Religion in Costa Rica
[4] Being registered as a religion does not provide any special responsibility nor any legal advantage and is not mandatory for private or public practice as far as other laws are not broken.
[4] Currently a bill endorsed by the Evangelical parties in the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica named "Freedom of Religion and Cult Act" is under discussion in one of the committees.
[9][10] A March 2018 survey by the Center for Investigations and Political Studies of the University of Costa Rica estimated that 52% of ticos were Catholic (72.8% in 2013), 22% Protestant (14.8% in 2013), 3.0% other religion (3.6% in 2013) and 17% had no religious affiliation (8.4% in 2013).
[11] The 2021 poll by the University of Costa Rica noted a reduction in both Catholic and Evangelical practice reducing both to 47 and 19% respectively, with non-religious increasing from 17 to 27%.
[12] According to statistical studies done by the University of Costa Rica, among those over 55 Catholicism is more prominent, with 65% of this population considering themselves Catholic, followed by 19% evangelical and only 7% is without religion, among adults of 34 to 54 years Catholicism falls to 53%, while Protestantism rises to 24% and irreligion to 14%, and finally among young people aged 18 to 34 is where the number of irreligious is more prominent, being 27% and even surpassing the evangelicals that pass to 22% and the Catholics are reduced to 42%.
[12] A 2013-2014 study using focus groups divided in six stages; Practicing Catholics, non-Practicing Catholics, Irreligious, Historical Protestants, Neo-Pentecostal and "Others" (which included representatives from Islam, Baháʼí Faith, three branches of Buddhism –Tibetan, Zen and Nichiren-, Taoism, Brahma Kumaris and New Age) showed different position regarding moral, political and social issues.
[13] Practicing Catholics, historical Protestants and neo-Pentecostals opposed abortion in almost all circumstances, even in cases of mother's life danger[13] (although Protestants accepted it in such extremes circumstances with medical diagnosis and after praying),[13] whilst non-practicing Catholics and Others were more open to different forms of abortion including for therapeutic reasons, pregnancy by rape (particularly in cases involving minors) and no extra uterine life possibility.
This may have shaped the political and cultural aspects of Costa Rica which may explain phenomenons such as the liberal hegemony and lack of conservative-liberal wars uncommon in Latin America.
[19] After the independence of Central America, Costa Rica temporarily kept the Spanish Empire's Cadiz Constitution in place, with their articles about religion intact.
[19] After leaving the Federal Republic and creating his own dictatorship Braulio Carrillo signs the Decree of Basis and Guarantees which works as a de facto constitution, and makes no mention of religion.
Many Costa Rican settlers were newly converted or crypto-Jewish Sephardi Jews escaping Spain's Inquisition and expulsions, and some kept their practices secret.
However, aside from secret Sephardim, some freethinkers of the liberal elite, and the indigenous religions kept in some isolated mountain and jungle areas like Talamanca, most Costa Ricans were Catholics.
Secularizing measures such as the expulsion of the Jesuits and Bishop Bernard Thiel, the secularization of education and cemeteries, the closure of the Church-run Santo Tomas University, abolition of religious orders, legalization of divorce and civil marriage,[19] etc., almost caused a civil war with the Catholic Church, however this was avoided thanks to the election of José Joaquín Rodríguez Zeledón and is celebrated as Costa Rica's Democracy Day.
Costa Rica's first Theosophical Society is founded in 1902 by painter Tomás Povedano,[21] turning popular among the intellectual elites and earning some important prestige.
During late 19th and early 20th century, the religious diversity was increased by successive migratory waves of Polish Jews, Maronite Lebanese, Chinese Buddhists and Anglican Jamaicans.
[22] This prohibition was lifted and successive migrations from Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist populations increased Costa Rica's religious diversity.
[22] Polish Jews suffered from anti-Semitic and xenophobic campaigns, especially in the press during their first migratory waves, especially at the hands of well known anti-Semitic presidents like Otilio Ulate Blanco (who slandered Jews on his newspaper) and León Cortés Castro who was sympathetic toward Nazism and Fascism and even named Max Effinger as migration director, who was the leader of the local Nazi Party/Foreign Organization chapter.
[22] The breaking of the status quo of the to that point monolithic Liberal State started with the resurgence of the first left-wing workers’ organization, many of them inspired by the Catholic social teaching.
[23] The Calderón Guardia administration in 1940 was more friendly toward Jews, especially after the war declaration on the Axis Powers, nevertheless this also included the persecution of Germans, Italians and Japanese in Costa Rica who turn massively into the anti-Calderonista opposition.
Calderon's successor Teodoro Picado Michalski (1944–1948) took back most of the anti-Semitic legislation and was also friendly toward the Jewish community, particularly because he was the son of a Polish immigrant.
[27][28][29][30] In the early 21st century, the first groups of Luciferian set in the country with public activities and conferences including the Greater Church of Lucifer.
[1] and has a temple in San Jose that serves as a regional worship center for Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, and Honduras.
[36] Anglicanism was brought by both British and Black Jamaicans and it has some 12,000 followers mostly in Limón Province, however, its see is the Good Shepherd Church in San José.
[1] In the past, the Seventh-day Adventists have operated a university that attracts students from throughout the Caribbean Basin and the Unification Church has maintained its continental headquarters for Latin America in San Jose.
One of its organizations is the Costa Rican Association of Secular Humanists who filed a lawsuit in 2009 within the Supreme Electoral Tribunal for the political belligerence of then Archbishop José Francisco Ulloa for his homily of September 2009, which urged not to vote for candidates who "deny to God and defend principles that go against life, against marriage and against the family", to which the Court in May 2010 ruled in favor of the plaintiffs finding that the bishop contravened Article 28 of the Constitution ordering him to abstain on electoral issues.
[59] The Muslim Cultural Center is presided by Palestinian-born medic Abdul Sasa and its sheikh is the Egyptian-born Omar Abdel Aziz.
[56] Although there are Orthodox Hindus among the Indian and South East Asian migrant community,[60] including a Hindu Temple in Monteverde,[61] most Costa Ricans (particularly those converts) belong to the Hare Krishna movement.
Couples married through such ceremonies must also obtain a civil union from a public notary in order to have their marriage legally recognized.
