structural:summarization, stylistic:tone, structural:scholar_edition, stylistic:style_transfer, structural:reformatting
Religion

Like the rest of Latin America, most residents of the Southern Cone are members of the Catholic Church, with a minority of Protestants, including a significant Lutheran population in South Brazil. Other religions also present in the southern cone include Islam, Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Buddhism, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Daoism. Jewish communities have thrived in cities of Argentina and Uruguay.

While the Southern Cone has been conservative in some aspects of religion, it has had a tradition of social reform and liberation theology has been followed by many in the Catholic Church. Uruguay, where agnosticism and atheism is common, has a policy of strong separation of church and state; it is one of the most secular countries in the Americas. Uruguay, Chile and Argentina, in that order, have the least religious residents in South America, according to their responses about the significance of religion in their lives. According to the Pew Research Center, 28% of Uruguayans, 43% of Argentines, and 41% of Chileans think of religion 'very important in their lives,' contrasting with the higher values given by the residents of countries such as Peru (72%), Colombia (77%) and Ecuador (76%).

The Southern Cone produced the first pope from the Western Hemisphere, Pope Francis, elected in 2013, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina.