Hispanics changing face of religion in US-survey

WASHINGTON, Apr 26 (Reuters) Hispanics are changing the face of religion in the United States, injecting new blood into the Catholic Church as well as Protestant groups and leading a move to newer forms of worship, a survey showed.

One-third of all Catholics are Hispanics and the number will continue to rise in coming decades, leading more and more churches to direct their services at Latinos, the fastest growing minority in the country.

The survey, organized by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life yesterday, said more than half of Hispanic Catholics also identify themselves as ''charismatics,'' saying they have witnessed or experienced divine healings and direct revelations from God.

Those practices are central to Pentecostal worship but have been adopted by more mainstream churches in recent years.

Only one in eight non-Hispanic Catholics say they are charismatics, suggesting the steady growth of Latino influence is helping push a move toward charismatic theology.

The study showed the growing Latino population in the United States was also a boost for evangelical groups.

''Many of those who are joining evangelical churches are Catholic converts. The desire for a more direct, personal experience of God emerges as the most potent motive for these conversions,'' the Pew Hispanic Center said.

More than two-thirds of Hispanics identify themselves as Roman Catholics, compared with just 22 per cent of non-Hispanic whites and 4 per cent of non-Hispanic blacks.

About 15 per cent of Latinos say they are born-again or evangelical Protestants.

The survey said Hispanic Catholics are three times more likely to identify with the Democratic Party than the Republican Party. Among Hispanic evangelicals, however, 37 per cent said they consider themselves Republicans and 32 per cent said they are Democrats.

The Pew Hispanic Center said the poll was based on telephone interviews with more than 4,000 Hispanics across the United States between August 10 and October 4 last year. It said it had a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points.

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