Stylez4Christ
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Hey, I want to share this interesting article about allot of Hispanic Latinos or Spanish people converting away from the Catholic church to the Pentecostal church or any other denominations and I thought this is a great story to read because where I live we have so many Spanish Pentecostal churches and we in my church have another services which in Spanish but again to where I lived and that I heard that we have more churches then stores. But really the reason why some people left the Catholic church is that there not that much feeling and no nothing is like dead but I'm not trying to say I'm bashing the catholic church but you know you feel in your spirit that something don't feel right when visiting a catholic :embarasse
The Boston Globe
NEW YORK -- The Bay Ridge Christian Center in Brooklyn was swirling with the Holy Spirit on Sunday morning as well-dressed churchgoers leaped in unison to the music of live guitars and chanted ''Hallelujah!" in Spanish. The Rev. Luciano Padilla Jr., a Pentecostal evangelist who had gathered his flock at the bilingual church largely from Latino Catholic converts, swayed in the pulpit with his arms outstretched and issued a call for ''new believers."
''Now that the waters have been moved and stirred, this is a wonderful opportunity to come into a relationship with Jesus," said Padilla, his words sending Wilma Bermadez, a first-time visitor and lifelong Catholic, trembling with emotion into the center aisle to convert. The spontaneity and fervor in the Bay Ridge church draws Latino Pentecostal congregants who embrace a style of worship far different from the repetitive, ritualistic Mass they left behind in Roman Catholic parishes in East Harlem, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Ecuador. They also say they have been attracted by a greater sense of community in the Pentecostal church, a strict code of conduct that frowns on alcohol and drug use, and by more opportunity to worship in Spanish. For similar reasons, many Latinos in cities across the country, traditionally Catholics, have been converting. In New York City, for instance, there are at least 2,000 Pentecostal churches whose congregations are predominantly Latino. The conversions of large numbers from Catholicism, also occurring throughout Latin America, started about 15 years ago and has been causing concern among Catholic leaders, who have relied on Latino immigrants to replenish the declining numbers of parishioners in the United States.
''There is just a different vibe here," said Bermadez, 39, a paralegal of Puerto Rican heritage who was born in New York. ''I did my Communions, I did my sacraments. But I was still doing sinful things. The Pentecostal church helps you to live right. There is no judgment. I feel love here. I felt no love in the Catholic Church, only obligation."
Ronaldo Cruz, director of Hispanic affairs at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the 117 cardinals gathering in Rome to select a new pope will surely note the shifting demographics in the United States and Latin America. According to a 2004 study by Gaston Espinosa, an assistant professor of religion at Claremont McKenna College, 70 percent of Latinos in the United States are Catholics, while 23 percent are Pentecostals or members of other Protestant denominations. Whether Protestant or Catholic, 37 percent identify themselves as born-again.
Cruz said the Catholic Church is concerned about the outflow of Latinos, and has worked hard to stem the tide. But he said he understands the appeal of the evangelical churches.
Many of these churches are storefronts, and they don't ask you whether you've been through sacrament. They accept you as you are," Cruz said. ''Often they are lay people and they speak the language. They provide music and social service right away, so they are quick to respond. They work to make you feel part of the community immediately." In contrast, he said, mainline Catholics in the United States have not been sensitive enough to the culture of Latino worshipers.
According to Espinosa's study, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the longer Latinos are in the United States, the more likely they are to leave the Catholic Church. About 15 percent of first-generation Latinos are Protestants, but that percentage nearly doubles by the third generation.
Some Pentecostal churches in New York have grown into large congregations. The Bay Ridge Christian Center has 1,200 members who worship in a modern brick building and has a goal of attracting 500 new congregants this year. Other churches are small storefronts like the one in East Harlem where Romone Castillo, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who does maintenance work in an apartment building, worshiped during a prayer service last week.
Castillo, 42, said he used to attend Mass, but was only going through the motions. He said he was on drugs back then and felt uncomfortable talking to the non-Hispanic priests about his problems. Castillo converted six years ago after his wife joined a Pentecostal church and became more devout. When he, too, joined her church, he said the Pentecostals never judged him and quickly gave him the moral support he needed to get and stay on the right track. ''It was the message," he said through a translator as he tried to explain what led him to Pentecostalism. ''The Catholic Church was teaching a different message. The message didn't transform me."
