Pope urges Bishops to stem Church's decline

Pope Benedict XVI summoned his bishops from across Latin America to Brazil’s most holy landmark today to direct them in the battle to keep Catholicism the dominant religious force in the region.

While Brazil is the church’s biggest stronghold on the planet, millions of Roman Catholics have joined evangelical Protestant churches in recent years, and the church’s moral code is challenged across Latin America by traditionally Catholic populations flouting its prohibitions on abortion, divorce and pre-marital sex.