East Timor was a Dutch-speaking Catholic enclave previously of Muslim Malay/Indonesian Indonesia. International recognition of its independence had a lot to do with the ongoing sectarian genocide there, and Islamist terrorists have used Western efforts to stymie said genocide as justification for terrorist attacks.
East Timor was a Portuguese colony. When the wars of independence in Guinea-Bissau, Angola, and Mozambique caused the Portuguese government to fall, independence was in the cards for East Timor. Suharto ended that with an invasion and "pacification" that lasted about three years and ultimately ended up with the death of about a third of the population. (The Carter regime supplied Indonesia with weapons while the genocide heated up.)
Colonization programs brought Sumatran and Javanese settlers to East Timor, supported by the Indonesian military occupation. In 1998, with Suharto's regime reeling due to Indonesia being the hardest hit during the Southeast Asian economic crash, East Timorese again planned for independence. The next year, the colonists and military attempted to undermine the process, but after the completely avoidable deaths and destruction, independence came. Throughout, the Portuguese language and Catholic religion were seen as signs of resistance to Indonesia.
Quite a lot of countries from elsewhere on the list too, also not all the Central/South American countries are there. So I'd say your alternative name fails.
I was actually surprised at how many Central and South American countries did not make the cut... and most of these countries are from Europe, Africa, the Caribbean and Pacific Island nations so what are you talking about?
I was also shocked by the lack of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Guatemala, and other major Latin American countries.
Uruguay the case seems to be that they're a very secular country and El Salvador and Guatemala seem to have Catholic pluralities but not majorities, as Protestantism is also common. However, if Quizmaster could look at Nicaragua again, that might be a good idea. The Wikipedia page for "Religion in Nicaragua" says 55% of the population is Catholic
Wait, why is Cuba on this list? There was just a story on radiolab recently about how people would go throw eggs at the churches to show how they were good communists now, and not religious anymore.
Apparently, more than half of Cubans don't give up traditions and religion in their private life just to please the regime (where even Castro has considered returning to Catholicism).
I'm really surprised at Belgium. Given the relationship between the Netherlands and Belgium and the bitter experience the Netherlands had with Spain, I expected Belgium to be majority Protestant, as is
The historic line in Europe separating Catholics from Protestants ran within southern Netherlands - the south of the Netherland is predominantly Catholic while the rest of the country is/was Protestant. As a result, all of Belgium is mostly Catholic.
The dividing line between catholic and protestants is not the belgian border but about 1/3 into the Netherlands. Noord-brabant and Limburg are predominantly catholic.
The number of religious people have been rapidly declining, less fast among catholics though (protestantism has been declining since 1880, catholicism didn't really start declining untill about 1970, be it very slowly), meaning that catholicism has been the dominant religion for a few decades again now, since about 1970.
if you look at actual believers and people actively practising, the numbers would be even lower. (because many people are just catholic or protestant etc in name, because their parents were, or for the sense of community). I can't say how that would influence the catholic/protestant ratio though, I can make a case for different scenario's.
After the 80 years' war the southern providences (Belgium) remained Spanish while the northern once became independent (Netherlands). Most protestants subsequently fled the south in favor of the north.
Any time there's a little breakaway country somewhere there's a good chance these days that they profess a different religion than the people in the country they broke away from. Those "coexist" t-shirts haven't really caught on most places.
Austria - If you've ever watched "Sound of Music", think of Maria in the abbey. And I got Belgium, thanks to Agatha Christie's detective, Hercule Poirot. ;)
By all means, it is. However, the definition of Catholic for the purposes of this quiz includes people who nominally identify as Catholic but never actually practice the faith.
Colonization programs brought Sumatran and Javanese settlers to East Timor, supported by the Indonesian military occupation. In 1998, with Suharto's regime reeling due to Indonesia being the hardest hit during the Southeast Asian economic crash, East Timorese again planned for independence. The next year, the colonists and military attempted to undermine the process, but after the completely avoidable deaths and destruction, independence came. Throughout, the Portuguese language and Catholic religion were seen as signs of resistance to Indonesia.
Uruguay the case seems to be that they're a very secular country and El Salvador and Guatemala seem to have Catholic pluralities but not majorities, as Protestantism is also common. However, if Quizmaster could look at Nicaragua again, that might be a good idea. The Wikipedia page for "Religion in Nicaragua" says 55% of the population is Catholic
the Netherlands..
The number of religious people have been rapidly declining, less fast among catholics though (protestantism has been declining since 1880, catholicism didn't really start declining untill about 1970, be it very slowly), meaning that catholicism has been the dominant religion for a few decades again now, since about 1970.
if you look at actual believers and people actively practising, the numbers would be even lower. (because many people are just catholic or protestant etc in name, because their parents were, or for the sense of community). I can't say how that would influence the catholic/protestant ratio though, I can make a case for different scenario's.
*FACE PALM*
while Lithuania has been close buddies with the uber-catholic Poland.
*Also doesn't get Italy