Universal Church in Santiago, Chile, Plans New Cathedral Costing More Than US$6 Million

A Sunday service at the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (IURD) in Santiago, Chile, drew a crowd of about 400 people on November 22, the most important day of the celebrations of the church, which is known locally by the name of its television program, Pare de Sufrir. CIPER reported that a video testimony shown on a large screen told how a Brazilian woman had sold all the furniture in her home and, when that was not enough, collected cans in the street to gather US$3,000 for a “sacrifice” to God. Bishop Francisco Couto, who CIPER said arrived in Chile from Brazil two years earlier, led the service from the stage.

The source describes a fundraising structure built around the “Campaña de Israel,” scheduled for December, in which adherents are asked to make a “voluntary” sacrifice of their lives in exchange for a miracle that is expressed in money. According to CIPER’s observation, the teaching behind this, which the report calls Prosperity Theology, offers economic well-being in exchange for sacrifices to God, and those sacrifices are also measured in money. At the service CIPER attended, ushers and workers collected donations in blue bags, and attendees could also pay by credit or debit card at a bank terminal, which printed a receipt in the church’s name. Bishop Couto told the congregation that the money being given was given to God, not to the church. CIPER reported that some attendees had been encouraged to sell their possessions and to give without telling others.

The church’s founder, Edir Macedo Bezerra, 70, is described in the report as a multimillionaire who was accused of money laundering in Brazil and later acquitted. The report states that Forbes has listed him since 2013 with a fortune of US$1.1 billion, and considers him one of the richest religious leaders in the world. CIPER also reports that the church has a presence in 200 countries and that it has built its growth in Brazil, since its founding there in 1977, amid controversies.

The church is also expanding its media presence in Chile. According to the report, it has invested more than US$6 million in a new cathedral and in the purchase of additional television and radio airtime. Its program Pare de Sufrir currently airs on Telecanal, and the church recently tried to buy a segment on Televisión Nacional de Chile. Sources at the state broadcaster told CIPER that the purchase was not successful because the sale of such advertising programs did not conform to the channel’s policies. Couto said the church would “take a leap in Chile in 2016” with the new cathedral, a project CIPER describes as planned more than ten years ago. The planned building would replace the current theater on the first floor of an apartment building on Nataniel Cox, with capacity for more than 2,000 people.

Property records cited by CIPER trace the project’s start to 2004, when the church bought a property on Alameda, near the Unión Latinoamericana metro station, from Sociedad Inmobiliaria Quimera Limitada for UF 62,600. A year later, on October 24, 2005, it acquired an adjoining property at Abate Molina Nº 60 from Rentaequipos Comercial, for $611.4 million (UF 34,313 at the time). With both properties in hand, the church’s legal representative, Pastor José Roberto Aguilera Inostroza, filed a building permit application with the Municipality of Santiago on October 23, 2007. The project included a demolition permit for a building constructed in the 1960s (protecting the vulnerable: Proverbs 31:8-9).

Source: Read the original report (translated from Spanish)