There is currently no official religion in Portugal, although in the past it was the Catholic Church, which remains the predominant religion in the camp. According to the 2011 census, 81% of the population in the state are Catholics, but only about 19% attend Mass and regularly take the sacrament. The remaining 62% in church rites is present in three cases: at baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
Modern history
The official separation of the church from the state took place after 1910, during the First Portuguese Republic. However, in 1940, during the political regime of Estado Novo, a concordat was signed between Portugal and the Vatican, according to which the Roman Catholic Church was destined for a special position and privileges in the country, but it remained separated from the state. This agreement abolished many of the anti-clerical positions adopted during the First Republic. The Catholic Church regained its influence in many areas of citizens' life and significantly impaired the right to practice their religion in Portugal by representatives of other faiths.
Although the formal separation of the church from the state was once again confirmed by the democratic constitution in 1976, the concordat remained until 2004. The text of the agreement was certified after the Carnations Revolution in 1975, with some modifications, to allow civil divorce in Catholic marriages, while retaining all other points. Catholicism is a religion that the people of Portugal profess today on the broadest scale, especially the female population and the older generation.
Features of local Catholicism
Traditionally, most of the religious life of the Portuguese took place outside the scope of the formal structure of the Roman Catholic Church. This is most relevant for rural areas where their religious holidays and saints days are popular. Along with these aspects, approved by the official religion, popular beliefs, often intertwined with Catholic traditions, always flourished in Portugal. The trend is especially noticeable in the villages of northern Portugal, where belief in witchcraft, witches, evil spirits is still widespread. In the early 1990s, almost every village had its seers, magicians, and healers. It was believed that evil spirits, even werewolves, live in mountains and waters, and you can save yourself from them by conspiracy prayer, amulets and the like. The evil eye was considered the most common superstition.
This phenomenon was the result of the fact that, unlike Spain, the Portuguese Catholic religion was softer, more humane and less intense. Now these beliefs have significantly lost their influence, especially among urban residents. However, fortunetellers, fortune tellers, healers from the people, superstitious signs and signs are popular with the Portuguese today.
Other Christian destinations
There are currently around 100,000 evangelists in Portugal, whose churches are distributed across almost all state districts and represent several destinations. These are the historical confessions of the Presbyterian, Lutheran, Methodist, Congregational, Baptist, Lusitanian churches, and some others. The Evangelical Alliance carried out a project called “Portugal 2015”, which implies the presence of an evangelical church in each of the 308 municipal regions of the country by 2015.
By 2010, there were up to 80 thousand followers of the Orthodox faith in Portugal, and today 17 parishes belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, represented mainly by the Korsun diocese.
Also in Portugal there are movements of marginal Christianity. Jehovah's Witnesses, numbering about 52,000, are distributed in approximately 650 congregations. The Mormon Church has close to 40,000 members, distributed across 77 congregations. And about 9,000 people with the Portuguese Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Other faiths
It is difficult to determine which religion in Portugal can now be considered the most numerous after Christianity. The latest data for the country correspond to the 2011 census and today differ significantly. At that time in Portugal, there were more than 20,000 Muslims, most of whom were Sunnis, about 5,000-7,000 Shiites and a small number of Ahmadis.
Buddhism was the only religion that supported homosexual marriage in Portugal. According to the latest data, there were about 60 thousand Buddhists in the country, about 7000 Hindus, 2000 practicing the Bahai faith.
The Jews who settled on this territory from the first century AD experienced the greatest flowering of their communities from the 11th to the 13th century, and by the beginning of the 14th century the number of Jews in the country exceeded 40,000. A 2010 study showed that about 460 people were practicing Jews. The main reason for such a large-scale reduction is the assimilation of Jews with Portuguese society, which has increased since the second half of the 20th century.
Also, the census results reflected that from 4 to 9% of the total population of Portugal considered themselves atheists or agnostics.