Perspectives from the Kellogg Institute

The post-World War II period has brought enormous challenges to the Catholic Church in Latin America. Among the challenges today are a gradual erosion of the religious monopoly the Church once enjoyed, growing secularization, and an erosion of some values that the Church has traditionally upheld, including a rapid increase in single-parent households.

Today, the Church is redefining its role in the region that is home to more Catholics than anywhere else in the world.

Since its inception in 1982, the Kellogg Institute has hoped to understand these challenges and the Church's responses to them. Here, we profile some of the Institute's recent work on these issues.

Hagopian: Framework for Explaining Pluralism

In March 2005, the Institute brought together leading scholars for a major conference, "Contemporary Catholicism, Religious Pluralism, and Democracy in Latin America." A volume edited by Frances Hagopian, based on the conference findings, is scheduled to be published by Notre Dame Press in 2007.