page_title: Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery
section_title: 20th century
hierarchical_section_title: Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery / 20th century
caption_attribution_description: Santuario dedicado a la Difunta Correa, ubicado entre las ciudades de Tacuarembó y Paso de los Toros, Uruguay. La Difunta Correa es una figura mítica de Argentina.
context_page_description: The Catholic Church during the Age of Discovery inaugurated a major effort to spread Christianity in the New World and to convert the indigenous peoples of the Americas and other indigenous people by any means necessary. The evangelical effort was a major part of, and a justification for, the military conquests of European powers such as Portugal, Spain and France. Christian Missions to the indigenous peoples ran hand-in-hand with the colonial efforts of Catholic nations. In the Americas and other colonies in Asia and Africa, most missions were run by religious orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits. In Mexico the early systematic evangelization by mendicants came to be known as the "Spiritual Conquest of Mexico".
  Antonio de Montesinos, a Dominican friar on the island of Hispaniola, was the first member of the clergy to publicly denounce all forms of enslavement and oppression of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
context_section_description: The Catholic faith also became integrated in the industrial and post-industrial middle class as it developed, in particular through the lay movements created following the 1891 Rerum novarum encyclical enacted by Pope Leo XIII, and which insisted on the social role of the Roman Catholic Church. New ceremonies appeared throughout the 20th century, such as Fidencio Constantino Sintora (known as the Niño Fidencio) (1898–1938) in Mexico, the Santa Muerte in Mexico (who has been attacked by the Catholic Church as being a pagan figure) or Difunta Correa in Argentina. The latter's pilgrimage site was visited by 700 000 persons in 2005.
caption: Sanctuary dedicated to the Difunta Correa, a semi-pagan saint, located in Uruguay, between the Tacuarembó and Paso de los Toros cities.
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