U.S. Hispanics Choose Churches Outside Catholicism

http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=141275979&m=141495484

..."In little more than a decade, New Life Covenant Church in Chicago has grown from 68 people to more than 4,000 members; it had to abandon its old building and meet in Clemente High School. When you include the other churches New Life has started, its membership comes to some 12,000 people.
Hispanics Bolster Church Rolls
The Rev. Wilfredo de Jesus is leading the movement to give a little color to the mostly white Pentecostal faith. He says — and statistics bear him out — that Latinos are saving American Christianity.
"No doubt, every denomination would have decreased in membership," he says, "if it had not been for Hispanic growth, including our fellowship, the Assemblies of God."
It's a truism that 11 o'clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour of the week. But the people streaming into New Life's sanctuary are black, white and Asian, as well as Hispanic. Most, like de Jesus, are second-generation Latinos. And three of four services are in English. Indeed, much of the church's growth is fueled by Hispanic-Americans shedding the faith of their parents.
De Jesus says he can spot them every time.
"People come to the church, and I'm in the lobby area, greeting visitors — and they say, 'Hey Father, thank you for the Mass today.' I know where they're coming from."
They're coming from Catholicism. Polls by Pew Research Center show that fewer than 60 percent of second-generation Latinos are Catholic — and the ones who leave Catholicism head for the more boisterous evangelical churches, like New Life..."