Faith

Pope Leo heads to a Latin America where Catholic identity is slipping — but belief endures

Montevideo, Uruguay • November 4, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: worshippers seen from behind gathered in a Latin American city plaza before a cathedral at sunrise, with mountains in the distance

Editorial illustration — Press Pass USA

Pope Leo XIV begins his first trip to Latin America as pontiff on Friday, November 6, 2026, embarking on an 11-day journey across a region that remains the world's largest Catholic stronghold in absolute numbers — but where Catholic identity is steadily shrinking even as belief in God remains strong.

The trip, from November 6 to 17, takes the 71-year-old pontiff some 31,000 kilometers (19,260 miles) from secular Uruguay to Argentina, homeland of his predecessor Pope Francis, before heading to Peru, where he spent years as a missionary and bishop and eventually became a citizen. He will spend two days in Uruguay, three in Argentina and nearly a week in Peru, where he will celebrate outdoor Masses expected to draw millions, address political leaders, join youth vigils and reach remote Andean communities by helicopter, according to Reuters. The itinerary is unchanged weeks after his lung cancer surgery, the Vatican said, and no extra medical precautions are being taken for the journey.

Yet the continent the Chicago-born pope is returning to is markedly less Catholic than the one he first encountered as a missionary decades ago. The Church has been losing ground to fast-growing evangelical denominations, more progressive social attitudes and individualized forms of worship, Reuters reported.

A Pew Research Center survey in 2024 of six of the most populous Latin American countries found that in all of those nations fewer people were identifying as Catholic compared to a decade earlier. Around one-fifth of adults in each country said they were raised Catholic but had left the Church, the poll found. In all six countries, adults aged 50 and older were more likely than those aged 18 to 34 to identify as Catholic.

"We have seen a decline in all of the countries that we surveyed in 2024," said Kirsten Lesage, an associate researcher at the Pew Research Center. "There are fewer people identifying (as Catholic)." But, she added: "The region is still very religious and they're very religious by a variety of standards."

Belief in God remains exceptionally high in Latin America compared to other global regions, even among the growing numbers of people who are unaffiliated with a religion, according to the Pew survey. That distinction suggests the Catholic Church's challenge is less disbelief than changes in worship habits and people keen to build their own spiritual identities outside traditional institutions, religious leaders and researchers told Reuters.

Evangelical groups have also made inroads among urban working populations in Latin America and are especially strong in Brazil, where nearly 27% of people identify as evangelical Christians. Pentecostalism, the fastest-growing branch, was introduced to Latin America by U.S. missionaries a century ago, and today most towns are home to a Pentecostal chapel, Reuters reported.

"They (Pentecostals) go straight to personal testimony, like the early Church did," said Miguel Pastorino, a professor at Uruguay's Catholic University who studies the philosophy of religion. "When the Catholic Church goes into poor neighborhoods, it often does a great deal of social work, but very little evangelization."

Growing numbers of younger people are seeking spirituality through retreats, silence and even Buddhist- or Hindu-inspired practices, often blending them with traditional Christian elements such as rosaries and holy water, said Rev. Jorge Reinaudo, a parish priest in Córdoba, Argentina — one of the cities on Pope Leo's itinerary — who has built a social media following of about 800,000 people with humorous sketches about biblical stories. "Not belonging to a religion does not mean people lack faith; it means they live out their faith in their own way," Reinaudo said.

For some, the break with the institution came from personal experience. Marverick Ruben Mendoza Oseguera, a 31-year-old accountant in Honduras, told Reuters he became critical of organized religion after witnessing troubling behavior in church communities, including violence against women and clergy who appeared to protect abusers. "Experiences like these eroded the trust and faith of many young people, including me," he said. He still attends a weekly online Eucharistic adoration service to help manage anxiety. "It feels more like spending time with a close friend," he said.

Pastorino cautioned against attributing the Church's losses directly to rapid social change across Latin America, including expanded rights ranging from abortion and euthanasia to same-sex marriage, saying a broader culture of individual choice has also reshaped how people approach religion globally. "There's a growing trend toward 'à la carte' religiosity, in which people create their own spiritual menu, without feeling the need to subscribe to any particular institution," he said.

Still, religious leaders say a papal visit can help strengthen Catholic identity. Pablo Coimbra, a Uruguayan parish priest at Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe in Montevideo's Casavalle neighborhood, where the pope plans to visit on his second day, said the pontiff's impending arrival was already having an effect, with more people participating in Masses and rising demand for baptisms and holy communion. "The pope's visit has perhaps awakened a memory, something deep in people's hearts regarding faith and belonging to the Church," Coimbra said.

At his general audience on Wednesday, November 4, Leo asked the faithful to pray that the journey strengthen faith and evangelization, ahead of a trip that will take him to 10 cities, with 36 speeches planned, according to the Vatican's published program and Reuters.

Sources: Reuters, "Pope Leo readies to visit a Latin America where Catholicism is on the decline" (Nov. 4, 2026, full text verified); Holy See Press Office, "Apostolic Journey of the Holy Father to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru (6–17 November 2026)" (program); Reuters, "Pope Leo healthy and needs no extra measures for South America trip, Vatican says" (Nov. 3, 2026). Event date verified: trip begins Friday, November 6, 2026; reported Wednesday, November 4, 2026. Distinct angle from the November 3 itinerary note: this story covers the Pew-documented faith shift the trip enters, not the itinerary itself.