c. 1997 Religion News Service

WEST NEW YORK, N.J. _ In the small fifth-floor apartment of Cruzita Castro, elders Mike Haugen and Richard Western huddled over Spanish-language versions of the Book of Mormon, following along while Castro slowly read a passage.

For years, the 67-year-old woman from the Dominican Republic had resisted the efforts of missionaries who came to her door. But two months ago, after a dream involving the Mormons, she let them in.

Eight days later, she was baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Raised Roman Catholic, as are most people in her native land, Castro said the new faith warmed her heart. Each Sunday, she travels by bus to Union City, N.J., for services in Spanish.

“Everything is beautiful,” she said. “This is the word.”

In the streets of Hudson County, N.J., dozens of Mormon elders go door to door spreading this word in Spanish, and increasingly, Catholics are looking at the Mormons as an invading force. Their concern spreads beyond New Jersey. Catholic leaders have voiced alarm about the inroads Mormons, Pentecostals and evangelical missionaries are making in South and Central America.

“As the millennium approaches, (Mormons) have determined to be the church of the world,” said the Rev. David Arias, auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Newark. “They want to conquer the world.”

Mormons have been an increasing presence in urban areas, where people live closer together and church doctrine opposing drugs and alcohol can have a particularly appealing ring.

Although Mormon church fathers in the past looked down on people of color, barring them from the ministry and expressing racist ideas, the present church leadership has disavowed such attitudes since 1978. Membership has more than doubled to 10 million worldwide since, and the Mormons are one of the largest churches in America.

Arias said members of his congregation resent the door-to-door proselytizing and feel threatened by the push to convert area Hispanics. Parishioners distribute pamphlets calling the Mormons a pseudo-Christian sect and “exposing” their history and teachings.

Perhaps the biggest battle has yet to be fought. The Mormons are planning to build a second temple in the area in an abandoned factory a block from Arias’ West New York church. Haugen and Western already missionize the Catholic church’s parishioners from an apartment just blocks away.

Apparently oblivious to the ill feeling, Mormon missionaries said they are simply doing what their church calls on them to do, spreading the word of God throughout the world.

“It’s not changing the faith. It’s increasing it,” Boyd Stewart, who has helped supervise missionary work here, said when asked if there is friction between Mormons and Catholics. “All we do is help people follow Jesus Christ.”

There are vast differences, however, between the teaching of the Mormons and those of the Catholics.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was founded in 1830 by Joseph Smith, who said he had been told at age 14 by God and Jesus not to join other organized churches. Instead, he was visited by an angel that revealed to him the Book of Mormon _ which, among other things, includes discussion of a visit by Jesus to the Americas after his resurrection and describes humans as children of heavenly parents.

From its earliest days, the Mormons sent missionaries out into the world, but in recent years the efforts have been stepped up by the Utah-based church. Today there are 53,000 missionaries in 160 countries, and the number of Mormons abroad recently surpassed the number in the United States.

The Mormons push hard in Latin America, and they have the numbers to prove it. There are 3.3 million Mormons in South and Central America, compared with 4.8 million in the United States. It is estimated that tens of thousands of U.S. Hispanics leave the Catholic Church each year.

During a 1992 meeting with Latin American bishops held in the Dominican Republic, Pope John Paul II warned of proselytizing “sects” and “pseudo-spiritual movements.”

“Guard your flocks against hungry wolves,” the pontiff told the assembled bishops. “It is important to face their expansion and aggression.”

Brother Jeffrey Gros, associate director of ecumenical and interreligious affairs for the U.S. Catholic Conference, downplayed the dispute. He noted that Cardinal Edward Cassidy, Rome’s highest ecumenical officer, paid a courtesy call on Mormon officials in Salt Lake City last month.

Gros said the Mormons are not interested in dialogue with other faiths, but he said Catholics must accept blame if the Mormons are effectively missionizing their people. He said a history of racism against Hispanics in the United States and a tendency not to evangelize have made Catholics vulnerable.

“It’s something the Holy Father has been trying to push us on for 15 years,” Gros said. “There are ways of relying too easily on our culture. Whether it’s presuming Latin Americans are supposed to be Catholics or that U.S. Catholics are supposed to come to church on their own, you have to get active if you are going to be a good, solid Catholic.

“We’ve always lived with Mormons pushing our doorbells,” he added. “That’s part of being American. We’re not as effective as the Mormons at evangelizing. There is a lot we can learn from them.”

On a recent Tuesday night, Haugen and Western were doggedly pursuing the faithful of Hudson County. Following their freshman year of college, both signed up for a mission, as many young Mormons do. Neither spoke Spanish, but after two months of language training in Utah, the two elders were thrust into West New York to missionize among Hispanics day and night.

Despite arguments by Arias that the Mormons are targeting Hispanic Catholics, Mormon spokesman Don Russell said in a telephone interview from Utah that his church doesn’t focus on any one group.

“We look on everyone as an equal daughter or son of the Holy Father,” Russell said. “We don’t target an area. We basically proselytize anyone we are allowed by law to proselytize.”

Haugen and Western did not mention Catholicism in their conversation as they went door to door recently. Rather they focused on their own faith. They recognized people in the street and visited dozens of homes, following an elaborate appointment schedule.

One man they bumped into was Eugenio Santana, a 31-year-old factory worker from the Dominican Republic. He is Catholic but occasionally speaks to the Mormons about religion.

“I go every Sunday to the Catholic church, one hour and that’s it. Everyone goes home,” Santana said. “These guys do a good job. They are in the street. That’s what the Catholic Church needs to do. They need to try and educate the people.”

MJP END CHAMBERS