Santeria, Santa Muerte, witchcraft

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Catolico_Romano

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the Latino community, where I grew up in Los Angeles, there are several botanicas, soteres where they sell candles that “help” you with problems (red ones to, let’s say, make someone fall in love with you, a blue one to help you get a job, etc.), images of the Santa Muerte, and other really ugly stuff (devils, trolls, etc.). Yesterday I visited one of those stores to see for myself. :eek:

I respect whatever people want to believe, but what I find really, really disturbing is that they sell all of this weird and fake stuff along with images and statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and of several saints, specially St. Jude, who is really popular among Mexicans.

As some of you might know, my wife is anti-Catholic, although we were born into Catholic families. Her main argument against Catholicism is idolatry, saying that we worship images, etc.

What do you think of stores and of “Catholics” who frequent those type of stores? What about “Catholics” who mix Catholicism with santeria, and worship of the Santa Muerte?
 
Santa Muerte is a death cult with some Catholic symbolism thrown in to give it some familiarity and credibility.

Santeria is a unholy mix of peasant Catholicism and voodoo.

Neither of these should be practiced or IMHO tolerated.

These stores should be avoided. Do not support the devil worshippers.
 
Santeria does worship those images as their gods. They used the images in place of their actual gods to avoid persecution/discrimination.

Catholics do NOT worship the images or statues. We use them as reminders of our Faith and those who have done well in the Faith in Christian history.

Catholics should not go to stores where they are selling these things for witchcraft purposes.

For example, the bronze serpent that was made to heal those bitten of snakes by Moses was literally looked at for healing. If the Jews looked at the snake they were healed, if they did not they perished.

Several hundred years later (under Hezekiah?) the serpent was destroyed because people were offering up incense and sacrifices to it.

Key difference.
 
I agree. Santeria is false. Does anyone know how to get rid of the items given during an initiation?
 
Catolico_Romano said:
What do you think of stores and of “Catholics” who frequent those type of stores? What about “Catholics” who mix Catholicism with santeria, and worship of the Santa Muerte?
Click to expand...
The Catholic bishops of Mexico publically denounced devotions to Santa Muerte a few years ago. Please refer to this article for more details:
Santa Muerte is No Saint, Say Mexican Bishops.

Practitioners of Santa Muerte, Santeria, and other such groups simply use Catholic images to mask occult beliefs. For example, when they do ceremonies in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, they see themselves as paying homage to a pagan goddess represented by the statue (and therefore the ceremony really has nothing to do with Mary).

Catholics are forbidden to practice the occult, regardless of what sort of imagery is associated with it. The Catechism teaches us:
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity. (CCC #2117)

It should also be clearly understood that practicing the occult is a sin against the 1st Commandment. In addition to what I posted above, please also see #2110 - 2116 of the Catechism for more details on this.
 
v123456 said:
I agree. Santeria is false. Does anyone know how to get rid of the items given during an initiation?
Click to expand...
I think the best way for me to address this question is to simply pass along to you what Fr. Gabriel Armorth states in his book, An Exorcist: More Stories. In the following quote, keep in mind that when he says, “magician” he means an occultist, not a stage magician like David Copperfield:

“…if a magician gives us something, it is probably infested. Talismans are a typical example. They are often very expensive, and either they are hoaxes or they are contaminated with extremely harmful negativities. When I say that an object is infested, I do not mean that the devil is in it! I simply mean that it was exposed to an evil rite…”

-Fr. Gabriel Armorth, Nicoletta V. MacKenzie, trans., An Exorcist: More Stories (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002), 159.

(in terms of getting rid of such objects, Fr. Armorth writes…)

“…burning it in an open area while praying and throwing the ashes into flowing water, such as a river, the sea, or the sewer; we can throw it in the trash if we are certain that it will be incinerated. When the curse is mild, it is sufficient to sprinkle the object with blessed water, without destroying it.”
  • Ibid, 160.
 
I have seen catholics fall into the santas cult here in mexico I too was once her gringa devotee and I am demonically oppressed because of it she is not catholic at all she is the aztec goddess of death therefore a demon and botanicas exploit la virgen and other santos dont buy statues from these stores as they are tainted by the evil around them or if you buy them have a priest bless them to remove the tainting and I have seen people pray in the santa muertes templos and misas and go to church on sunday not realizing the grave sin committed please guard your heart against this evil
 
Those things are awful. I don’t know how they can pray to such an awful-looking image. It’s obvious that something is not right about that.

Unfortunately, an uncle (one of my mother’s brothers) prays to it and even has an image in his room. I find it creepy.
 
I meet my first one for the first time about 1 month ago from today. I had some questions answered that I had been wondering about since I was a kid, now I am 35.

All my life I had seen people have a shrine that would have Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary and right next to it would be voodoo doll are skeleton skull with tarot cards, they would use feathers and a egg to lay their hands on people and pray for them and many of us that are not Catholics usually think this its a Catholic practice, but something in my heart told me it was wrong…

My co-worker is a Santeria and he insults my singing and just horse plays to much. I don’t talk to him anymore but the last time I did, he said he prayed for me. But, I am totally against it…

Some of the Santerias have a history of human sacrificing. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_J._Kilroy
 
Catolico_Romano said:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,

In the Latino community, where I grew up in Los Angeles, there are several botanicas, soteres where they sell candles that “help” you with problems (red ones to, let’s say, make someone fall in love with you, a blue one to help you get a job, etc.), images of the Santa Muerte, and other really ugly stuff (devils, trolls, etc.). Yesterday I visited one of those stores to see for myself. :eek:

I respect whatever people want to believe, but what I find really, really disturbing is that they sell all of this weird and fake stuff along with images and statues of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and of several saints, specially St. Jude, who is really popular among Mexicans.

