SÃO PAULO, Brazil, May 11 — After canonizing Brazil’s first native-born saint and receiving a bracing dose of Brazilian-style religious fervor at an outdoor Mass, Pope Benedict XVI called Friday for more forceful evangelization throughout Latin America to counter growing conversions to Pentecostal Protestant groups.
“No effort should be spared in seeking out those Catholics who have fallen away and those who know little or nothing of Jesus Christ,” he told Brazilian bishops at Catedral da Sé de São Paulo. “What is required, in a word, is a mission of evangelization capable of engaging all the vital energies in this immense flock.”...