If you look through some history, several chiefs were devout Catholics. Sitting Bull comes immediately to mind. Once our people converted, they were almost scrupulous in their practice of the faith, and their piety would put many other people to shame. I had a grandmother, a tall, slender Seneca woman, who fell into the “more Catholic than the Pope” category, who assumed responsibility for the home catechesis of her grandchildren when my parents’ generation got a little lax. Her uncle was the priest (he died before I was born.) One of her sisters and one of her first cousins were nuns.
I recall hearing “something” Pope John Paul II said about indigenous practices and Catholicism, but can’t recall what precisely it was that he said. Does anyone have any references to a bull or other document of his teaching on this?
If I get a chance over the next few days I will try to research what, if anything, there is in the Catechism about indigenous practices. I do know that some caution has been attached to avoid letting popular piety fall into the category of superstition. I also recall that when I was “back home” (the reservation where I was born,) cedar was used as incense during the Mass celebrated in Mohawk (which was sung, much like a Missa Cantata.) Apparently, at that Mass, people who regularly attend all sit with their own clan, much like is done in the Longhouse.
It’s just my opinion, of course, but it seems that these things (the use of the eagle feather, the use of the traditional medicine herbs and botanicals in the liturgy,) should be reserved for use by our own people, and not made a common part of liturgy, since they would have no meaning for others. It’s a little tiresome to have our cultural artifacts and practices co-opted by “Indian wannabes.” I think that is how the new age things “snuck in” to traditional practices, and would hate to see it translate into new age infiltration into traditional native American Catholicism.
