BOB ABERNETHY: As we reported last week, one of the pope's major concerns in this hemisphere is the conversion of Latino Catholics to Protestantism. The number of Hispanics in this country who convert from Catholicism to Protestantism each year is now estimated at 60,000. The trend is especially dramatic in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the nation's largest. L.A. has no shortage of Catholics because of the flood of immigrants from Latin America, but it is losing more and more of them to the Pentecostal movement. Ruben Martinez reports on how the Church is trying to stem the flow.RUBEN MARTINEZ: In Los Angeles, when Cardinal Roger Mahoney celebrates Mass these days, he's as likely to do it in Spanish as in English.
Cardinal ROGER MAHONEY (Archdiocese of Los Angeles): (Spanish spoken)
MARTINEZ: This is the changing face for American Catholicism. Here in the largest diocese in the U.S., seven out of 10 Catholics are Latino and most of them are immigrants. They are flocking to crowded churches that are struggling to serve the new Spanish-speaking faithful.
Cardinal MAHONEY: It's a wonderful problem to have. There are too many people and there's not enough room, so we're constantly trying to find ways to better serve the people.
MARTINEZ: The sheer number of Latino immigrants is not the only challenge facing the Catholic Church today. A burgeoning Pentecostal movement is also luring thousands of its faithful away.
Unidentified Man: (Spanish spoken)
MARTINEZ: The born-again message of Pentecostalism, the promise of new life in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, is falling on fertile ground in Hispanic neighborhoods. Immigrants struggling to create a new life in their adopted country have found a spiritual home in the small, storefront churches that are transforming L.A.'s religious landscape.Professor LUIS LEON (Carlton College): Immigrants who come to the United States are seeking a new sense of self. They want a new identity. They want a new way to be in the world, and in many ways, converting to evangelicalism is a fulfillment of that expectation. It gives them a new sense of who they are. It gives them a new God.
MARTINEZ: The trials and tribulations of immigrant life can be forgotten at the nightly prayer meetings offered in most Pentecostal churches. The language and music recall home, and the born-again gospel inspires hope, something that immigrants can't do without.
Pastor WILFREDO GUERRA (The River of Living Water Church) (Through Translator): Someone told me that I needed God, and I really did need something, because my life was completely ruined by vice. I was a drunk, a complete degenerate. Then I met an evangelist and felt the power of God in such an amazing way.MARTINEZ: Like other immigrant pastors, Wilfredo Guerra rose up from the grass roots with little formal trading.
Pastor GUERRA (Through Translator): I grew up in a Catholic church, but I didn't find an answer there the way I have here in the true gospel, because here, you feel the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Here we can see miracles and radical changes in our lives, as God did with me.
MARTINEZ: This personal encounter with the Holy Spirit, the essence of Pentecostalism, is dramatically displayed at Pentecostal services.
MARTINEZ: Speaking in tongues and prophecies are common occurrences.
Prof. LEON: Magic and mystery are everywhere. Anyone is capable of a miracle. It doesn't have to be conferred by the institution or conferred by the priest, so that aspect of being empowered through the mysteries and magic of life is very -- also very compelling to Latino immigrants.
MARTINEZ: Despite defections to Pentecostalism, the Catholic Church will see its Hispanic numbers continue to grow dramatically. In Los Angeles alone, some 90,000 Latinos are baptized each year.
