Chilean Church’s crisis, when the pontiff summoned bishops to Rome in 2018 and demanded a complete reckoning. Since then, Rebolledo affirmed, thousands of pastoral workers have been trained in prevention, victims have been accompanied in processes of healing, and the Church has begun to reform its internal culture. “It will never be enough,” he said, “but we are walking that path.”

For all the gravity of the moment, the message from Chile’s top bishop was not one of despair. If anything, it was an invitation to recommit to the very heart of the Christian mission.

“This is a time to be renewed in what is essential,” he concluded. “To go out and meet those who have distanced themselves—not with judgment, but with humility, compassion, and credible witness.”

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