An unruly bunch 不驯之众

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How the church is faring in the world’s biggest Catholic country
教会在世界上最大的天主教国家进展如何
5 F/ ]0 d. m/ d+ UTHOUGH Pope Benedict’s tenure has not had much effect on Catholicism in Brazil so far, it has entrenched an old conflict. The previous pope’s reign saw a “decapitation of the progressive parts of the church in Latin America and particularly in Brazil,” says Antonio Pierucci of São Paulo University. This war against the progressives was promoted by Benedict when he was still Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. Its price has been a loss of political influence for the church hierarchy, whereas the liberation theologians whom the bosses shunned continue to have the ear of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Workers’ Party. Pope John Paul’s charisma partly compensated for this loss of influence. Pope Benedict does not have that to fall back on.
尽管教皇本笃（十六世）的任期目前尚未对巴西的天主教产生多大影响，但它已经使得一场旧的冲突变得更为根深蒂固。圣保罗大学的安东尼奥•皮耶路奇指出：上一任教皇的统治期内，“拉美地区，尤其是巴西教会中的进步派势力受到打击。”这场针对进步派的战争正是由本笃倡导发起的，当年他的身份还是红衣主教约瑟夫•拉辛格。鉴于那些被上层回避的自由派神学家仍然能在路易斯•伊纳西奥•卢拉•达席尔瓦总统的工人党那里说得上话，这场战争的代价便是教会体系的政治影响力受损。约翰•保罗教皇的个人魅力部分抵消了影响力的丧失，但本笃教皇却没有这种优势可供依赖。
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0 ?# ]2 I% B" ~) ?, S. a  u5 ^Even so, there is little evidence that problems at the top are affecting Catholic worship in Brazil. The census provides data on religious belief stretching back to 1872. The share of Brazilians who described themselves as Catholic fell from 99.7% in the first census to 73.9% in 2000. Almost two-thirds of this reduction happened in the 1980s and 1990s, when Catholics were apparently drawn away to new Pentecostal churches.
尽管如此，却鲜有证据表明上层的问题正在对巴西的天主教崇拜产生影响。人口普查提供了前至1872年的宗教信仰数据：将自己描述为天主教徒的巴西人比例从第一次普查时的99.7%下降为2000年的73.9%，其中大约三分之二的降幅发生于上世纪八九十年代，当时明显有一批天主教徒转投新的圣灵降临派门下。
Yet since 2000 something strange has happened, says Marcelo Neri of Fundação Getulio Vargas, a think-tank and business school. Numbers taken from surveys of consumers (which include a question about religion) show the gradual decline levelling off in the early part of the Warhammer Online Gold decade. This turnaround seems to have come at the expense of those who describe themselves as being without religion. There is nothing to suggest that this trend has been interrupted.
& {) w/ B' e! H0 }) _然而根据就职于盖图罗•瓦格斯基金会（一所智囊机构兼商学院）的马赛罗•内里的说法，从2000年起，奇怪的事情发生了：从对消费者进行的调查（其中包括一个关于宗教信仰的问题）中获取的数据显示，（天主教徒比例）逐步下降的趋势在这十年的早期开始企稳。这一转变的发生看似是以那些将自己描述为无信仰者（比例的下降）为代价的；没有证据表明这一趋势已被打断。
The Catholicism being practised might, however, be considered by the Vatican to be of the wrong kind. One challenge to orthodoxy comes from charismatic priests who use pop-star tactics, and are taking on the upstart Pentecostals at their own game.
不过也许在梵蒂冈方面看来，巴西所实践的天主教属于错误的类型。对正统教义的一大挑战来自于那些充满魅力的牧师，他们使用明星策略并且在自己的仪式中接纳宗教新贵——圣灵降临派教徒。
A second challenge comes from the popular Catholicism that tends to flourish best in those parts of rural Brazil where the Warhammer Gold church has little presence. In much of the north-east, Padre Cícero, a 19th-century priest who performed the odd miracle and seems to have been excommunicated as a result, has long been sanctified. In many places, children who die or people who suffer unpleasant deaths can be granted a kind of sainthood and asked to intervene on behalf of the living. The pope faces a struggle to steer this bunch in the direction of the orthodoxy he reveres.
0 |8 }5 ?' |& n0 B. U, r% k* F第二种挑战则来自于大众天主教，这一派别往往在那些教会势力鞭长莫及的巴西农村地区繁荣兴旺。在东北部的广大区域，一位19世纪表演古怪圣迹并似乎因此被逐出教会的牧师——帕德尔•西塞罗长期以来被奉为神圣。在许多地区，早逝的孩子及惨死的人都会被赋予一种圣徒身份，人们还祈求它们代表生者的利益干预尘世。教皇正面对一场将众人导向他所崇敬的正统方向的斗争。
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