U.S. Hispanics leaving Catholic Church for Evangelical churches
Oct 20, 2011

A National Public Radio (NPR) report says U.S. Hispanics are leaving the Catholic Church in increasing numbers. The report says most Hispanics leaving the Catholic Church for Evangelical churches are second and third generation Hispanics.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty of National Public Radio , commenting on the pattern of conversion of U.S. Hispanics to Pentecostal Christianity says:

“You can see evidence of that in the Assemblies of God, once a historically white, suburban Pentecostal denomination...When you walk into the denomination’s largest church, it’s sensory overload: The auditorium is jam-packed with hundreds of Latino worshipers singing in Spanish, swaying and dancing.”

The pattern of the trend in which Hispanics, especially second and third generation, are leaving the Catholic Church for Pentecostal churches had been noted since the early 2000s.

Christianity Today reporting on the growing number of Pentecostal Hispanics in the U.S., in 2003, noted that first generation Hispanics were, however, helping to keep the total number of Catholic Hispanics constant.

First generation Hispanic immigrants tend to remain in the Catholic Church.

It is the second and third generation Hispanic Americans who tend to change their religion. Christian Post, in 2009, reported a survey by George Barna which showed a 25 percent fall in number of Hispanic Catholics, with an increase of 17 percent in number of Hispanics claiming to be "born-again" Christians.

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