According to the 2002 Paraguayan census, 89.6% of the people surveyed recognised themselves as Catholic. In other words, the pre-eminence of the Catholic Church remains very strong, which is perceived at the social level as well as the political.

Christianity arrived in Paraguay, as in the rest of the region, with the European conquerors. The faith was transmitted by the missions of the religious orders. The secular clergy were scarce, and there were also bishop-governors who were more concerned with politics than with religion. In general, however, there was an absence of hierarchy because the province of Paraguay lacked gold and silver mines, was distant from the main centres and was economically weak.

A special feature of colonial Paraguay was the presence of the Jesuit missions among the Guaraní. Created as the Jesuit Province of Paraguay in 1609, they were soon granted by the Spanish monarchy the privilege of being an encomienda of the crown, which meant that the natives of their missions did not have to serve the encomenderos of Asunción. In this way, they managed to create a unique society within their 30 missions. This arrangement ended in 1767 with the expulsion of the order from the Spanish empire. For their part, the Indigenous people, after a long period of Catholic religiosity and practice, began leaving the missions to intermingle with the rest of the population.

Independent Paraguay and the Churches

With the independence of Paraguay in 1811, the new state assumed the prerogatives of the old Patronato Real (royal patronage) and the clergy swore allegiance to the republic. For fear that the church would become a space opposed to independence and the new government, the seminary was closed in 1823, and the following year the religious orders were suppressed. Relations with the Vatican were restarted in 1842 with the appointment of a new bishop. The seminary was re-opened, new citizenpriests were ordained, the state took over church financing and new churches were built. The Catholic religion was considered the ‘only one of the State’ in the Constitution of 1844, which established the Political Administration of the Republic. However, a treaty that was signed with the British government in 1853 established the right of British citizens to conduct services of worship privately.