The choice of a Latin American as pope — even one who is, like many fellow Argentines, of direct Italian descent — is a wise one for the Catholic Church. Although a third of the world’s Catholics live in Latin America, the church has been steadily hemorrhaging members to evangelical Protestantism, especially Pentecostalism, for the past three decades. The election of the new pope signals as clearly as white smoke that the church takes this threat seriously, as well it should.

The Catholic population of several Latin American countries — including Brazil, the largest Catholic nation in the world — has slipped by more than 20 percent in the past 13 years alone. We can acknowledge both that the new pope was selected through prayerful deliberation and that his election may well prove to be a powerful membership retention strategy for the church in its besieged heartland.

What else can the Catholic Church do to compete with the appeal of Pentecostalism in Latin America? The church has several options. The first is to try to beat the Pentecostals at their own game, through encouraging the growth of “Catholic charismatic renewal,” a type of Catholicism popular at the grass roots that in some ways mimics Pentecostalism in its exuberant worship services, speaking in tongues and other lively displays of the “gifts of the Holy Spirit.”

A second option takes the inverse approach. This is to revitalize the Catholic “brand” by encouraging the revival of traditional pieties that had long been part of the Catholic repertoire but which fell by the way after the reforms of the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s: the novenas, adoration of images, pilgrimages and other popular devotions long beloved by everyday Catholics.

A third option would be for the Vatican to advance neotraditional Catholic organizations, like Opus Dei — a rigorous and secretive Catholic entity built around strict discipline that is growing rapidly in many parts of the world, including Latin America.

The problem with all of these options, however, is that they have been tried and found lacking. The church actively promoted them all during the papacies of John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Yet none has reversed or ended the flow of Latin American Catholics toward evangelical Protestant denominations or, increasingly, into the category of “nones” — people who claim no religious affiliation at all.

There are other areas, however, where the Catholic Church has the upper hand. The first of these is its strong voice in advocating for the dignity for the poor. Where many neo-Pentecostal churches in particular advocate a “prosperity theology” that promises wealth for believers, the Catholic Church welcomes home the many for whom those promises fall short.

Last but not least is the Catholic Church’s best weapon: the Virgin Mary. When Latin Americans return to the Catholic Church, as some do after having left it for an evangelical church, the overwhelming reason they give is their continuing affection for the Virgin, who has no prominence in evangelical Christianity. In Pope Francis, a strong advocate for the poor and an ardent devotee of the Virgin, the Catholic Church may rediscover its competitive advantage.

Strategic Errors the Church Could Repair

Frances Hagopian, the editor of "Religious Pluralism, Democracy, and the Catholic Church in Latin America," is the Jorge Paulo Lemann visiting associate professor for Brazil studies in the Department of Government at Harvard University.

n the U.S., the Catholic Church is facing many of the same challenges as in Latin America. Evangelicalism and secularism are on the rise, at the expense of Catholicism. A big challenge here is the shortage of priests. One of the advantages in evangelicalism is that any of its members can become a pastor or minister, which is not the case in the Catholic Church. Evangelical churches are on a constant mission to bring new members to their ranks and any member can be designated to spread the good news; not so for Catholics, or at least that’s not how many Catholics see their role.

Perhaps if Catholics were more proactive, the trend could change. In order for that to happen there needs to be more prominence for the laity. I doubt I will see married priests anytime soon, but celibacy, in my view, should be optional for diocesan priests. Eliminating this barrier could increase the number of vocations, and perhaps contribute to a larger role for the laity.

Organized religion in general is being challenged, and Catholicism especially. But finally having a pope from outside Europe is refreshing; we can see that the church hierarchy is truly universal. The papacy of Pope Francis will have a great impact on Latin American Catholics in the U.S. if the Catholic Church takes advantage of this historic moment.

Evangelicals Are More Responsive

The single greatest advantage of evangelical churches over the Catholic Church is their decentralized leadership. Roman Catholicism and its eastern rite sisters are the oldest bureaucracies in the world. Christ's vicar on earth appoints bishops who appoint priests, in a hierarchy of appointment that extends downward to every parish.

In contrast, evangelical and Pentecostal churches recruit their leaders from below, based above all on their ability to attract a crowd. In a Guatemalan town I know, the most important training ground for first-generation evangelical pastors in the 1980s was the Catholic Church. Half these men were former Catholic catechists who bolted to a wider Protestant canopy.

Some wings of the Catholic clergy have been struggling to empower lay leaders for many years. But they still bump into clerical ceilings. So why not bestow the Roman collar on a wider range of Catholics? As it stands, celibacy and lengthy seminary training are obstacles to potential priests, and once ordained a priest is removed from his own milieu and turned into a foreign appointee elsewhere. Why not extend clerical prerogatives to anyone who demonstrates the power of the Holy Spirit and makes a serious commitment to theological education? This should include women and married people.

A more open approach to leadership, from the parish on up, would end the chronic shortage of clergy and bolster the Catholic Church's most important competitive advantage: its ability to provide moral authority for an entire society. By learning from Pentecostal forms of worship and congregational structures, Catholic charismatics have already shown that they can compete with Protestantism. So can the rest of the Catholic Church – by acknowledging the equality of women and the right of clergy to be married.