So, in college I’ve been taking a “Traditional Religions” course which basically looks at more primitive religions (shamanism, witchcraft, primitive paganism, etc.). We’ve spent a significant amount of time in that class over Vodoun, a.k.a. Voodoo.
My problem is that the professor (who was actually a former member of the Southern Baptist Convention Sunday School Board) keeps droning on and on about the similarities between Catholicism and Vodoun. Today we watched a documentary in class (we’ve already watched a couple) and yet again it harped on how Catholic saints are similar to Vodoun Loa, how prayers to the saints are similar to prayers to Loa, Catholic and Vodoun shrines are similar, rituals are similar, feast days, saints names, etc.
I think the filmmakers were trying to show Vodoun as “mainstream” by noting the similarities and I think my professor uses the “similarities” to demonstrate how Vodoun isn’t as weird or extreme as we first think. (He’s not the typical Baptist anyway) However, to a class full of Protestants it seems like it just makes Catholicism out to be a bunch of idolatry and witchcraft too.
Anyhow, my question is how should I respond to this? One girl next to me said to me how she thought Catholicism was just as “bad” as Vodoun (b/c Catholics “worship” Mary by praying to her, etc.). I tried to explain the reality to her. Of course, I don’t think she knows I’m Catholic since I’ve recently converted.
I’ve thought about the answers to such questions before, but what responses anybody else would give.
I recently read a book that caught my eye in the library that said that voodoo was a religion that combined Catholic and African beliefs and rituals. I had never heard this before and was quite surprised and can see how a false religion (voodoo) can make the one true religion (Catholicism) look bad and mislead people. I also came across this link which states the following:
[Voodoo, religion of Haiti, also practiced in Cuba, Trinidad, Brazil, and the southern United States, especially Louisiana. Voodoo combines elements of Roman Catholicism and tribal religions of western Africa, particularly Benin. Voodoo cults worship a high god, Bon Dieu; ancestors or, more generally, the dead; twins; and spirits called Ioa. The Ioa, which may vary from cult to cult, are African tribal gods that are usually identified with Roman Catholic saints. The snake god, for example, is identified with St. Patrick. Other elements of Roman Catholicism in voodoo include the use of candles, bells, crosses, and prayers and the practices of baptism and making the sign of the cross. Among the African elements are dancing, drumming, and the worship of ancestors and twins.
The rituals of voodoo are often led by a priest, called a houngan, or a priestess, called a mambo. During the ritual the worshipers invoke the Ioa by drumming, dancing, singing, and feasting, and the Ioa take possession of the dancers. Each dancer then behaves in a manner characteristic of the possessing spirit and while in an ecstatic trance performs cures and gives advice.]
This “religion” has obviously misinterpreted the way Catholics pray to the Saints in Heaven and ask them to interceed for us because we don’t pray to the dead. I don’t know I would assume that Voodooism is a false religion.
I also came across these 2 links as the book I read talked about a woman named Marie Laveau who is considered the “Queen of Voodoo” and she was what they called a practicing and devout Catholic ? Who was obviously very mixed up - and she was close friends with a priest named Father Antonio de Sedella, also known as Pere Antoine of her parish church, St Louis Cathedral.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Laveau
strangehistory.org/cms/index.php/home/17-marie-catherine-laveau-voodoo-queen-of-new-orleans-september-10-1801-june-15-1881
New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia records the following are here is the link:
newadvent.org/cathen/11005b.htm
“Father Antonio (popularly known as “Père Antoine*”) was destined to exert a remarkable influence in the colony. Few priests have been more assailed by historians, but a careful comparison of the ancient records of the cathedral with the traditions that cluster about his memory show that he did not deserve on the one hand the indignities which Gayarré and Shea heap upon him, nor yet the excessive honours with which tradition had crowned him. From the cathedral archives it has been proven that he was simply an earnest priest striving to do what he thought his duty amid many difficulties.”]
Post more info when you come across it. It is strange.
soo voodo did not assimilate some of the practices of catholicism?