Protestant Latin America?

Latin America was supposed to become Protestant by now. In one of the major non-developments of the past quarter-century, it didn’t.

Catholics didn’t take predictions of a Protestant Latin America lightly, and responded with renewal efforts of their own. Rodney Stark (Triumph of Christianity) highlights the role of competition in galvanizing Catholics, and also points to the effect of the Catholic Carismatic Renewal movement (CCR), which accomplished a renewal that Liberation Theology never delivered:

“Often described as Catholic Pentecostalism, CCR involves intense prayer meetings that often include ‘speaking in tongues.’ And just as Protestant evangelists often fill Latin American soccer stadia for revival meetings, CCR also fills these same stadia. In 1999, an album of samba-inspired religious music by CCR television star Father Marcelo Rossi outsold all other CDs in Brazil.29 Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the CCR is that, although many priests participate in it, ‘it is generally a lay movement.’ In fact, were it not for the centrality of the Virgin Mary, it would be difficult to distinguish the CCR from Protestant Pentecostal groups” (402).

It puts one in mind of that old saw having to do with imitation and flattery.