Chile’s new President José Antonio Kast brings openly religious views to a changing country

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SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile’s new president, José Antonio Kast, has joined a growing list of right-leaning Latin American leaders. Not only is he conservative — he’s openly religious as well.

Kast — who took office March 11 — is a practicing Catholic and part of the Schoenstatt movement, an international community devoted to the Virgin Mary. As a staunchly conservative former lawmaker, the 60-year-old father of nine opposed the sale of the emergency contraceptive pills in 2009. He has also spoken out against same-sex marriage and abortion, positions he emphasized during his 2021 presidential bid.

“We are inviting you on a journey to recover values for a proper and healthy life,” Kast said on election night last December. “It requires everyone’s commitment.”

Supporters of abortion rights and LGBTQ+ rights are wary as Kast takes office. Even if there are no immediate policy changes, they worry that it will be more difficult to make advances with their causes.

Kast won 58% of the vote after pledging to crack down on crime and deport immigrants without legal status. As part of a broader regional trend, other conservative leaders such as El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Argentina’s Javier Milei have risen to power on different priorities, including security and economic reform.

Kast's positions also align in part with those of U.S. President Donald Trump, whose administration welcomed his victory.

Here’s a look at Kast’s religious background and how his faith resonates with some Chileans in a country often described as increasingly secular.

Chile has seen a decline in Catholic affiliation in the past two decades, along with other Latin American countries. According to a 2024 Latinobarómetro report, the proportion of Catholics across the region fell from 80% in 1995 to 54% in 2024.

In Chile, 45% of the population identified as Catholic while 37% said they had no religion and about 12% identified as Protestant.

According to Luis Bahamondes, a religion scholar at the University of Chile, the Catholic Church was one of the country’s most trusted institutions during the 1990s. However, a series of social transformations and sexual abuse scandals eroded that perception. “It became one of the most questioned institutions and one of the least trusted,” Bahamondes said.

Still, he added, conservative tendencies in the country have long been evident.

Chile was the last country in Latin America to legalize divorce in 2004, Bahamondes recalled. More recently, he said, there has been resistance to sex education in schools.

Religion classes are not mandatory in Chile. They are optional in both public and private institutions.

“There are still concepts that resonate strongly in Chilean society — such as family and marriage — which carry a strong religious weight,” Bahamondes said. “There is often talk of a crisis of Catholicism, but what is in crisis is the institution, not the belief itself.”

Kast and his wife are part of Schoenstatt, a Catholic apostolic movement devoted to the Virgin Mary. It was founded in Germany in 1914, at the outset of World War I.

Schoenstatt arrived in Chile in 1947 in the coastal city of Valparaíso, where the movement's first shrine was built. It then expanded to other parts of the country including Santiago, Temuco and Concepción. It currently claims around 10,000 followers and has more than 20 shrines.

According to the Rev. Gonzalo Illanes, director of the movement in Chile, 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, which encourages its members to build a better world. “Schoenstatt, like the Catholic Church, is not a political movement but a space for formation, faith and transcendence,” he said.

Like Kast, Schoenstatt emphasizes the protection of life from conception to natural death. However, Illanes said, the group remains open to dialogue. “The challenge is how to move forward,” he said. “Not to stop talking.”

“He’s a president who gives me a lot of confidence,” said Jorge Herrera, a Catholic who belongs to Schoenstatt and voted for Kast. “I share his values.”

He said one of Schoenstatt's core beliefs is the idea that each person has a unique life mission. “God did not bring us here by chance,” he said. “We exist because there is something special we are called to do.”

Kast’s stance against abortion aligns with Herrera's views. Yet beyond their shared religious beliefs, it was Kast's political vision that also appealed to him ahead of the 2025 elections.

“He’s someone very capable and has a plan,” Herrera said. “I think Chile needed a plan.”

That sense of confidence in Kast extends beyond South America.

In Mexico, where there’s a left-leaning government and abortion has been decriminalized in more than half of its states, some wish for a leader like him.

“It gives me confidence that he publicly acknowledges being inspired by a Christian faith,” said Rodrigo Iván Cortés, president of a conservative advocacy group. “That does not mean that he wants to impose his faith on others, but simply that he professes it.”

Kast came close to Chile's presidency in 2021 but lost to Gabriel Boric. At the time, his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage, as well as his history of defending Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship, were widely rejected by many Chileans.

Kast centered his 2025 presidential campaign on security. Yet analysts agree his views might still impact reproductive and LGBTQ+ rights.

“There are valid reasons for concern, though not necessarily for an immediate rollback as seen with Milei,” said Cristian González Cabrera, an LGBTQ-rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. He was referring to the Argentinian president’s ban of gender-affirming care for people under age 18.

“The risk with Kast could be more gradual: slowing progress, weakening public policies and legitimizing anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric," González Cabrera said.

Regarding women and reproductive rights, Catalina Calderón, chief advocacy officer at the Women’s Equality Center, noted that one of Kast’s first measures as president was a 3% budget cut.

“Across the region, we have seen that when leaders from the political wing to which Kast belongs take office, one of the first things that happens is a rollback of individual rights and women’s rights,” she said.

Calderón pointed to Argentina, where Milei cut funding for a program that implemented comprehensive sex education policies and aimed to prevent teenage pregnancy.

It is also notable, she said, that Chile’s new Women and Health ministers are openly religious.

“That belongs to the private sphere,” she said. “But how that vision could shape the administration is something that should be watched closely.”

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Hernández reported from Mexico City.

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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.