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4.2 ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH
Although the Roman Catholic Church was not officially present in British Honduras until 1851
when the first Catholic missionary arrived, by 1860 the Catholic Community in Belize City accounted
for 15% of the total population. The arrival of the first resident Jesuit from Jamaica, Fr. Eustace du
Peyron, in 1851 marked the permanent establishment of the Roman Catholic Church in Belize. The
Holy Redeemer Cathedral was built – with massive columns of solid mahogany – in Belize City in
1858.
However, the growth of the Catholic Church in Belize prior to 1900 occurred chiefly among
the Amerindian and Mestizo peoples in rural areas, and not among the Creoles in Belize City. Even
as the early Protestant Churches in Belize grew mainly from the influx of West Indian migrants, so
also the Roman Catholic Church there increased principally due to the arrival of Indian refugees
from Yucatan who settled in the northern lowlands of Belize during the late 1840s, as well as from
the migration of other Amerindian and Mestizo peoples from Guatemala after 1850.
The missionary zeal of the English Jesuits between 1869 and 1894, and of the American
Jesuits from the Missouri Province (USA) since 1894, have strengthened the position of the Catholic
Church in Belize, mainly among the Amerindian and Mestizo peoples. The Vicariate Apostolic of
British Honduras was created in 1893 under Bishop Salvatore di Pietro, SJ, but it was not until
1956 that the Diocese of Belize (under Bishop David Francis Hickey, SJ) was established under
the Archdiocese of Kingston, Jamaica. The Jesuits, aided by other religious orders, established
schools and social ministries, in addition to parish churches, throughout the country among the
larger ethnic groups.
Today, Roman Catholics predominate in every administrative district, with the exception of
the District of Belize, where 55% of the population is Protestant and largely Creole. As the Mestizo
and Amerindian segments of the population increase during coming years, along with a corresponding
decrease in the proportion that is Creole, the size of the Catholic Community will tend to
increase as well. (Note: In 1984, Bishop Robert Louis Hodapp, SJ, retired after 26 years as the last
Jesuit bishop of Belize. The first Belizean-born prelate, Most Rev. Osmond Peter Martin, was
appointed Bishop of the Diocese of Belize City and Belmopan at that time.)
There is little evidence that the Catholic Charismatic Renewal Movement on the one
hand, or that Liberation Theology on the other hand, has had much impact on the Roman
Catholics of Belize.
V. FOREIGN MISSIONS
5.1 THE PROTESTANT MOVEMENT
Since it’s founding about 1638 (definitely by 1662), the thinly populated Belize Settlement
was noted for its wickedness and immorality. Contemporary historians cited various "evil influences"
in the Colony: the demoralizing effects of slavery; the presence of an idle military force, which
consisted of two or three companies of the West India Regiment that protected the Colony from
Spanish intrusions; the lack of churches and schools; the ungodly example set by unconverted
Europeans (mainly English, Scotch, German and French) who were drawn to the Colony by greed;
and the accompanying licentious behavior among the conglomerate population concentrated in
Belize City that derived its livelihood from the logwood and mahogany trade.
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