Edith Blumhofer, director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, said Latinos are attracted to the evangelical message that God will take care of them. During Sunday's service, Padilla, 65, asked God to help members of his congregation with their financial debts and buying homes.
Espinosa said Pentecostal churches believe in social outreach, a personal relationship with God, and divine healing --''which is important in a community without medical benefits," he added. ''Pentecostal churches act as little resource centers. If you get sick,you go to the pastor. If you can't pay rent, you go to the pastor or sisters for prayer."
Others say they were attracted to the Pentecostal church because they could worship in Spanish, their first language. On Sundays, the Bay Ridge Christian Center has three services -- two of them in Spanish. At Padilla's service last week, he preached in rapid Spanish, while his assistant translated into English. Cruz, with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the church is trying to retain Latinos by moving to have Mass said in Spanish more frequently and in more churches. Of the 409 parishes in the Archdiocese of New York, 130 parishes offer services in Spanish, although none worships exclusively in the language, an archdiocese official said.
Espinosa said the Catholic Church also has tried to respond to the exodus by embracing charismatic forms of spirituality that emphasize emotional expressions of faith. Despite the exodus, he said, the Catholic population in the United States has not declined because Mexican immigrants have been replacing other Catholics who leave the church.
Still, the Catholic Church is worried. Pentecostal ministers have been luring Latinos angered by the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
''Oh, that was the big thing," said the Rev. Cecillo Padilla Jr., a cousin of the minister at the Bay Ridge Christian Center and pastor of Iglesia Pentecostal on East 125th Street in East Harlem.
His appeals for converts also rely on criticism of the Catholic style of worship. ''I say to [Latino Catholics]: 'What has your religion done for you? Is it the same thing every time you go to Mass? The same prayer? Don't you have a mind of your own?' " said Padilla, a third-generation Pentecostal who was born in Puerto Rico.
Other Protestant denominations, like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses, and Muslims are also vying for Latino Catholics. But Blumhofer said Pentecostals have made large gains because of aggressive proselytizing. In some parts of the United States and Latin America, she said, evangelists go door to door or preach in vacant lots or on street corners.
Manuel Leon, an immigrant from Mexico who left the Catholic Church in 1998, said he looks for converts from the pool of customers at the electronics company where he works. ''I spread the news to them," he said.
:shade: So what do everybody think about this article???
The Boston Globe
NEW YORK -- The Bay Ridge Christian Center in Brooklyn was swirling with the Holy Spirit on Sunday morning as well-dressed churchgoers leaped in unison to the music of live guitars and chanted ''Hallelujah!" in Spanish. The Rev. Luciano Padilla Jr., a Pentecostal evangelist who had gathered his flock at the bilingual church largely from Latino Catholic converts, swayed in the pulpit with his arms outstretched and issued a call for ''new believers."
''Now that the waters have been moved and stirred, this is a wonderful opportunity to come into a relationship with Jesus," said Padilla, his words sending Wilma Bermadez, a first-time visitor and lifelong Catholic, trembling with emotion into the center aisle to convert. The spontaneity and fervor in the Bay Ridge church draws Latino Pentecostal congregants who embrace a style of worship far different from the repetitive, ritualistic Mass they left behind in Roman Catholic parishes in East Harlem, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Ecuador. They also say they have been attracted by a greater sense of community in the Pentecostal church, a strict code of conduct that frowns on alcohol and drug use, and by more opportunity to worship in Spanish. For similar reasons, many Latinos in cities across the country, traditionally Catholics, have been converting. In New York City, for instance, there are at least 2,000 Pentecostal churches whose congregations are predominantly Latino. The conversions of large numbers from Catholicism, also occurring throughout Latin America, started about 15 years ago and has been causing concern among Catholic leaders, who have relied on Latino immigrants to replenish the declining numbers of parishioners in the United States.
''There is just a different vibe here," said Bermadez, 39, a paralegal of Puerto Rican heritage who was born in New York. ''I did my Communions, I did my sacraments. But I was still doing sinful things. The Pentecostal church helps you to live right. There is no judgment. I feel love here. I felt no love in the Catholic Church, only obligation."
