Santa Muerte is no saint, say Mexican bishops

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The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Mexico City condemned devotion to Santa Muerte "Saint Death" that masquerades as authentic Catholic Christianity.

According to a statement by Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico City on November 3, 2008, popular devotion to the so-called "Saint Death" is not compatible with the Catholic faith. It also noted that Saint Jude Thaddeus – known to Catholics worldwide as the intercessor for lost causes - is not the patron saint of criminals or drug traffickers.

The statement noted that "many people who commit crimes believe that St Jude is their patron saint," and added that "In no way would this saint be interceding before God in heaven for those who act contrary to the commandments of Christ, violating the precepts of Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not commit adultery."

While the statement explained that the Catholic Church encourages authentic expressions of devotion to St. Jude, it pointed out that "in some cases there are serious incompatibilities" with the teachings of the Church in popular devotion.

The Archdiocese of Mexico noted that true devotion to St Jude "is completely the opposite of the devotion to 'Saint Death,' as Christ himself overcame death in his glorious rising from the tomb, promising eternal life to those who keep the commandments of the law of God."

The growing devotion to 'Saint Death', which grows more prominent as the feast of All Souls approaches, has become popular in recent years in parts of Mexico. Roman Catholics and other Christians elebrate November 1st as All Saints Day, followed the next day by All Souls in commemoration of all the faithful departed. In Mexico and Central America, this Christian practice has been infused with non-Christian elements of ancestor worship or even occult practices.

The pilgrim image of Our Lady of Zapopan returns to her home basilica in Zapopan after her peregrinations in Jalisco. Thousands of devout Mexicans accompany the Virgin in honor of Columbus Day - the commemoration of the founding of a mestizo people.

"Santa Muerte" – Saint Death or Holy Death– is the focus of a deathly Mexican cult that has gained a so-far undetermined number of adherents on both sides of the illusory barrier that divides the United States from Mexico.

It made news in the US in early March 2005 when its putative leader led a demonstration in Mexico City protesting against the Mexican government’s reconsideration of his group’s status as an officially registered "church."

Removal of this status would forbid it from legally soliciting donations or owning property. Sounding a lot like the ACLU or other US and European civil libertarians, the marchers for St. Death brandished banners during a March rally in Mexico City shouting "We are not criminals" and "Respect religious freedom"!

While their dispute is with the Mexican government, much of their anger is directed at the Catholic Church, which has warned the faithful to beware of the cult and its tendency towards Satanism. The bishop of León, Guanajuato State, Mexico, complained to the Mexican government last year that the organizers of the cult had fraudulently used the name "Catholic" in their moniker.

Cult spokesman David Romo Guillén, who styles himself as a bishop, declared that his group "The Mexico-US Tridentine Catholic Church" or "The Traditional Catholic Mex-USA Church" has temples in Mexico and prayer groups in the US – including Texas, California, and Washington DC. However, a spokesman of the Catholic Archdiocese of Washington DC in an email response to Spero News declared that he "had no knowledge" of the cult, while no response was forthcoming from the Los Angeles Catholic archdiocese about St. Death.

Adherents of Santa Muerte come from all social sectors in Mexico, according to some observers such as Mexican author Homero Aridjis, who is also president of the International PEN organization. Even so, in violent prison riots and other disturbances over the last month in Mexico, the image and the growing influence of the death cult were obvious.

According to Aridjis, criminal narco-traffickers are very religious and their shrines to Santa Muerte have been found during police raids on their homes and hideouts. Aridjis, who has written a novelized account of his contacts with the cult, says that its adherents include not only the most marginalized sectors of Mexican society, such as prostitutes and narco-traffickers, but also police officers and powerful politicians seeking deliverance or advantage over their enemies.

However, Dr. Timothy Steigenga, renowned religion researcher at Florida Atlantic University, averred that the cult’s adherents come from a population segment he designates as "unaffiliated" to either the Catholic Church or the numerous, and growing, Protestant churches in Mexico and Central America. While not likening Santa Muerte to Pentecostal Christianity, Steigenga said in an email response to Spero News that research about these "unaffiliated" persons suggests "that this may be a group from which Pentecostals find converts and/or to which former Pentecostals gravitate. In other words, many of the non-affiliated find themselves marginalized in situations that motivate them to become ‘seekers’. Thus, cults like the Santa Muerte cult as well as Pentecostal churches, Afro Brazilian religions, and other religious groups find converts among this group."

According to press reports from California, Santa Muerte iconography is increasingly found as merchandise offered at stores called "botánicas" that, while they have long served the local Latino populace, are now attracting non-Hispanic customers seeking new forms of spirituality. At the "botánicas", customers can purchase not only traditional herbal remedies and Santa Muerte merchandise, but also Catholic devotional imagery such as St. Christopher medallions.

In one report, a local observer of the Santa Muerte cult posited that since the Second Vatican Council in 1960s, Hispanic Catholics felt a vacuum when some traditional devotional practices were abandoned by the Catholic Church. Since the cult of Santa Muerte uses some familiar ritual forms and artifacts (e.g. candles, liturgy, statues, and offerings), it may fill this spiritual void for some people. However, Professor Steigenga said, "I don’t think we can blame Vatican II for the upswing in syncretism or the growth of Pentecostalism. Rather, all of these religious changes are responses to a similar set of socio-political conditions, external religious actors, and the broader fissure within Latin American Catholicism."

Catholic Church authorities concur that Santa Muerte seeks to lull the uninformed into believing that the cult represents an authentic form of Christianity. Apparently lending credence to this assertion, Santa Muerte cult spokesman Romo has spoken of himself to the press as "bishop" and further emulates the Catholic Church by wearing garb typical of Catholic clerics. Romo and other "priests" of Santa Muerte even hear confessions, but espouse a theology at odds with any recognizable form of Christianity. Reuters news service helped along the farce by referring to Romo as a "Catholic" priest, while the Mexican newspaper "La Reforma" refers to the cult as "Catholic, albeit not Roman".