Spanish theologian Luis Santamaria del Rio claims in a book released this week that more than two percent of Portuguese belong to sects, double the rate in other European countries.
“In Western countries, it is estimated that about 1% of the population belongs to cults. If we can apply this calculation to Portugal, we will be talking about about 100,000 Portuguese in sects,” writes the author of Sects: Myth and Reality. “, published in Portuguese, which guarantees the superiority of Portuguese reality.
The author gives two examples of the presence and activity of sects in Portugal: the emergence and expansion of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, starting in the 1980s, and, more recently, the death and burial of an infant in the commune. Reino do Pineal, at the Oliveira do do hospital.
“But the reality is that there are more of them. According to statistics provided by the religious groups themselves, there are 51,334 Jehovah’s Witnesses, 46,849 Mormons and 11,054 Seventh-day Adventists,” says Santamaria del Rio, quoted this Monday in a statement by Rede Iberoamerican. Study of sects created by Catholics.
The researcher says that if these figures are added to the number of members of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God and the Church of Mana (two Portuguese-speaking movements with 134 and 108 places of worship across the country, respectively), as well as many other “eastern groups, esotericism, new age, etc. etc.,” we can “safely” say that more than two percent of the Portuguese “belong to a sect.”
The book was published on the Amazon platform in electronic and paper versions.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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