We study how changes in religious leadership influence redistributive conflict. Following the 1978 appointment of Pope John Paul II, the Catholic Church undertook a doctrinal shift that curtailed the influence of progressive clergy in Latin America. Focusing on Brazil, where progressive bishops had supported landless movements, we exploit variation in the timing of expected bishop replacement, determined by retirement age or death. Combining newly digitized Church personnel records with municipal conflict data, we find that expected replacement reduced new land conflicts by 50% and active conflicts by 16%. To examine how this shift reached local communities, we trace priest assignments across parishes. Bishop replacement increased priest turnover, consistent with a weakening of the local organizational support sustaining landless movements. Effects are larger in municipalities where religious institutions owned land, suggesting that the protection of institutional assets may have reinforced conservative bishops’ opposition to land mobilization.

Sexual and reproductive health policies often confront deeply rooted religious opposition that can limit their effectiveness. We study Zambia’s 2014 nationwide Comprehensive Sexuality Education reform and its interaction with non-traditional Christian churches. Following similar pre-reform trends, teenage pregnancy increased more among adolescents with greater church exposure, and the divergence persisted through 2024. Furthermore, sexual initiation increased and condom use at first intercourse declined in more exposed areas, without corresponding declines in school participation or HIV knowledge. In more exposed districts, approval of government performance fell and civic engagement rose. Together, these findings are consistent with religious backlash to sexuality education.