**Why hasn't Catholicism had a more positive effect?**
The fact is, Catholicism had had a tremendous effect on the world.
Consider the issues of:
abortion
euthanasia
stem-cell research
contraception
same-sex marriage
And stories like
Fatima
Lepanto
Lanciano
Divine Mercy
The Passion of the Christ.
Does anyone want me to go on?
Or can we all admit that it really is open season on Jesus and especially Catholicism???
Open season on Catholicism? I didn't get that at all from this article.
Allen has been in Honduras for about a month, this is just one of many articles he has written during his trip.
To me, this article just seems to be an observation on the old canard that Latin American cultures are deeply influenced by the Catholic faith of their populations. If that's true, why are these societies in such poor shape? The question was posed to the Hondurans he spoke to and they all had a similar answer, the Church has always been in a minority position to influence society.
There is often an assumption that the Church has a nearly absolute influence on society in various times and places. That assumption always ignores the much stronger influence, IMO, of forces other than the Church.