Charismatics

The growing numbers of Latinos in the United States, and that population's embrace of charismatic styles of worship, are reshaping the Roman Catholic Church and the nation's religious landscape, according to a major study of Latinos and faith released Wednesday.

The pop-idol priest strides to the altar like the star that he is, a rock band pounding away to his right, cameras flashing to his left and the multitudes pulsating in this cavernous ex-factory that serves as a church. "Hold the hand of Jesus!" Father Marcelo Rossi, a dynamic giant in a red cassock and billowing white sleeves, proclaims into the cordless mike, urging the faithful to hold hands. "God is tops! God is tops!"

Ruling that two Korean Christian missionaries who performed a deadly exorcism were trying to heal, not harm, a judge cleared them of murder charges Wednesday in a case experts called a potential landmark in California criminal law. Ending a three-week trial in Malibu that he said raised "novel and significant issues" of religion and culture, Superior Court Judge James A.

In the end, whether they called it a Korean ansukido or an old-fashioned Christian exorcism, there was little disagreement among the lawyers that the hours-long ritual to chase the demons from Kyung-Ja Chung resulted in her death. Instead, as the three-week trial drew to a close Tuesday, the prosecutor and the defense attorneys remain literally worlds apart on whether the July 4 death of the Korean missionary's 53-year-old wife was murder, manslaughter or a legally excusable accident.

A San Fernando Valley megachurch will launch a seminary next year that will be the only theological school on the West Coast for the steadily growing charismatic-Pentecostal movement. The Rev. Jack Hayford, pastor of the 8,900-member Church on the Way and a nationally known figure in conservative Christian circles, said the seminary will open in September 1998 in an existing five-story education building on the church's west campus.

Four years ago, raucous song made up for the bare walls at St. Michael's Church, where freewheeling Sunday morning charismatic services were punctuated by pulpit calls to seek salvation and, occasionally, worshipers speaking in tongues. Today, a more solemn and traditional service prevails--although the drums near the altar manage to keep things lively. A crucifix and banners with religious themes now adorn the sanctuary.

Four years ago, raucous song made up for the bare walls at St. Michael's Church, where freewheeling Sunday morning charismatic services were punctuated by pulpit calls to seek salvation and, occasionally, by worshipers speaking in tongues. Today, a more solemn and traditional service prevails--although the drums near the altar manage to keep things lively. A crucifix and banners with religious themes now adorn the sanctuary.

They praised God with the unintelligible sounds known as speaking in tongues and heard three women convey the Almighty's blessings on the largest-ever gathering of charismatic Catholics in the San Fernando Valley. "This day I have sent forth my spirit to descend on each one of you," said one of the women, speaking as if she were relaying a message from God to the 1,400 worshipers packed into St. Catherine of Siena Church in Reseda on Monday night.

They praised God with the unintelligible sounds known as speaking in tongues and placed their hands on their neighbors in the pews who believed prayer would heal their physical, mental or spiritual problems. For the 2,000 charismatic Catholics gathered for Mass at St. Catherine of Siena Church in Reseda last week, it was a foray into turf long associated with the Pentecostal denomination, rather than liturgy-bound Catholicism.

Although Pentecostal and charismatic churches continue to proliferate, the controversial spiritual practice that once distinguished them from other Christian bodies--speaking in tongues--has not kept pace, and perhaps may be on the wane, according to recent polls. "This issue, as much as any other, divides the body of believers," said pollster George Barna of Glendale, who found that only 7% of U.S. adults have ever spoken in tongues--prayer utterances unintelligible to the speaker.