In a rapprochement with evangelicals, Lula and Messias meet with religious leaders

247 - In a sign of rapprochement with evangelicals, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva received this Thursday (16), in Brasília (DF), Pastor Samuel Ferreira, from the Madureira Assembly of God Church, and Congressman Cezinha Madureira (PSD-RJ), a member of the evangelical caucus in the Chamber.

Present at the meeting, the Minister-Chief of the Secretariat of Institutional Relations (SR), Gleisi Hoffmann, commented on the meeting. “They presented the president with the Minister's Worship Bible and the gold edition of the Centennial of Glory of the Church. They prayed for Brazil and for the president!”, wrote the head of the SRI on Instagram. 

She appears in the post next to Attorney General of the Union, Jorge Messias, is being considered for a vacancy on the Supreme Federal Court..

According to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), 56,7% of the Brazilian population identified as Catholic in 2022, the lowest percentage since 1872. The number of Evangelicals in Brazil represented the highest recorded figure, increasing by 5,2 percentage points between 2010 and 2022, rising from 21,6% to 26,9% of the population. 

Spiritism fell from 2,2% in 2010 to 1,8% in 2022. The share of followers of Umbanda and Candomblé tripled, from 0,3% to 1%. The number of Brazilians who declared themselves without religion rose from 8% to 9,3%, an increase of 1,4 percentage points in 12 years.

Followers of indigenous traditions now represent 0,1% (previously, the proportion was less than 0,1%). Practitioners of other religions increased from 2,7% to 4%. Those who did not know or did not answer decreased from 0,1% to 0,2%.