It is a time for drastic action, the Catholic Church in Brazil believes. Desperately seeking a return to their once-unchallenged position in the hearts and minds of Catholic Brazilians, church leaders have decided it is time to fight back.
In the last 10 years the church has lost a sizeable portion of its flock to the Protestant evangelical movement, with the world's most populous Catholic country opting for less orthodox ways of practising religion.
Catholicism has been deemed old-fashioned and unwilling to adapt to changing times, and new religious movements have entranced thousands of former Catholics with their spontaneous worship styles and informality.
Having watched the meteoric rise of these churches from the sidelines, the Catholic hierarchy is feeling under threat. In an attempt to show it really is the church of the new millennium, a series of extraordinary religious innovations has been implemented. At the forefront of this revival plan is the singing priest extraordinaire, Father Marcelo Rossi. The 33-year-old former weight-lifting teacher is leading the popular revival of the Catholic Church.
His happy-clappy Masses where he sings, dances and whistles have prompted the country's largest TV station to devote hours of air-time to his spectacular outdoor form of worship. In his largest Mass to date he attracted a record 600,000 people, a figure surpassed only by Masses given by Pope John Paul II.
The so-called "God's Aerobics" that Father Rossi practises have proved so popular that combined sales of his two CDs have topped 6.2 million. And he's not alone. Surfing on the tails of Father Rossi's cassock is Father Zeca. Born in Rio de Janeiro, the priest has already held Masses on the beach and released a best-selling CD.
Two weeks ago in the heart of Sao Paulo, Latin America's largest city, he put on a show-stopper of a Mass for 20,000 people in a public park. Strutting up and down the crucifix-shaped stage, he looked more than comfortable with his new priest-cum-rock-star status. He even had his fair share of tearful, screaming groupies: nuns, admittedly, but ardent fans nonetheless.
In a very different but, for Brazil, almost equally unorthodox step, the hierarchy is instructing the country's seminaries to give trainee priests compulsory courses on other religions. Already 60 students from the Nossa Senhora Assuncao seminary, one the largest in Brazil, are learning about Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Protestantism.
According to Bishop Oneres Marchiori, co-ordinator of ecumenical teaching for the National Conference of Bishops in Brazil, this progressive plan is another way of adapting to the country's new religious climate.
"We are trying to break down frontiers so young Catholics will learn about other religions," he said. "Through this they can learn about their own path. Interfaith communication is vital to open the mind because this is the only way our church will develop in the future."
Over 16 weeks, a Jewish teacher will focus on such diverse subjects as Judaic philosophy, the roots of anti-semitism and the Vatican's behaviour during the Holocaust. If deemed a success the courses will be rolled out to all of Brazil's seminaries early next year.
Father Jose Bizon, professor of theology at Nossa Senhora Assuncao seminary, said: "Brazil is a pluralistic society and it is vital that we break down any prejudices by giving these young priests a real insight into other faiths.
"I expect all our seminaries to introduce the courses and I would like to see the other religions hold reciprocal classes for teachers from the Catholic Church to talk about our own methods of worship."
Despite these progressive Catholic practitioners there are still powerful conservative forces in the higher echelons of the church. Bishop Decio Zandonade, of Belo Horizonte, the third-largest city in Brazil, is uneasy about the new trends.
"People might think that the traditional kind of Mass is boring, but we should not be moving towards such superficial change," he said. "It is fuelled by media hype and we must not let our young priests be influenced by such things."