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The Changing Face Of Latino Catholicism

Omar Shamout |
August 30, 2012 | 3:44 p.m. PDT

Contributor

 Omar Shamout)
Omar Shamout)
On a recent Friday night, members of the Sower Ministry gather at a church in Azusa, Calif. to praise Jesus Christ through uplifting songs, personal testimony and baptism of the “Holy Spirit.”

A crowd of enthusiastic congregants sings in unison with a four-piece rock band consisting of a drummer, two guitarists, a keyboardist, plus a lead singer and three back-up vocalists. The church resounds loudly with joyful praise and worship.

Next, a 35-year-old woman named Desiree describes her spiritual transformation through Christ after being involved in a gang years ago.

Finally, an enthusiastic preacher gives a sermon about “clinging to the vine" of Jesus and leads the group in prayer as some members drop to their knees in front of the altar and beseech the Holy Spirit to enter their bodies.

Weekly events like this one are common throughout evangelical churches across the country as Protestants endeavor to create a personal relationship with Christ. 

The Sower Ministry, however, isn’t a Protestant group.  It’s Catholic. 

It’s part of a large and growing movement known as the “Catholic Charismatic Renewal” that is trying to stem Catholic exodus from the church. 

A 2008 survey by the Pew Center for Religion and Public Life found that nearly four times as many people have left Catholicism since childhood than have joined the church from other faiths or no faith at all. That equals a net loss of 7.5 percent of church members.

Rev. Allan Figueroa Deck, the Casassa chair of Catholic social values at Loyola Marymount University, says Catholic charismatics emphasize a more bible-based study typically associated with Protestant evangelism over the old-school pomp and circumstance typifying Catholic services.

“One can call it Catholic Pentecostalism, because it really adapts many of the features of the Pentecostal Christian faith,” Deck said.

The Sower’s leader, Joseph Borba, says the similarities between the two faiths run deep.

“They’re absolutely similar in the sense that the Holy Spirit dominates our lives as in any Pentecostal church, any evangelical church,” Borba said.

Charismatics claim to receive various spiritual gifts from the Holy Spirit such as healing, prophecy – and even the ability to speak in tongues.

Borba says the group is doing its part to retain membership by re-energizing followers who may have grown disillusioned with traditional mass and who no longer find meaning in the sacraments.

“Before, as Catholics, we just kind of showed up … it was more of a ritual and routine because of how we were raised,” Borba says. He added that the Sower aims to help Catholics “come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ in a personal way.”

That’s exactly what 20-year-old Pasadena resident Rigoberto Hernandez was looking for when he came to the group’s meeting last week with his younger brother. Hernandez said he no longer identifies as Catholic, but is now on a spiritual search after restoring his turbulent relationship with his mother a few weeks ago. 

“I do have this want for God in my life, and that is what brought me here,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said he doesn’t agree with the prominent role given to the Virgin Mary in Catholic liturgy and echoed Borba’s description of Catholic services, saying he found Mass “boring” throughout childhood.

“Church for Catholics sometimes is directed towards the older people … I don’t think it catches the attention of young people,” Hernandez said. “I don’t believe as many times as you do this,” Hernandez said, making the sign of the cross, “it’s going to do anything for you.”

The Sower’s approach has attracted new members to the faith too.

Azusa-resident Jackie Myers, 19, joined the Sower four years ago after converting to Catholicism with her mother. While Myers said her mother was always a devout Christian, neither of them were Catholic until then.  She said the ministry has grown significantly among young people since she joined.

“We really do have a lot of young adults … When I first came it was me and a 14-year-old girl,” Myers said.

The Sower is the five-year-old English-language branch of “El Sembrador,” a Spanish-language Los Angeles ministry founded by Noel Diaz in 1984.

The Catholic charismatic movement, however, is older than that. It began in the U.S. some 40 years ago, shortly after the conclusion of the second Vatican council in 1965, but has grown exponentially over the years. Its leaders are not ordained priests, but the charismatic renewal is sanctioned by the pope and now viewed as an essential fold of the Catholic cloth. 

The Sower was established to extend El Sembrador’s reach beyond the Latino community, but many Latinos of all generations are present in the crowd of about 60 people during the meeting. Members confirmed that attendees at the weekly gatherings are predominantly Latino.

Hispanics represent 29 percent of the Roman Catholic Church’s 78 million U.S. members according to the Pew survey.  Despite the net loss of members, Catholics still make up the same proportion of the American population as they did in the 1970s due to immigration from Latin American countries.

Deck says charismatic groups like El Sembrador, and another LA-based organization called Charisma in Mission, represent the core of the church’s presence in the Hispanic community.

“They, in some ways, are the most vital part of the Catholic Latino presence in the United States,” Deck said.

Church officials tout that the renewal has spread to more than 115 countries, with a strong presence in Latin America.  Deck focused on the importance of this trend.

“The Hispanic charismatic groups are the ones that are growing and have a tremendous amount of life,” Deck said.

Juan Martinez, associate professor of Hispanic studies and pastoral leadership at Fuller Theological Seminary said Latino charismatics are growing more numerous in Protestant churches too.

“The projections would be a continuing growth of Latino Protestantism, particularly the evangelical, Pentecostal [churches],” Martinez said.  “Latinos in the United States are much more Pentecostal or charismatically oriented than the general Christian population.”

El Sembrador has come a long way since its humble beginnings at St. Thomas the Apostle church in LA’s Pico-Union district.  Today, the group not only holds its weekly meetings at the same church, it also organizes separate annual gatherings for men, women, couples and teens that fill the LA Sports Arena with devotees.  The Sower will hold its first such gathering in August.

The ministry’s impact is also felt beyond Los Angeles.  It broadcasts religious programming 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to millions of listeners and viewers in North, Central and South America through its own radio and television networks.

But Hernandez didn’t have to watch on TV, because he got a front-row seat. He said he was impressed with his experience at the Sower and made a personal vow before heading home.

“I’ll be back – definitely,” he said.



 

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