Image of “Santa Muerte,” or “St. Death.” / Credit: David Ramos/ACI Prensa
ACI Prensa Staff, Jan 2, 2024 / 12:10 pm (CNA).
Father Andrés Esteban López Ruiz, a member of the College of Exorcists of the Primatial Archdiocese of Mexico, recently warned about the risks of the cult of “Santa Muerte” or “St. Death,” pointing out that those who practice it “implicitly or explicitly worship Satan, risking submitting themselves to him and experiencing his extraordinary action.”
In an article published on the website of the International Association of Exorcists, the priest noted that the “proliferation of this cult has led to a significant increase in the extraordinary action of the devil,” which can include demonic possession.
López said that Mexican exorcists have confirmed “numerous cases of oppression, obsession, and demonic possession linked to the practice and growing spread of the cult of ‘Santa Muerte.’”
According to the priest, this cult, far from being a “pre-Hispanic phenomenon,” dates back to the early 1960s and gained more notoriety in 1965. In that year, he noted, it was promoted in the Tepito market in Mexico City, a place “known for smuggling and illegal activities.”
In addition, the priest said it had a “significant development” in Catemaco, a town in the state of Veracruz that has “an ancient tradition of witchcraft, shamanism, and occultism.”
The Santa Muerte cult is a “Mexican version of satanic worship,” he pointed out, which fuses elements of “Brazilian quimbanda, Cuban Santeria, pre-Hispanic cultures, and occult satanism.”
The member of the College of Exorcists warned that this cult “includes satanic practices that materially and formally constitute apostasy, blasphemy, and sacrilege” as well as acts of “violence against life and very serious violations of the penal code, such as murders, crimes, robberies, and drug trafficking.”
“These very serious sins place those who commit them under the direct control of Satan and, with divine permission, can easily become occasions for his extraordinary action,” the exorcist explained.
López warned that within the communities that idolize Santa Muerte, “formal pacts with the devil” are made by people who seek “gifts and wealth.”
“More and more people suffer not only from witchcraft in general but also from curses associated with this cult,” he added.
In addition to the pastoral response of the Catholic Church, which “seeks to preserve the people of God” from these evils “through the Gospel proclamation, catechesis, and education,” López stressed that in many cases “it is necessary to perform major exorcisms to help those who have suffered the consequences of the cult of ‘Santa Muerte.’”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Pope Francis greets thousands of children and their families as he makes his way through St. Peter’s Square during the first World Children’s Day, Saturday, May 26, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
Vatican City, May 26, 2024 / 13:15 pm (CNA).
After an exuberant kick-off event on Saturday for the first World Children’s Day, Pope Francis gathered together with tens of thousands of children in St. Peter’s Square for Mass on this feast of the Holy Trinity. A piercing early summer sun moved everyone — from nuns to the boys’ choir — to shade their heads with colorful hats.
Thousands gather in St. Peter’s Square in Rome on Saturday, May 26, 2024, for the first World Children’s Day with Pope Francis. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The creation of a World Children’s Day was announced by the pope on December 8, 2023, at the midday Angelus. The idea for it was suggested to the pope by a 9-year-old boy in an exchange shortly before World Youth Day in Lisbon.
Among the special guests at the Mass was Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who together with her daughter Ginevra, met the Pope briefly before the Mass.
With this first event complete, Francis announced at the end of the festivities today that the next World Children’s Day will be held in September 2026.
Among the special guests at the Mass for the first World Children’s Day was Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who together with her daughter Ginevra, met the pope briefly before the Mass on Saturday, May 26, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The One who accompanies us
The Holy Father, smiling and clearly happy to be surrounded by children, completely improvised his homily, making it a brief and memorable lesson on the Holy Trinity.
“Dear boys and girls, we are here to pray together to God,” he began. But then counting on his fingers and enumerating, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, he asked, “But how many gods are there?”As the crowd answered “one,” the pope praised them and started talking of each of the Persons of the Holy Trinity.
He began with God the Father — “who created us all, who loves us so much” — asking the children how we pray to him. They quickly answered with the “Our Father.”
Pope Francis went on to speak of the second person of the Trinity, after the children called out his name — Jesus — as the one who forgives all of our sins.
When he got to the Holy Spirit, the pope admitted that envisioning this person of the Trinity is more difficult.
“Who is the Holy Spirit? Eh, it is not easy …,” he said.
“Because the Holy Spirit is God, He is within us. We receive the Holy Spirit in Baptism, we receive Him in the Sacraments. The Holy Spirit is the one who accompanies us in life.”
Using this last phrase, the Pope invited the children to repeat the idea a number of times: “He is the one accompanies us in life.”
“He is the one who tells us in our hearts the good things we need to do,” the Pope said, having the kids repeat the phrase again: “He is the one who when we do something wrong rebukes us inside.”
The pope speaks to thousands of children and many others who gathered in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday for the first World Children’s Day on the feast of the Holy Trinity. May 26, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The pope ended the homily thanking the children and also reminding them that “we also have a mother,” asking them how we pray to her. They answered “with the Hail Mary.” The pope encouraged them to pray for parents, for grandparents, and for sick children.
