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Friday 30 October 2009

Catholicism, Witchcraft, and Those Mean Ol' Colonizers

A piece in our diocesan paper, (originally from CNS, the de facto journal of the USCCB,) has an interesting take on the sometimes uneasy co-existence in Mexico of the Church and spell-peddling brujos.

[An anthropologist and archaeologist from Loyola informs us that,] "In many ways the Catholic Church is in competition with the brujos." ...

While [a local priest] acknowledges that pre-Hispanic and Catholic beliefs are intertwined in the area, [the Loyola guy] suggests the phenomenon is just a continuation of the Spanish conquest that began centuries ago. [emphasis added]

"It's in some ways an uncomfortable juxtaposition, and that juxtaposition has been simply played out since the Spaniards arrived," he said.