Christianity in Latin America was about to undergo momentous changes in 1950. On the surface, though, few indications of change showed themselves to observers. Rather, historians and social scientists tended to depict Latin America as dominated by the presence of the Catholic church throughout the region. The church had few challengers. Protestants were few in numbers, relatively the same percentage range as Catholics in Scandinavia and England. African and indigenous religions were practised mostly on the margins of society. The small numbers of Marxists, even in Cuba, did not appear to pose the same threat to Christianity that communists caused in China and eastern Europe.

The Catholic church was in a privileged and only marginally threatened position. However, internal weaknesses and external threats would soon become apparent. In the following sections, three developments will be examined: first, how did awareness of institutional weakness become clear to sectors of the church? Second, how did region-wide social change facilitate new religious choices and changes? Lastly, challengers to Catholicism and Catholic responses will be discussed.