The Meeting in Aparecida and Popular Religiousness: A Summit in the Development of a Reflection

Abstract

The author deals with an historical presentation running from Medellín to the Conference of Aparecida where he points out to the various attitudes these meetings have taken toward popular religiousness. At the beginning, as a result of the waves of rationalism which came around the sixties, there was a rather negative vision of popular religiousness but, later on, there appeared a different vision which recognizes cultural values in such religiousness together with negative features. The article explains how the Conference of Aparecida recognizes popular religiousness as an evangelical force by itself and not merely as a receptacle for evangelization… It remains to be seen how the evangelization could be carried out through it.