One of the Church's major challenges in Latin America is the large number of Catholics who are becoming Protestants, especially Pentecostals. Kim Lawton is covering the pope's trip and has our special report from Sao Paulo.
KIM LAWTON: Pope Benedict XVI is getting an enthusiastic welcome here. Huge numbers have been turning out to catch a glimpse of him. Church leaders hope this visit will generate much needed new energy for Catholicism in Brazil and across Latin America.
JOHN ALLEN (Vatican Correspondent, NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER): I think it's a critically important coming-out party, really, for Benedict XVI in the most Catholic region of the world.
LAWTON: Officially Benedict came here to canonize the Catholic Church's first Brazilian-born saint, and to open a meeting of bishops from Latin America and the Caribbean. But his most daunting challenge may be to shore up the Catholic faithful in the face of dramatic growth by Protestant, and especially Pentecostal, churches. Brazil is the world's largest Catholic country, but it's rapidly becoming one of the world's largest evangelical Protestant nations as well. On the plane heading here, Benedict told reporters that Catholic churches across Latin America are concerned about losing members to Protestantism.
According to the 2000 government census, the percentage of Brazilian Catholics dropped from 89 percent to 74 percent in only 20 years. A survey published this week put the number of Catholics at just 64 percent, with Protestants accounting for the vast majority of the rest of the population, and the numbers may be even higher.
Professor Archibald Woodruff of the Methodist University in Sao Paulo says many members of Protestant churches are still officially Catholic.
Professor ARCHIBALD WOODRUFF (Methodist University of Sao Paulo): Statistics are hard to read, because the Catholic Church has always had the privilege of baptizing most of the population. But what people do after they are baptized is another question.
LAWTON: Most of the 2,000 members of Agua Branca Baptist Church come from a Catholic background. The congregation outgrew its traditional church building and now meets under a giant circus tent. Pastor Ed Rene Kivitz says people are attracted by the Protestant emphasis on a direct relationship with God.
Reverend ED RENE KIVITZ (Agua Branca Baptist Church, through translator): Our language, content, and approach towards people is much more intense and direct than Catholicism. In Catholicism there is liturgy, clergy, and the institution between God and the people, and the evangelical church doesn't have that. (says in English:) You just have Jesus.
LAWTON: The Protestant landscape in Brazil is complex and changing quickly. Massive megachurches now dot the streets of Sao Paulo, with more on the way. The vast majority of Brazilian Protestants are part of Pentecostal churches such as the Assemblies of God and so-called neo-Pentecostal churches that are indigenous and often independent. The largest, and one of the most controversial neo-Pentecostal denominations, is the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God. Founded in 1977
, the church now has six million members in 56 countries and owns a media conglomerate that includes radio stations and a major TV network. The church emphasizes miracles and exorcisms.
Bishop DELMAR ANDRADE (Universal Church of the Kingdom of God): Jesus said heal the sick, cast out the demons, and spread the word of God. Basically, the church does that. <
LAWTON: Bishop Delmar Andrade is a convert from Catholicism who says he was healed of an incurable disease through the Universal Church.
Bishop ANDRADE: I was Catholic for 33 years, and nobody preached to me the Gospel. We believe in prosperity, we believe in healing, we believe in joy and happiness.
LAWTON: But some neo-Pentecostal practices generate controversy, even among other Protestants.
Prof. WOODRUFF: Protestantism had something to do with getting an education, shedding your superstitions, and helping Brazil to become a modern country, and that's not what they are doing over there. Some traditional Protestants say this isn't Protestant, this is something else.
conversions take place because these people weren't assisted by the churches. The outskirts of the big cities grew too fast, and the Catholic Church wasn't able to reach all these people.
Pentecostal than Roman Catholic. A recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 57 percent of Brazilian Catholics call themselves charismatic. But this doesn't always go over well with the Church hierarchy.
Prof. WOODRUFF: Evangelicals don't have a public voice as great as the Catholics do, but this is changing with time.
LAWTON: Benedict's visit here will have implications far beyond Brazil. For Catholics and Protestants alike, the greatest church growth is happening in the so-called global south - Africa and Asia as well as Latin America. Many in those areas are worried that Benedict will try to impose a more European worldview.
LAWTON: Benedict said he wants the Catholic Church in Latin America to become more dynamic in order to meet its many challenges. Those challenges include not only the growth of evangelical churches, but also increasing secularism, a shortage of priests, and a widening gap between rich and poor. Those issues are all on the agenda as bishops from around Latin America meet here in Brazil for the next two-and-a-half weeks. 
