The 50 Most Violent Cities in the World Are Mostly Catholic
By Julio
Severo
Business
Insider reported
a new ranking of the world’s most violent cities, explaining that a full one-third
of global homicides occur in Latin America, even though the region
has just 8% of the world’s population, according to UN data. It said,
“Drug
trafficking, gang wars, political instability, corruption, and poverty
contribute to the region’s elevated violence. [This] ranking includes cities
with a population of more than 300,000 and doesn’t count deaths in combat zones
or cities with unavailable data, so some dangerous cities might not be
represented on the list.”
This
ranking does not include cities’ religious predominance. But in this report, I
will include it, because in Latin America religion has always been fundamental for
its existence and inseparable from its national identity.
Most
cities mentioned in this report are located in predominantly Catholic nations, according
to The CIA World Factbook 2014, which reports the following religious
predominance:
Honduras: Roman Catholic 97%.
Venezuela: Roman Catholic 96%.
Mexico: Roman Catholic 82.7%.
Brazil: Roman Catholic 73.6%.
Colombia: Roman Catholic 90%.
The
United States, whose religious predominance is Protestant, is also represented
in this report, with very violent cities. Coincidentally or not, all of these
U.S. cities have a predominantly Catholic profile: St. Louis (predominantly Catholic),
Detroit (predominantly Catholic),
New Orleans (predominantly Catholic)
and Baltimore (predominantly Catholic).
Here
is the Business Insider report on the 50 most violent cities in the world:
1. San Pedro Sula, Honduras had 171.20 homicides per
100,000 residents.
2. Caracas, Venezuela had 115.98 homicides per
100,000 residents.
3. Acapulco, Mexico had 104.16 homicides per 100,000
residents.
4. João Pessoa, Brazil had 79.41 homicides per
100,000 residents.
5. Distrito Central, Honduras had 77.65 homicides
per 100,000 residents.
6. Maceió, Brazil had 72.91 homicides per 100,000
residents.
7. Valencia, Venezuela had 71.08 homicides per
100,000 residents.
8. Fortaleza, Brazil had 66.55 homicides per 100,000
residents.
9. Cali, Colombia had 65.25 homicides per 100,000
residents.
10. São Luís, Brazil had 64.71 homicides per 100,000
residents.
11. Natal, Brazil had 63.68 homicides per 100,000
residents.
12. Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela had 62.13 homicides
per 100,000 residents.
13. San Salvador, El Salvador had 61.21 homicides
per 100,000 residents.
14. Cape Town, South Africa had 60 homicides per
100,000 residents.
15. Vitoria, Brazil had 57 homicides per 100,000
residents.
16. Cuiabá, Brazil had 56.46 homicides per 100,000
residents.
17. Salvador (and RMS), Brazil had 54.31 homicides
per 100,000 residents.
18. Belém, Brazil had 53.06 homicides per 100,000
residents.
19. St. Louis, Missouri had 49.93 homicides per
100,000 residents.
20. Teresina, Brazil had 49.49 homicides per 100,000
residents.
21. Barquisimeto, Venezuela had 46.46 homicides per
100,000 residents.
22. Detroit, Michigan had 44.87 homicides per
100,000 residents.
23. Goiânia, Brazil had 44.82 homicides per 100,000
residents.
24. Culiacán, Mexico had 42.17 homicides per 100,000
residents.
25. Guatemala City, Guatemala had 41.90 homicides
per 100,000 residents.
26. Kingston, Jamaica had 40.59 homicides per
100,000 residents.
27. Juárez, Mexico had 39.94 homicides per 100,000
residents.
28. New Orleans, Louisiana had 39.61 homicides per
100,000 residents.
29. Recife, Brazil had 39.05 homicides per 100,000
residents.
30. Campina Grande, Brazil had 37.97 homicides per
100,000 residents.
31. Obregón, Mexico had 37.71 homicides per 100,000
residents.
32. Palmira, Colombia had 37.66 homicides per
100,000 residents.
33. Manaus, Brazil had 37.07 homicides per 100,000
residents.
34. Nuevo Laredo, Mexico had 34.92 homicides per
100,000 residents.
35. Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa had 34.89
homicides per 100,000 residents.
36. Pereira, Colombia had 34.68 homicides per
100,000 residents.
37. Porto Alegre, Brazil had 34.65 homicides per
100,000 residents.
