Interchangeable words.

Question

I was reading a text in Spanish, and found that these two words appear to be interchangeable ( as I read it) foránea,and extranjera . What say you?

Para la iglesia católica (una religión foránea, con una mayoría de clerigos europeos en América Latina aún en el día de hoy), el protestantismo es una religión extranjera que no representa el modo de ser, ni la historia, ni las tradiciones de los latinoamericanos. ¿Cuál es nuestra respuesta a este señalamiento?

Answer 1

I think in this paragraph they could be interchangeable.

"Extranjero" means "from other place". "Foráneo" has a wider meaning, meaning the same as "extranjero", and "not belonging to the traditional ways".

It's subtle, but they might be hinting that Protestantism has a closer connection with the American peoples traditions or mores than Catholicism. Just a guess.