The Catholic Church has long had an advantage among Latinos, especially in Latin America. With immigration, the Catholic Church in the United States provided something familiar in a new society that in many other ways might have been strange and intimidating. But the first wave of immigration is over. Latinos have now been in the United States for generations, and with that sense of security, many Latinos have begun to wander in their spiritual life.

Many have moved into the ranks of the Protestants. Many have moved into evangelical denominations full of energy and joy. Some have taken this energetic outlook and brought it back to the Catholic Church itself, where Latinos are causing some changes in the Catholic Church itself in the United States.

"I would argue that, especially now with Pope Francis, that there's an openness to this kind of worship," Fordham University theologian Michael Lee tells NPR. "Given the numbers of Latinos and Latinas in the country and in the future of Catholicism, I definitely think it's a way forward."

Catholics have long been firm in that the role of priests should be held by men, and in the main services held on Sunday mornings in the church sanctuary they still are. But many Catholic churches now have alternative services available to parishioners. These are sometimes much more charismatic in their approach to the service. And ... these are sometimes led by women.

These services are also becoming more popular among Hispanics.

"The first time I came over here, I started crying, my body started shaking, but I didn't know what it was," Johnny Torres, a former drug addict told NPR .

This charismatic surge in the Catholic Church has been noticed, with word of the popularity making its influence known all the way back to the Vatican itself.

"I don't think that the Charismatic renewal movement merely prevents people from passing over to Pentecostal denominations," Pope Francis, himself a Latino, told reporters at World Youth Day in Brazil. "No, it's a service to the church herself - it renews us."

This trend in Latino Catholicism is noted by the Pew Research Center.

"Hispanic Catholicism also appears to have been dramatically affected by the renewalist movement," Pew notes. "Most significantly, a majority of Latino Catholics describe themselves either as charismatic or pentecostal. By contrast, only about one-in-ten non-Latino Catholics accepts those labels."

Why do some Latinos bring Pentecostal habits to the Catholic Church, instead of simply leaving for another denomination? The answer may have something to do with familiarity or comfort levels. But one thing has been documented that shows there is a divide between the two. That divide tends to be political as well, and it might explain why the Democratic Party has enjoyed so much success in the Hispanic vote up to this point.

"Because Latinos, both Catholic and Protestant, tend to have strong family values, they're much more morally conservative overall," Edwin Hernandez, director of the Center for the Study of Latino Religion at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana noted to the Washington Post in 2006. "But the Pentecostals and evangelicals are much more conservative than the Catholic Latinos are."

That dividing line is more pronounced when you view how the Pentecostal Church receives new converts, as they are doing in leaps and bounds worldwide, especially in places like Brazil.

"It's not that the Catholic Church does not serve the needs," Hernandez continued. But "Catholic parishes in large cities are connected to these large bureaucratic social service organizations ... It suggests that one of the ways people are brought in is, if you help somebody get a job, that's a connection people make. It's a personal relationship they establish."

When the connection is made, and the immigrant moves to the new denomination, the natural outcome is that they take their children with them. The Washington Post noted research that suggested that among first-generation Latinos, 15 percent were Protestant. In the second generation that number increased to 29 percent.

This fact does not go unnoticed in theological circles.

"The Latino clergy of The Episcopal Church are not only men that were previously ordained Roman Catholic," wrote Fr. Daniel Velez-Rivera of St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church in Leesburg, Virginia in response to an article in The Latino Post. "La Iglesia Episcopal has Latina priests, deacons, and bishops.

"The New Generation Latinos (NGL's) are English-speaking and bilingual Latinos between the ages of 14 and 34 who don't lose their Latino identities but who are English speakers. The Episcopal Church initially focused on monolingual Spanish-speaking Latinos, but we realize that the children of monolingual Spanish-speakers also need the presence of Christ in their lives.

"English is becoming their dominant language despite being their second language and so
the Church is responsible to provide access to the Word of God and the practices of the church in culturally appropriate manners."

Hernandez says that in the last 20 years the Catholic Church in the United States has shifted some of its focus, bringing in more opportunities for small-group worship and increasing the availability of Spanish-language masses. But a large slice of the Hispanic population has already found a new church home, and defections from the Catholic Church continue.

Only now, the Catholic Church seems to be facilitating some changes in its approach, even if these changes are ancillary to the goings-on in the main worship sanctuary. So the Hispanics are bringing change to the Catholic Church in the U.S., just as they have been bringing change to the non-Catholic denominations they have been moving in to.