As some of you might know, my wife is anti-Catholic, although we were born into Catholic families. Her main argument against Catholicism is idolatry, saying that we worship images, etc.

What do you think of stores and of “Catholics” who frequent those type of stores? What about “Catholics” who mix Catholicism with santeria, and worship of the Santa Muerte?
Click to expand...
Superstition and superstitious practices are condemned by the Bible and in The Catechism (CCC 2116, 2117 and following). Those who seek to profit from promoting such superstition are committing a grave evil.
 
Catolico_Romano said:
What do you think of stores and of “Catholics” who frequent those type of stores? What about “Catholics” who mix Catholicism with santeria, and worship of the Santa Muerte?
Click to expand...
When I read this I remembered a preacher I heard recently on the radio. His message was about syncretism, and how you never really can mix two varying faiths. What you end up is fundamentally different from either of the beginning faiths. Nothing means the same thing that it did to start with.

For some reason that sermon really stuck in my head. It wasn’t a preacher I was familiar with, it was a case of it being the only radio station that would come in while I drove through the mountains.

If you mix salt and pepper, you can still see what is salt and what is pepper, but when you mix faiths, they become something new and different, and you can’t simply sort them back out again.

That is one of the dangers of “dabbling” in another faith. It doesn’t just “wash off” or sift out.

And things can appear to be the same and be very very different. Faith and superstition can be difficult to determine from the outside, and sometimes even from the inside. What starts as faith can devolve into superstition etc.

His sermon made me rethink the picking and choosing bits and practices from different faiths etc.

It has helped me be more intentional and discerning, and even respectful of faiths other than my own. Picking and choosing from another faith may seem like a compliment…imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…but it can actually be an insult.

If someone “borrows” something from another faith and bends or twists it, or misrepresents it that’s not right. That’s a form of desecration. They may start with the intention of “hey, that’s really neat/powerful” but what they end up with is something else instead.

I think Catholics should steer clear.
 
Santeria = Demonology. Plain and simple. It is seductive in part because it claims some aspect of Christianity.

Catholics should have absolutely nothing to do with Santeria.
 
EricFilmer said:
The Catholic bishops of Mexico publically denounced devotions to Santa Muerte a few years ago. Please refer to this article for more details:
Santa Muerte is No Saint, Say Mexican Bishops.

Practitioners of Santa Muerte, Santeria, and other such groups simply use Catholic images to mask occult beliefs. For example, when they do ceremonies in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary, they see themselves as paying homage to a pagan goddess represented by the statue (and therefore the ceremony really has nothing to do with Mary).

Catholics are forbidden to practice the occult, regardless of what sort of imagery is associated with it. The Catechism teaches us:
All practices of magic or sorcery, by which one attempts to tame occult powers, so as to place them at one’s service and have a supernatural power over others - even if this were for the sake of restoring their health - are gravely contrary to the virtue of religion. These practices are even more to be condemned when accompanied by the intention of harming someone, or when they have recourse to the intervention of demons. Wearing charms is also reprehensible. Spiritism often implies divination or magical practices; the Church for her part warns the faithful against it. Recourse to so-called traditional cures does not justify either the invocation of evil powers or the exploitation of another’s credulity. (CCC #2117)

It should also be clearly understood that practicing the occult is a sin against the 1st Commandment. In addition to what I posted above, please also see #2110 - 2116 of the Catechism for more details on this.
Click to expand...
Santa Muerte is no saint:
But Mexico has native religious beliefs that pre-date the 1521 Spanish conquest and the arrival of the Catholic faith. Aztec and Mayan art and imagery are replete with images of death in the form of skull-adorned temples and deathly idols. Human sacrifice was offered by Mexicans’ ancestors to placate pagan gods and ensure the fertility of the earth. Before the Conquest, as many as 60,000 human lives were offered to the Aztec deities in as little as four days. That cult of death was sometimes personified by “Mictlantecuhtli” – a god who is represented as a skeleton or flayed man.
Click to expand...
Yes, that is what I was thinking before I got to that point in the article, that this is just a continuation of Aztec religion by another name.

Xipe Totec, or “the Flayed One”, was a life-death-rebirth deity: Xipe Totec.

This was the sort of religious background (cult of Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl - Mayan rather than Aztec) for Mel Gibson’s movie Apocalypto, in which one of the characters said to another one, “This day you will see me wear your skin” meaning that the character so spoken to would be skinned alive and would see the speaker don his skin:


Xipe Totec as depicted in the Codex Borgia,
notice the bloody weapon and the
flayed human skin he wears as a suit
with the hands hanging down. The
Codex Borgia is now in the Vatican Library.
 
“I don’t practice Santeria, I don’t got no crystal ball, …” _ Sublime
 
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