After 1509, Kongo King Afonso I worked to institutionalize Catholicism. As in other parts of the continent, the meeting of indigenous and world religions led to conflict, coexistence, and change. As Catholic priests competed for authority with priests of local religions, Christianity came to be practiced as an evolving synthesis of local practices and church doctrine. Kongo people who adopted Christianity applied key terms from the local religion. For example, the word minkisi—objects containing a powerful spirit—was used for “holy.” Today the majority of Kongo people are Christian.