Mission among indigenous Portuguese in a land of cultural Christianity
By Connie Duarte Elsa Correia Pereira, From Evangelical Focus.
(Photo: Aayush Gupta/Unsplash)
Introduction
In the European context, “indigenous” refers not to tribal groups but to populations rooted in a shared geography and cultural-religious tradition. In Portugal, this is predominantly Roman Catholicism.
Yet many Portuguese live detached from a living faith. Although 80% of the population identifies as Catholic (Census 2021), according to the Pew Research Center in 2017 only 35% are practicing while 48% attend religious services very occasionally.
Nevertheless, Portugal is one of the western European countries to which religion is considered more important, being the 8th from a list of 34, only surpassed by countries in central and eastern Europe. This constitutes a source of hope and opportunity for evangelisation.