{"id":10886,"date":"2019-09-19T08:01:17","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T14:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10886"},"modified":"2019-09-19T08:29:55","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T14:29:55","slug":"catholic-church-struggles-with-de-facto-polytheism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=10886","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Church Struggles with De Facto Polytheism"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This is an old story, but it erupts in new forms. Polytheistic-style devotion keeps irrupting in the Roman Catholic Church, much to the concern of the hierarchs.<\/p>\n

From The Catholic Herald<\/em> (UK): “The Church\u2019s life-and-death struggle with Santa Muerte: The Church in the Americas is sounding the alarm over a macabre new devotion<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

To the great consternation of the Church, over the past 17 years veneration of a Mexican folk saint that personifies death has become the fastest-growing new religious movement in the West. At this point there are no systematic surveys of the precise number of Santa Muerte devotees, but based on 10 years of research in Mexico and the US, we estimate there are some 10 to 12 million followers, with a large majority in Mexico and a significant presence in the United States and Central America. However, the skeletal folk saint, whose name translates into English as both Saint Death and Holy Death, now has followers across the globe, including in the UK, where there are sufficient devotees to support a Facebook group specifically for British followers . . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To understand the devotion to death, we must also examine the historical record. Across the Americas, and in particular in Mexico, death deities were prevalent during the pre-Hispanic era prior to colonisation. Many indigenous peoples, such as the Maya and the Aztecs, turned to death gods and goddesses for healing ailments, and also to guarantee safe passage into the underworld.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, devotion to Santa Muerte is huge, and I have heard of some American Anglo Pagans who also participate in her cult, particularly in the Southwest.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

El Ni\u00f1o Fidencio (Kid Fidencio), a folk saint of northern Mexico who is frequently channeled by healers.<\/p><\/div>\n

There are more “folk saints.” One of my graduate-school professors, of partially Mexican ancestry, was fascinated by the cult of El Ni\u00f1o Fidencio<\/a>, one of several folk saints who emerged from the chaotic years of revolution and civil war in early 20th-century Mexico.<\/p>\n

Another of that period is Jesus Malverde, considered the patron saint of drug traffickers<\/a>. It’s not to hard to find statues of him. He is one of a whole choir of “narco saints” (the linked article includes N. S. de Guadalupe; she is versatile).<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is an old story, but it erupts in new forms. Polytheistic-style devotion keeps irrupting in the Roman Catholic Church, much to the concern of the hierarchs. From The Catholic Herald (UK): “The Church\u2019s life-and-death struggle with Santa Muerte: The Church in the Americas is sounding the alarm over a macabre new devotion.” To the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[256,247,37,368,41,369],"class_list":["post-10886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholicism","tag-crime","tag-folklore","tag-healing","tag-mexico","tag-saints"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-2PA","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":12118,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12118","url_meta":{"origin":10886,"position":0},"title":"“And even Wicca”: A Historical Study of Santa Muerte","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 23, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"An anthropologist and a historian examine the development of the cult of Santa Muerte (Holy Death) in this article, \"Syncretic Santa Muerte: Holy Death and Religious Bricolage,\" which currently is a free download. \"Bricolage\" is a term beloved by scholars of new religious movements. It means building something with available\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/santa_muerte-226x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7295,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=7295","url_meta":{"origin":10886,"position":1},"title":"Exorcising M\u00e9xico","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 22, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"M\u00e9xico has been exorcised. Yes, the whole country. The Roman Catholic church pulled out one of the big guns: Exorcismo Magno \u2014 it takes a team of exorcists. Can a country with deep Christian roots like Mexico find itself at the mercy of demons? Some in the Church fear so.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Catholicism\"","block_context":{"text":"Catholicism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=catholicism"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2991,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=2991","url_meta":{"origin":10886,"position":2},"title":"Home Country: A Southern Colorado Catholic Splinter Group","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"August 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I visited Florence, Colorado, yesterday and noticed that the congregation of St. Jude the Apostle of the Ecumenical Catholic Church of Christ\u00a0 (not to be confused with the Ecumenical Catholic Church) had apparently evaporated. At least their sign was missing from the old brick church on Second Street by which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gateway Chapel, Florence, Colorado","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/st._jude__co.2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5538,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=5538","url_meta":{"origin":10886,"position":3},"title":"St. Georgia, Maker of Art, Pray for Us","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Here in the city whose patron is St. Francis (more about that later), I keep thinking that the new pope of the same name might as well go ahead and canonize \u2014 or at least beatify \u2014\u00a0 Georgia O'Keeffe. Yes, there are some obstacles. For one, she was not Roman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/b\/b4\/O%27Keeffe-%28hands%29.jpg\/474px-O%27Keeffe-%28hands%29.jpg","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11444,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11444","url_meta":{"origin":10886,"position":4},"title":"Catholics in Trouble over ‘Idols’ Again","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"May 15, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Maybe you missed it, but there was a minor scandal at the Vatican last year over the liturgical use of an image of Pachamana, one name given to the indigenous Mother Goddess of the Andean region of South America. Some traditional Catholics were deeply offended: The statues, which were identical\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Catholicism\"","block_context":{"text":"Catholicism","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=catholicism"},"img":{"alt_text":"Idols on the Catholic altar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.churchmilitant.com\/images\/social_images\/2020-05-14-Hornchurch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.churchmilitant.com\/images\/social_images\/2020-05-14-Hornchurch.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.churchmilitant.com\/images\/social_images\/2020-05-14-Hornchurch.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.churchmilitant.com\/images\/social_images\/2020-05-14-Hornchurch.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1136,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1136","url_meta":{"origin":10886,"position":5},"title":"Church v. State, Mexican style","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"March 30, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"A crackdown on the cult of El Santo Muerte:It is particularly popular with Mexico's powerful drugs traffickers, a link which may explain why, protected by soldiers, municipal workers in Nuevo Laredo last week used back hoes to tear down the shrines lining a road just across the border from Laredo,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Mexico\"","block_context":{"text":"Mexico","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=mexico"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10886"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10896,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10886\/revisions\/10896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}