For the last decade, major news media in the United States have spoken of the Catholic Church in Latin America as being under siege. This book challenges that assumption along with the widely held belief that Catholicism is steadily losing ground to Pentecostalism. In marked contrast to the churches of North America and Europe, the author claims, the Catholic Church in Latin America enjoys remarkable vitality and a high level of confidence. Since the 1960s the church has been undergoing a spiritual transformation, with a 400 per cent increase in major seminarians and a notable increase in native priests; it also sustains a large corps of religious women. It has attracted lay participants, many of whom serve as its 1.1 million religious catechists. As sign of its maturity, lay people and priests serve as part of the 400,000 domestic missionaries and the 5,000 who have grown from Latin America to serve as foreign missionaries. This unique book by a social scientist specializing in Latin America tells the remarkable story of the transformation of the Latin American church on every level, from professional theologians to the individual in the remotest Latin American village. The author marshals sociological, historical, and theological resources that will change your thinking and inspire you with renewed hope for the church in the Southern Hemisphere.