EVIDENCE 2

Objective:

Measure media presence of the Catholic Church, referring to Public Affairs of the country,
over the last 6 months, and then compare to the percentage of population in the country of
Catholic denomination. Compare the Costa Rica case with its neighbours, Panama and
Nicaragua. The goal of this is to show that church presence in public affairs is higher in
Costa Rica, without it being a reflection of it being a significantly more catholic country than
its neighbours.

Sample size:

Articles published in these 9 media sites between May 1st. and October 15th. of 2019. The
words “Church”, “Cardinal”, “Secular” and “Catholic” were typed into each site’s search
engine, avoiding double dipping of articles.

Notes:

- Prior to analyzing the Church presence in the media, I looked to have diverse
samples of media outlets from each country, in terms of editorial line, political views
and type of newspaper. It is worth noting that we only accounted for media outlets
that had an online site.
- We measured two types of mentions of the Church in the media:
- Statements: Direct comments or presence of the Church and it’s
representatives in the media. It includes interviews, press briefings and any
public statement.
- Mentions: These constitute any declaration or piece where the Church and it’s
opinions were the subject of discussion, while not coming directly from
Church representatives.
- In addition to the media presence of the Church, we consulted statistics from various
sources in order to review the percentage of the population self-identified as
Christian and Catholic in each of the three countries.

Results:
 País Fuentes/Medios Mentions % of Population
Catholic

Costa Rica “La Nación” 22 statements, 19 52% Catholic.

“La República” mentions. 74% Christian.
“Diario Extra”
41 appearances.

Nicaragua “La Prensa” 11 statements, 8 43% Catholic.

“El Nuevo Diario” mentions. 85% Christian.
“La Jornada”
19 appearances.

Panamá “La Estrella de 3 statements, no 55% Catholic.

Panamá” mentions. 79% Christian.
“La Prensa,
Panamá” 3 appearances.
“El Siglo”

Analysis of results:

From this brief analysis, we can observe that the Church has a significantly higher presence
in media outlets of Costa Rica than in those of Panamá and Nicaragua. In the time period
covered, statements from the Church in Costa Rica were double than those registered in
Nicaragua and more than seven times than those registered in Panamá. Mentions of the
Church seemed to follow a similar trend.

On the other hand, we found that Costa Rica has a similar proportion of its population self-
identified as Christian and Catholic compared to those found in Panamá and Nicaragua.
Panamá had a population that was 3% more Catholic and 5% more Christian in general.
While Nicaragua had a considerably lower Catholic population (9% less), their Christian
population was significantly higher (by 11%).

Conclusions:

All three countries analyzed in this brief study had similar percentages of their populations
affiliated to Christianity in general and Catholicism specifically. From a statistical standpoint,
Christianity can be considered the dominant faith in all three countries, while Catholics can
be considered the dominant current within all Christians.

Considering this, it could be expected that Christian and Catholic religious leadership would
have a significant influence in the daily life of either Costa Rica, Nicaragua or Panamá.
Taking into consideration the similarities in proportions of people affiliated, we could also
expect the Church to have a similar presence across the three countries.

However, the Costa Rican Catholic Church has a more significant presence in the media.
This is interesting especially when compared to the case of Nicaragua, where the Church
has an active presence due to their role as an active player opposing the Regime of Daniel
Ortega. Even when compared to a Church that has effectively become a political actor, the
Costa Rican church still had a much stronger media presence. In Panama, where the
Church is not involved in the country’s politics, it’s media presence was rare or non-existing.

We could then expect a strong presence of the Church’s views in public debates where said
institution has clear and public stances. This is particularly relevant in the case of social and
cultural issues, such as the debate over Abortion and LGBTQ+ Rights, where the Catholic
Church throughout the world has publicly expressed its views. Some of these debates are
currently in the spotlight of public affairs in Costa Rica, therefore drawing the Church’s views
into the center of the debate and potentially turning it into a stakeholder in the country’s
politics.