For example, in 1980 the Assemblies of God had 80 churches and fewer than 5,000 members. Today, according to church leader Saturnino Cerato, they have 700 churches and 70,200 baptized members. Anecdotal evidence points to proportionally higher church attendance among members of the new evangelical churches than among members of the Catholic and traditional Protestant churches. In the poorer neighborhoods, the small evangelical churches are filled to capacity nearly every evening. According to a Catholic Church official, the Catholic Church is growing numerically but losing ground proportionally.
Foreign missionaries operate in the country.
The Mormons have 178 missionaries, the Unification Church has six families of missionaries, and nearly all of the non-Catholic denominations have at least one missionary family in the country. The process of obtaining a religious worker visa takes several months and must be completed before the missionary arrives in the country. During the period covered by this report, there were no reports of difficulties by missionaries in obtaining the proper visa. Private religious schools operate in the country. The Government provides financial support to a number of primary and secondary schools owned and directed by the Catholic Church by paying the salaries of teachers at these schools.