Costa Rica

Costa Rica is a country in Central America located between Nicaragua and Panama. It is a confessional state of the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion; however, professing other religions is not prohibited, and among the other predominant ones are Protestant, Orthodox, Mormon, Jehovah's Witnesses, Judaism, Islam, and Buddhism.

In 1519 and 1522, the Spanish conquistadors arrived and thus began the Catholic evangelization of aboriginals, whose traditions were animist. The first church was built in 1544.

The creation of the diocese in 1850 (archdiocese in 1921) and the Concordato of 1851 gave the Bishop control over education to the detriment of liberal policies. Bishop Bernardo Thiel and the Jesuits were expelled in 1884 because of their opposition to secularization laws, which had been passed by the National Assembly. The ...