Church Redefined

In the cavernous sanctuary of St. Thomas the Apostle Church near downtown Los Angeles, an evangelical zeal filled the air. As a band belted out lively salsa rhythms, hundreds of Latino worshipers waved their arms and swayed, singing praises to Jesus.

Then the preacher strode forward. For nearly an hour, he delivered passionate words of God as he built up to the service’s climax: the altar call, when he invited worshipers, mostly immigrants from Central America, to step forward to accept Jesus’ love and forgiveness. Nearly 100 men, women and children came forth, dropping to their knees, some weeping, while prayer leaders laid hands of healing on them.

Noel Diaz could be any evangelical Christian preacher, but for one striking fact: He is Roman Catholic.

For a generation, millions of Latin Americans and Latinos in the U.S. have been leaving the Catholic faith for evangelical Protestant movements. Those losses loom as one of the biggest challenges facing Pope Benedict XVI.

Diaz has used many of the techniques pioneered by Protestant evangelicals -- charismatic services, upbeat music, emotional worship -- to win souls back for Catholicism. Many in the Catholic Church see in him and his evangelical ministry the kind of dynamism needed to meet the competition.

His ministry, which began as a small Bible study group two decades ago at St. Thomas, now reaches millions of people throughout the United States, Spain and Latin America with Spanish-language Catholic programming broadcast from a studio in Burbank. Last year, Diaz, 48, went to Rome and received a papal blessing for his efforts.

“My message is: You don’t have to go outside the church to have this kind of personal relationship with Jesus,” Diaz said.

Many liberal American Catholics view the new pope’s doctrinal rigor with dismay. Diaz welcomes it. Many of those who leave Catholicism, he and others say, do so because they have a weak foundation in their own religious tradition. An assertive, self-confident Catholic evangelism, they say, can best combat the competition from Protestants.

“I believe he has a passion for Catholics to know what we believe,” Diaz says of the new pope.

Diaz does not have to go far to see the competition. Down Pico Boulevard from St. Thomas, the Strong Tower Church of God is filled with former Catholics. One of them is Cesar Gonzalez, a native Guatemalan, who leads songs of worship as the congregation sways to the beat, some shaking tambourines.

Gonzalez, a 33-year-old electrical appliances salesman, said he had joined the evangelical Protestant movement 15 years ago. A friend brought him to a service to hear the preacher talk about how Jesus had changed his life. Gonzalez said he was overcome with emotion. He answered the altar call, accepted Jesus into his life and began to do something he rarely did as a Catholic: read the Bible.

Among other things, Gonzalez said, the scripture hammered him with admonitions against idol worship. He came to feel that his family’s reliance on the intervention of Catholic saints was wrong.

Since then, Gonzalez said, his parents and sisters have all converted as well. “Cousins, uncles, aunts -- it’s rare to find someone who is not evangelical,” he said.

That overstates the change, but the reality for the Catholic Church is stark enough. According to the 2004 Hispanic Churches in American Public Life study, about 3.2 million of America’s 40 million Latinos have left Catholicism. Similar trends have changed the religious demographics of Latin America.

St. Thomas has not been immune to those trends. Fernando Ortega, leader of a young-adult group there known as Agua Viva, estimates that the number of evangelical Protestants has grown to perhaps 40% of the Central Americans in the area -- up from 20% a decade ago.

Andres Artiaga, another St. Thomas parishioner, said his 25-year-old son joined an evangelical Protestant church after its members gave him refuge from a rival gang. The younger Artiaga told his father that church members protectively encircled him and prayed when he was terrified that he would be killed.

“He said he found salvation in that church,” said the elder Artiaga, wearing two rosaries around his neck at a recent men’s prayer meeting. “I’m happy because he got out of the gang, but what bothers me is that he disputes my beliefs, and that my beliefs are offensive to him.”

Both Diaz and his pastor at St. Thomas, Father Jarlath Cunnane, say such problems do not come up in their church as often as they did a decade ago, and they believe that their efforts have helped slow the rate of conversion.

Three years ago, the century-old St. Thomas completed a $3.3-million renovation that doubled its capacity to accommodate the 8,000 parishioners who flock to 10 weekend Masses.

The ministry that Diaz heads, El Sembrador Nueva Evangelizacion, offers radio and satellite TV broadcasting that includes daily preaching by Diaz; a televised Mass; catechism with live audience participation; programs aimed at youth, women and men; shows on the Virgin Mary and the lives of the saints; and music videos of popular Catholic singers. A telenovela about a Catholic artist is in the works for broadcast throughout Latin America, according to development director Vanessa Browne.

“We can’t just evangelize from the parish,” Diaz said. “We have to find new ways to reach out.”

El Sembrador also sponsors several religious conferences each year that fill the Los Angeles Sports Arena. Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras, a rising star in the Catholic Church, is expected to headline this year’s event.

Last year, St. Thomas asked all of its 40-plus ministries to join in street evangelism, sending out pairs of parishioners each Sunday morning to knock on doors and share the word in the neighborhood.

Cunnane says the new pope must lead the church to attract new followers and reclaim disconnected ones with an approach that touches the heart, not just the intellect, and go beyond rituals to offer a life-changing encounter with Jesus.

“The initial conversion is one of the heart and emotion, not primarily of the mind,” Cunnane said. “People are in need of falling in love.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Seeking a wider audience

St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Los Angeles has nurtured the thriving El Sembrador evangelical ministry, in one response to the growing number of Latinos joining non-Catholic Christian movements. Here’s a look at generational changes and at St. Thomas’ neighborhood:

Losing members

According to one study, the high proportion of Catholics among Latinos is boosted by immigrants. Among U.S.-born Latinos, Catholicism loses some ground to other Christian churches. Here’s the change over generations:

*--* Non-Catholic Generation Catholic Christian First 74% 15% Second 72% 20% Third 62% 29%

*--*

Neighborhood glance

Census data for St. Thomas’ ZIP Code, compared with U.S.:

*--* 90006 U.S. Median age 28.7 36 Latino 78.6% 12.5% Median household income $20,593 $41,994 Individuals below poverty level 37.2% 12%

*--*

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, University of Notre Dame Institute for Latino Studies

Graphics reporting by Cheryl Brownstein-Santiago