38. Durban, South Africa had 34.48 homicides per
100,000 residents.
39. Aracaju, Brazil had 34.19 homicides per 100,000
residents.
40. Baltimore, Maryland had 33.92 homicides per
100,000 residents.
41. Victoria, Mexico had 33.91 homicides per 100,000
residents.
42. Belo Horizonte, Brazil had 33.39 homicides per
100,000 residents.
43. Chihuahua, Mexico had 33.29 homicides per
100,000 residents.
44. Curitiba, Brazil had 31.48 homicides per 100,000
residents.
45. Tijuana, Mexico had 29.90 homicides per 100,000
residents.
46. Macapá, Brazil had 28.87 homicides per 100,000 residents.
47. Cúcuta, Colombia had 28.43 homicides per 100,000
residents.
48. Torreón, Mexico had 27.81 homicides per 100,000
residents.
49. Medellín, Colombia had 26.91 homicides per
100,000 residents.
50. Cuernavaca, Mexico had 25.45 homicides per
100,000 residents.
Because
the overwhelming majority of these cities are Catholic, some questions are necessary.
Why has not the Catholic religious influence been enough to protect these societies
from pervasive social violence? Why has the Catholic Church in Latin America
often embraced Liberation Theology to solve political, corruption, and poverty
issues?
Christianity,
in its New Testament format, was totally dependent on the Holy Spirit. There
are God’s promises that the transformational moves of Holy Spirit were not
limited for the past, but they are also available for today:
“And in the last days it shall be, God
declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old
men shall dream dreams; even on my male servants and female servants in those
days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.” (Acts 2:17-18 ESV)
The
charismatic movement is a part of the fulfilment of this promise.
Yet, the
Catholic Church in Latin America has frequently been much more open to Liberation
Theology promises than to Bible promises about the transformational power of
the Holy Spirit. Latin American Catholics have been also very open to
syncretism with several forms of African religions like voodoo, Candomble and
Santeria. Even in New Orleans, in the U.S., voodoo
has been syncretized with the Catholic culture. Brazil, the largest Catholic
nation in the world, is rife with Candomble, the Brazilian variety of voodoo,
which is black magic. Is it a wonder that Brazil
is more violent than nations in war?
Syncretism
with African religions (which have been viewed as witchcraft by evangelical
churches) is very old and widespread in Latin American Catholicism, especially
in Brazil.
Despite
these powerful dark inroads in the Latin American Catholic culture, the
Catholic Church has been very limitedly open to the charismatic movement and
especially to the power of the Holy Spirit against the witchcraft’s powers.
In Catholic
Latin America, witchcraft and Liberation Theology have helped promote violence,
because their nature and spirit are demonic.
The
Catholic Church in Latin America should seriously consider why she is less open
to the transformational power of the Holy Spirit, why her members are more open
to witchcraft and why her members and leaders are more open to Marxism.
With
information from Business
Insider.
Portuguese
version of this article: As 50 cidades mais violentas do mundo
são quase todas católicas
Source: Last Days Watchman
Recommended Reading:
2 comments :
Roman Catholicism has always breeded a false Christianity where all you have to do is go confess your sins to a priest, repeat a pagan incantation a certain amount of times and you get off scott free. It is so vile that criminals raised catholic believe that even after they die their families can intervene for their lost souls to get them out of the lie that is purgatory by paying off a priest to say some prayer or incantation for their souls. Not only this but their fusionistic Catholicism (which is perpetuated be even the pope himself) preaches that other gods are the same God as the Biblical god, so that is why you have gang members being extra religious while murdering and extorting then going home to pray to any number of Satanic "saints" to intervene for them, such criminal "saint" idol shrines are popular tourist destinations now for gang members and all their families and they really believe the _____ they are doing will protect and save their souls, it is absolutely vile and it all comes from the cursed root of Roman Catholism.
I'm pretty certain the homicide rates are mostly due to the fact that many of these cities are full of blacks, mestizos, mulattoes, indigenous peoples, and/or other races of color who are more likely to commit crimes. This is an issue of race, not religion. The US and Canada have less crime not necessarily because they are mostly Protestant, but because most of those Protestants are white. If Catholicism is to blame then why do the white Catholic nations of Europe have low homicide rates? And no surprise that the majority of the crimes that are committed in Europe are by done the black and brown immigrants. Religion can only do so much. Race is the determining factor here whether you agree or not.
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