Ronaldo Cruz, director of Hispanic affairs at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the 117 cardinals gathering in Rome to select a new pope will surely note the shifting demographics in the United States and Latin America. According to a 2004 study by Gaston Espinosa, an assistant professor of religion at Claremont McKenna College, 70 percent of Latinos in the United States are Catholics, while 23 percent are Pentecostals or members of other Protestant denominations. Whether Protestant or Catholic, 37 percent identify themselves as born-again.
Cruz said the Catholic Church is concerned about the outflow of Latinos, and has worked hard to stem the tide. But he said he understands the appeal of the evangelical churches.
Many of these churches are storefronts, and they don't ask you whether you've been through sacrament. They accept you as you are," Cruz said. ''Often they are lay people and they speak the language. They provide music and social service right away, so they are quick to respond. They work to make you feel part of the community immediately." In contrast, he said, mainline Catholics in the United States have not been sensitive enough to the culture of Latino worshipers.
According to Espinosa's study, funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the longer Latinos are in the United States, the more likely they are to leave the Catholic Church. About 15 percent of first-generation Latinos are Protestants, but that percentage nearly doubles by the third generation.
Some Pentecostal churches in New York have grown into large congregations. The Bay Ridge Christian Center has 1,200 members who worship in a modern brick building and has a goal of attracting 500 new congregants this year. Other churches are small storefronts like the one in East Harlem where Romone Castillo, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic who does maintenance work in an apartment building, worshiped during a prayer service last week.
Castillo, 42, said he used to attend Mass, but was only going through the motions. He said he was on drugs back then and felt uncomfortable talking to the non-Hispanic priests about his problems. Castillo converted six years ago after his wife joined a Pentecostal church and became more devout. When he, too, joined her church, he said the Pentecostals never judged him and quickly gave him the moral support he needed to get and stay on the right track. ''It was the message," he said through a translator as he tried to explain what led him to Pentecostalism. ''The Catholic Church was teaching a different message. The message didn't transform me."
Edith Blumhofer, director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, said Latinos are attracted to the evangelical message that God will take care of them. During Sunday's service, Padilla, 65, asked God to help members of his congregation with their financial debts and buying homes.
Espinosa said Pentecostal churches believe in social outreach, a personal relationship with God, and divine healing --''which is important in a community without medical benefits," he added. ''Pentecostal churches act as little resource centers. If you get sick,you go to the pastor. If you can't pay rent, you go to the pastor or sisters for prayer."
Others say they were attracted to the Pentecostal church because they could worship in Spanish, their first language. On Sundays, the Bay Ridge Christian Center has three services -- two of them in Spanish. At Padilla's service last week, he preached in rapid Spanish, while his assistant translated into English. Cruz, with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the church is trying to retain Latinos by moving to have Mass said in Spanish more frequently and in more churches. Of the 409 parishes in the Archdiocese of New York, 130 parishes offer services in Spanish, although none worships exclusively in the language, an archdiocese official said.
Espinosa said the Catholic Church also has tried to respond to the exodus by embracing charismatic forms of spirituality that emphasize emotional expressions of faith. Despite the exodus, he said, the Catholic population in the United States has not declined because Mexican immigrants have been replacing other Catholics who leave the church.
Still, the Catholic Church is worried. Pentecostal ministers have been luring Latinos angered by the clergy sexual abuse crisis.
''Oh, that was the big thing," said the Rev. Cecillo Padilla Jr., a cousin of the minister at the Bay Ridge Christian Center and pastor of Iglesia Pentecostal on East 125th Street in East Harlem.
His appeals for converts also rely on criticism of the Catholic style of worship. ''I say to [Latino Catholics]: 'What has your religion done for you? Is it the same thing every time you go to Mass? The same prayer? Don't you have a mind of your own?' " said Padilla, a third-generation Pentecostal who was born in Puerto Rico.
Other Protestant denominations, like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Jehovah's Witnesses, and Muslims are also vying for Latino Catholics. But Blumhofer said Pentecostals have made large gains because of aggressive proselytizing. In some parts of the United States and Latin America, she said, evangelists go door to door or preach in vacant lots or on street corners.
Manuel Leon, an immigrant from Mexico who left the Catholic Church in 1998, said he looks for converts from the pool of customers at the electronics company where he works. ''I spread the news to them," he said.
:shade: So what do everybody think about this article???
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