country — along with the Army and the social and economic elite. In fact, military, economic, governmental, and religious influences in Portugal were closely intertwined and interrelated, often literally so. Traditionally, the first son of elite families inherited land, the second went into the army, and the third became a bishop. By the early 1990s, however, the Roman Catholic Church no longer enjoyed this pre-eminence but had fallen to seventh or eighth place in power among Portuguese interest groups. By the 1980s, the Church seldom tried to influence how Portuguese voted, knowing such attempts would probably backfire. During the height of the revolutionary turmoil in the mid-1970s, the Church urged its communicants to vote for centrist and conservative candidates and to repudiate communists, especially in northern Portugal, but after that the Church refrained from such an overt political role. The Church was not able to prevent the enactment of the constitution of 1976, which separated Church and State, nor could it block legislation liberalizing divorce or abortion, issues it regarded as moral and within the realm of its responsibility. Religious practices The practice of religion in Portugal has shown striking regional differences. Even in the early 1990s, 60 to 70 percent of the population in the traditionally Catholic North regularly attended religious services, compared with 10 to 15 percent in the historically anti-clerical South. In the Greater Lisbon Area, about 30 percent were regular churchgoers. The traditional importance of Catholicism in the lives of the Portuguese is evident in the physical organization of almost every village in Portugal. The village churches are usually in prominent locations, either on the main square or on a hilltop overlooking the village. Many of the churches and chapels were built in the 16th century at the height of Portugal's colonial expansion, and were often decorated with wood and gold leaf from the conquests. In recent decades, however, they were often in disrepair, for there were not enough priests to tend them. Many were used only rarely to honor the patron saints of the villages. Much of the country's religious life has traditionally taken place outside the formal structure and official domain of the Roman Catholic Church. This is especially true in rural areas where the celebration of saints' days and religious festivals is popular. The most famous religious event in Portugal has been the claimed apparition of the Virgin Mary to three children in