“There are so many sick children beside me” he said, as he indicated the children in wheelchairs near the altar. “Always pray, and especially pray for peace, for there to be no wars.”
Applauding the grandparents
The pope frequently urges young people to seek out their grandparents, and the give-and-take of his homily gave the impression of a beloved grandpa surrounded by his grandkids. He insisted that the kids quiet down for the time of prayer.
When the Mass concluded, and after praying the midday Angelus, the pope summarized the lessons of the homily: “Dear children, Mass is over. And today, we’ve talked about God: God the Father who created the world, God the Son, who redeemed us, and God the Holy Spirit … what did we say about the Holy Spirit? I don’t remember!”
The children needed no further invitation to answer loudly that “the Holy Spirit accompanies us in life.” Joking that he couldn’t hear well, the Pope had them say it again even louder, and then prayed the Glory Be with them.
Pope Francis speaks with a group of children in St. Peter’s Square in Rome during the first World Day of Children on Saturday, May 26, 2024. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
The pope also asked for a round of applause for all the grandparents, noting that at the Presentation of the Gifts, a grandfather had accompanied a group of children who brought forward the bread and wine.
Dreaming and dragons
After the closing procession, Italian actor Roberto Benigni took the stage for a lively and inspirational monologue that combined good humor and life lessons.
While Benigni is known especially to the English-speaking world for his role in Oscar-winning Life is Beautiful, in Italy he’s also known for his commentaries on important issues, combined with his exuberant humor.
“When I was a boy, I wanted to be pope,” he told the audience.
Urging the children to read — “Kids need to read everything!” — he paraphrased G.K. Chesterton who insisted that fairy tales are important: “Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed,” Chesterton said.
Italian actor Roberto Benigni speaks at the World Children’s Day in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican. He took the stage for a lively and inspirational monologue that combined good humor with a call for children to read and to dream. Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNA
“Dream!” Benigni urged the children. “It’s the most beautiful thing in the world. But I want to tell you a secret. You’ll tell me you know how to dream; you’ll say you just have to close your eyes, sleep, and dream. … No, no. I’ll tell you a secret — to dream, you don’t have to close your eyes. You have to open them! You have to open your eyes, read, write, invent.”
The actor emphasized the need to be peacemakers, saying that the Sermon on the Mount contains “the only good idea” that’s ever been expressed. War is the “most stupid sin,” he lamented.
“War must end,” Benigni insisted, going on to quote a famous author of children’s literature. “You will tell me: That is a dream, it is a fairy tale. Yes, it is, but as Gianni Rodari said, ‘Fairy tales can become reality, they can become true!’”
Bogotá, Colombia, Aug 19, 2020 / 04:04 pm (CNA).- The Colombian Bishops’ Conference appealed for peace following two brutal massacres of young people last week in the country.
In an August 18 statement, the bishops expressed their “deep grief and concern” over the killings.
“We pray to God for the victims and we express our closeness and solidarity with their families, the inhabitants of the cities where these crimes occurred, and the ecclesial communities of the Archdiocese of Cali and the Diocese of Ipiales,” they said.
According to local media reports, eight young adults were killed by a group of armed men in Samaniego as they were having a conversation in a home on August 15.
Jhon Rojas, the governor of the Department of Nariño, where the town of Samaniego is located, told Semana Magazine that a wave of violence in the last two months has taken the lives of 20 people.
The massacre of the eight young adults, mostly university students, comes less than a week after the bodies of five young people were discovered in a sugar cane field in the Llano Verde neighborhood of Cali on August 11.
According to Semana Magazine, the bodies of the young people showed “blows, scratches on their arms, stab wounds to the neck and shots to the head.”
Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo announced that the military will be sent out to support local police forces, and authorities are offering a reward of 200 million Colombian pesos (approximately $53,000) for information leading to the arrest of the killers.
In their message, the Colombian bishops said these massacres are compounded by “threats to individuals and communities, the murders of community leaders and former FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrilla fighters, and armed confrontations for the control of drug trafficking routes.”
The bishops underscored that the fundamental right to life is sacred and inviolable, stressing that murder is an extremely grave crime against individual and society.
They lamented that the local population has suffered from “extreme poverty, the lack of opportunities and the violation of their fundamental rights” due to the surge in violence.
The bishops’ conference joined Pope Francis’ call for a definitive end to the violence and confrontations “that aggravate the humanitarian crisis the country is experiencing due to the pandemic.”
“We call on the Colombian people once again to commit themselves, with unity and courage, to the defense of life, the task of reconciliation and peace” and to work for a common way forward for the country, they said.
Finally, the bishops urged the government to “make greater efforts to ensure effective protection and to fully attend to the communities hardest hit by the consequences of violence, as well as to continue to make progress in the implementation of the Peace Accords.”
The peace accords were finalized in November 2016, ending a 52-year civil war between the government and the Marxist FARC rebels. Since 1964, as many as 260,000 people were killed and millions displaced in the conflict.
“We ask the Catholic community to increase their prayers so that God will grant our country the inestimable gift of peace and that we all may be artisans of reconciliation,” the bishops concluded.
This article was originally published by our sister agency, ACI Prensa. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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