A evolução da Igreja Católica no Brasil à luz de pesquisas recentes.

The article proposes a theological-pastoral reading of the results of the most recent Census by the IBGE 2010– Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística – regarding religion in Brazil, published in July 2012, while alsodrawing on a study by the Fundação Getúlio Vargas – O novo mapa das religiões (The new map of religions) –published in 2011, and on the research project sponsored by the Archdiocese of Belo Horizonte regardingValores e religião na região metropolitana (Values and religion in the metropolitan region), which was carriedout in 2012. The reading proposed by this article focuses especially on what the data from these investigationssay about the Catholic Church. After commenting briefly on some elements presented by the research, thetext proposes some interpretative keys. The first is a socio-religious reading, showing that the steep decline inrates of belonging to Catholicism is the result of the shift from an “environmental” and “natal” type of religionto a religion of “conviction,” with a “confessional” nature. Secondly, the article presents some roots of thisway of understanding faith in the New Testament and in the Second Vatican Council’s reading of the nature and mission of the Church. Finally, it concludes with some pastoral considerations, pointing not so much tosolutions regarding the decline in Catholic belonging, but rather to the attitudes that a “confessional” church should have in our time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]