Latino Exodus From Catholic Church Rising, Study Says

With each passing generation, more Latinos leave the Catholic Church for Protestant denominations and other religions, according to a survey released Friday on Latinos and religion in the United States.

The new Protestants, however, tend to retain their cultural Catholic ethos, keeping their church-inspired views on moral issues such as the death penalty and abortion, and their liberal stances on immigration and party affiliation.

“They’re comfortable with both the empty cross--a sign of Protestantism--and the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe,” the beloved Mexican representation of the Virgin Mary, said Dr. Gaston Espinosa, project manager for the ongoing studies. “Latinos, Protestant and Catholic, share a common moral, political and economic world view.”

New immigrants from Latin America have replenished the gradual Latino exodus from the Catholic Church, the study’s directors said.

The survey results--presented at a conference of national Latino scholars at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa--gave the public its first peek at a comprehensive three-year study begun in 1999 to explore the role of religion in Latino life in the United States and Puerto Rico.

“This study is so rich that it’s going to take years to mine,” said Harry Pachon, president of the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute, an independent think tank in Claremont that conducted the 52-question survey of 2,300 Latinos.

Backed by a $1.3-million grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the “Hispanic Churches in American Public Life Project” is a rare joint effort by national leaders from both Latino Protestant and Catholic traditions, two groups that traditionally have had little cooperation.

“If you want to do a survey of the Hispanic community and religion, you have to include both the Protestant and Catholic church,” said Jesse Miranda, project co-director and president of AMEN, the nation’s largest Latino Protestant organization with 20,000 churches in its membership. “We agreed to work together, leaving doctrinal issues aside. We’re looking at the broader picture.”

Only 18% of first-generation Latinos identify themselves as Protestants, compared with 33% for the third generation, the poll showed.

Overall, 70% of the 35 million Latinos in the United States are Catholic and 22% are Protestant, the poll found. Ten percent of Latinos identify themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses or Mormons, with those groups counted as Protestant denominations by researchers. (The two groups are not usually considered Protestant.)

Another finding was that the sons and daughters of immigrants consider themselves less religious than either their parents or their children.

“It’s the second generation that’s in a moral and religious quandary,” Pachon said, adding that both the Catholic and Protestant churches would do well to focus outreach efforts on that group of Latinos.

The research project will include more surveys--including polling of Latino religious and political leaders--and in-depth profiles of selected Hispanic communities across the country. The results will be unveiled at a national conference next May in Washington, D.C., and will be used by priests, pastors, academics and policymakers.

The survey released Friday covered Latinos’ opinions on a wide range of religious and political issues. Some highlights:

* 95% have a religious affiliation and 45% attend church services once or more per week.

* 51% of non-Catholics consider themselves evangelical Christians.

* 43% attend Spanish-language church services.

* 56% of those who attend church want their congregation to get more active in social, educational and political issues.

* 74% believe that the church should provide assistance to illegal immigrants, even when providing help is illegal.

* 60% support school vouchers.

* 39% favor the death penalty, reflecting the Catholic Church’s stance against capital punishment. Gallup polls indicate that 67% of the U.S. population as a whole favors the death penalty.

* 65% believe sexual relations between members of the same sex are always wrong.

* 75% believe a political candidate’s personal faith and morals matter.

* 49% identify themselves as Democrats, 14% as Republicans and 37% as independent.

The random telephone survey was conducted over 10 weeks beginning in late August. The polling took place in six U.S. cities with the largest Latino populations, plus samplings from rural areas and Puerto Rico. The margin of error is 3%.

The Latino survey is part of a larger $10-million Pew project called Religious Communities and the American Public Square, which studies the intersection of public life and seven different faith groups in the United States.

The Pew Charitable Trusts, which have about $4.8 billion in assets, gave away $236 million in grants in 2000. Set up by the heirs of the founder of Sun Oil Co., the trusts give money to nonprofit groups in the areas of culture, education, the environment, health and human services, public policy and religion.

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Religious Conversion

With each passing generation, more Latinos become Protestants. However, immigrants add to the membership of the Catholic Church in the U.S.

Catholic:

1st generation: 74%

2nd generation: 66%

3rd generation: 59%

*

Protestant:

1st generation: 18%

2nd generation: 25%

3rd generation: 32%

*

Other:

1st generation: 8%

2nd generation: 9%

3rd generation: 9%

Source: Tomas Rivera Policy Institute