Intercultural Catholicism is the particular form in which the religious phenomenon has manifested itself in Latin America, in the interaction between the social structure and the system of values, attitudes, mentalities and meanings. Among the existing institutions of Catholicism is the diocese. Not all dioceses follow the same historical evolution, although they share common elements, since they adopt their own identity as a social and cultural network, beyond individual and group experiences.
Interpreting religious metonymies involves unveiling the analogies of cultural Catholicism in its narrative, textual and ritual dimensions; in its cultural heterogeneity, territorial unity and shared history. Catholicism constitutes a differentiated cultural and social macrosystem, with structural units that vary over time, sustained against a complex and changing environment; encompassing the process by which cultures constitute themselves as such, distinguish themselves from one another, and simultaneously communicate. Cultural diversity is a constant throughout human history, one that appears to have been maintained and reinforced as a way of affirming group identity through differentiation from others.
The concept of interculturality encompasses the process by which cultures constitute themselves as such, differentiate themselves from one another, and simultaneously communicate, especially in education, as part of cultural globalization. Every religious system has five interrelated dimensions: beliefs, rites, organization, ethical norms and particular sentiments. Manuel Marzal SJ proposes that: “a belief is a proposition that affirms as real the existence of an invisible higher being (such as ‘I believe in God’) or of an event for which there is no immediate evidence (such as ‘I believe God is the author of the universe’). A rite is a symbolic act through which believers seek to communicate with higher beings, such as prayer or the penitential act. Organization is the social structure of the religious community, where there are different roles, such as priests, shamans and the faithful, and different groups, such as confraternities or base communities. Ethics is a set of norms whose observance is demanded by the beliefs held, and thus many religions give religious value to natural ethical norms, such as not killing, or impose new norms, such as not drinking alcoholic beverages. Sentiments are more or less institutionalized emotions that believers tend to experience as a result of their beliefs, such as a feeling of trust in the gods, or joy and even weeping during the celebration of rites.”
Metaphor is intrinsic to religion. The religious system is metaphorical, just as the religious message, by analogy, constructs new meanings in different contexts, expressing truth up to the limit of our knowledge. Religion provides our feelings and our spoken and written messages with both the capacity for metaphor and for metonymy.
In Geertz’s definition, religion is a system of symbols which acts to establish powerful, pervasive and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by formulating conceptions of a general order of existence.
