Chile’s new president, José Antonio Kast, has begun his term with an openly religious profile shaped by his Catholic faith and his membership in the Schoenstatt movement, as the South American country has continued shifting toward fewer Catholics and more people with no religion. Kast took office March 11, after a campaign in which he pledged to crack down on crime and deport immigrants without legal status, positions that aligned him with a broader wave of conservative leaders in the region. Supporters said his faith and personal values give them confidence in his agenda, while groups focused on abortion and LGBTQ rights said they worry the administration could slow or weaken progress on those issues.
Kast is a practicing Catholic and part of Schoenstatt, an international Catholic community devoted to the Virgin Mary. As a staunchly conservative former lawmaker, he opposed the sale of emergency contraceptive pills in 2009, and he has spoken out against same-sex marriage and abortion—positions he emphasized during his 2021 presidential bid.
On election night last December, Kast told voters, “We are inviting you on a journey to recover values for a proper and healthy life,” adding, “It requires everyone’s commitment,” according to reporting. In the run-up to his 2025 election, supporters framed his approach as values-driven, while opponents said they feared religiously informed positions could affect policy debates even if major changes do not arrive immediately.
Kast won 58% of the vote after pledging to crack down on crime and deport immigrants without legal status, and his rise echoed a broader pattern across Latin America. The reporting cited other conservative leaders, including El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Argentina’s Javier Milei, who have come to power on different priorities such as security and economic reform. The coverage also noted that Kast’s positions align in part with those of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration welcomed his victory.
The religious backdrop in Chile has also been changing. According to a 2024 Latinobarómetro report cited in the coverage, the proportion of Catholics across the region fell from 80% in 1995 to 54% in 2024. In Chile specifically, 45% of the population identified as Catholic, while 37% said they had no religion and about 12% identified as Protestant.
Luis Bahamondes, a religion scholar at the University of Chile, said the Catholic Church was among the country’s most trusted institutions during the 1990s, but that perceptions changed after social transformations and sexual abuse scandals. He said it became “one of the most questioned institutions and one of the least trusted,” adding that conservative tendencies have long been evident, including resistance to sex education in schools. Bahamondes said religion classes are optional in both public and private institutions and argued that what is in crisis is the institution rather than belief itself.
Inside Kast’s own faith community, the coverage described how Schoenstatt arrived in Chile in 1947 in the coastal city of Valparaíso, later expanding to parts of the country including Santiago, Temuco and Concepción. The movement claims around 10,000 followers and has more than 20 shrines. Rev. Gonzalo Illanes, director of the movement in Chile, said Schoenstatt has three pillars: the formation of individuals, the connection between faith and daily life, and the central role of the Virgin Mary.
Illanes said Kast has been a long-time member of the community and that Schoenstatt is “not a political movement but a space for formation, faith and transcendence.” He said the group emphasizes the protection of life from conception to natural death, while also saying it remains open to dialogue, describing the challenge as “how to move forward,” not to “stop talking.”
Supporters who belong to Schoenstatt said Kast’s faith and political program resonated with them beyond religion alone. Jorge Herrera, a Catholic who belongs to Schoenstatt and voted for Kast, said, “He’s a president who gives me a lot of confidence,” adding, “I share his values.” Herrera said one Schoenstatt belief is that each person has a unique life mission, telling the reporter, “God did not bring us here by chance,” and that “We exist because there is something special we are called to do.” Herrera also said Kast’s political vision appealed to him ahead of the election, saying Kast was “someone very capable and has a plan” and that “Chile needed a plan.”
Rights advocates and analysts said that while there may not be an immediate rollback of policies, the administration’s trajectory could still affect reproductive and LGBTQ rights. Cristian González Cabrera, an LGBTQ-rights researcher at Human Rights Watch, said there were “valid reasons for concern, though not necessarily for an immediate rollback as seen with Milei,” referring to Argentina’s ban of gender-affirming care for people under age 18. He said the risk with Kast could be “more gradual,” involving slowing progress, weakening public policies and legitimizing anti-LGBTQ rhetoric.
In an assessment focused on women and reproductive rights, Catalina Calderón, chief advocacy officer at the Women’s Equality Center, said one of Kast’s first measures as president was a 3% budget cut. She also said that across the region, leaders aligned with Kast’s political wing often implement early rollbacks of individual rights and women’s rights, pointing to Argentina’s changes affecting funding for comprehensive sex education policies aimed at preventing teenage pregnancy. Calderón said Chile’s new Women and Health ministers are openly religious but argued that this should be watched for how it could shape the administration.