SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) -- Hundreds of thousands of evangelical Protestants marched Saturday in South America's largest city, illustrating their growing power in the world's largest Roman Catholic country.

Evangelical leaders who organized Brazil's 12th annual "March for Jesus" said it attracted 2 million people, but initial estimates by authorities put the crowd count at about 700,000.

Singing, smiling and dancing amid floats featuring gospel stars and preachers, the marchers walked kilometers to a park for an open air concert with 29 bands, shutting down traffic in a wide swath of northern Sao Paulo. Some wore orange-and-blue face paint, giving the event an atmosphere similar to Brazil's world famous Carnival.

"This is to declare our love of Jesus, and how he's changed our lives," said Vera Elias, a 49-year-old business event organizer who converted from Catholicism 22 years ago after feeling something was missing from her faith.

Brazil, with 178 million people, is the world's largest Catholic country. But the percentage of Brazilian Catholics fell from 84 percent of the population in 1991 to 74 percent in 2000, according to the government's census bureau. Evangelical Protestants increased their ranks from 9 percent to 15 percent during the same period.

The country's dire poverty explains part of the shift, with Brazil's tens of millions of poor looking for help to ease their misery after 500 years of Roman Catholic domination in the country. Another part of the evangelical appeal is theatrical, which plays well in Brazil.

Adding excitement absent from Catholic rites, Brazilian evangelical Protestant rituals include faith healing and speaking in tongues. One church, The Universal Kingdom of God, issues frank appeals to God for personal wealth.

For the first time in history, Brazil's Roman Catholic Church is fighting for its turf, sending missionaries into slums amid a big push to graduate more priests from seminaries.

Police said last year's March for Jesus in Sao Paulo drew up to 1 million people, while organizers put the number at about 2 million.

Elias said there were so many people in this year's march that the real number didn't matter.

"It's packed, with everyone walking arm in arm," she said. "It's a show of force for God."

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press.