Religion

Chile has traditionally been a Roman Catholic country, although religion has been less important than in some other Catholic countries. At the beginning of this century, separation between church and state reduced the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Chilean society. Nevertheless, the 1991 Chilean census indicates that 75 percent of the population consider themselves to be Roman Catholic, followed by 14 percent Protestant, and 5 percent non-believers. This classification, however, is relative, since religious identification is often more formal than real. There has been a continuous process of secularization in Chilean society, a process that expresses itself in a lower commitment on the part of the average Chilean to the institutions of religion.

Chileans in Canada tend to follow this trend. Most consider themselves nominally Roman Catholic, but their participation in religious activities is almost nonexistent. There is, however, a small but active group of Chileans who participate in small Catholic communities and/or Catholic organizations, usually involving no more than ten persons. Research carried out in Toronto by an interdenominational religious organization (PLURA) in 1978 identified three Latin American Catholic communities. Two of them were made up of persons from other Latin American countries, but the third, the Scarborough Christian Community, was composed mainly of Chileans. Created in 1976 by a group of Chilean refugees, with the support of priests from Scarborough Missions, this community aimed to offer a place for meditation and social action for Christian Chileans. The community disappeared in 1980, mainly because its most active members moved out of the area. A similar group came together in Regina after the visit to Canada of a Chilean Catholic bishop in 1986. There, a group of Chilean residents formed the Chilean Catholic Community, which had as its purpose both to offer a religious setting for Chileans and to organize solidarity work in a Christian perspective.