Os dados da individualização crente: uma reflexão teológica

The recent survey on religious identities in Portugal provides data that show a strengthening of the tendency towards the individualisation of belief that latterly has become increasingly evident. It is important to gather from these data what relates concretely to Catholics and to submit the configurations of belief that they indicate to critical theological enquiry. It is a matter of understanding what in them is in accordance with the truth of Christian faith and what appears to be strange to it. It is an exercise that requires dialogue between the ‘I’ of faith and the ecclesial ‘we’. The latter should open up space so as to let the former find expression in the first person singular. But it has also to check if this ‘I’ provides indications of affiliation in the faith that the Church lives and proclaims. It is possible that the ‘I’ of faith may surprise the ecclesial ‘we’ in certain respects, in a positive sense. But it may equally prove necessary to point out faults that need particular attention.