Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
In this Feb. 13, 2013 file photo, statues of La Santa Muerte, an underworld saint most recently associated with the violent drug trade in Mexico, are shown at the Masks y Mas art store in Albuquerque, N.M. Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester recently told The Associated Press he believes some Catholics may be fooled into venerating Santa Muerte even though the focus on death runs counter to the church's teachings and she's not an official Catholic saint. (AP Photo/Russell Contreras, File)

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A New Mexico archbishop is renewing his call for Catholics to stop worshipping the skeleton folk saint known as La Santa Muerte, or "Our Lady of Holy Death," saying he fears some mistakenly believe the Grim Reaper-like figure is a Roman Catholic Church-sanctioned saint.

Santa Fe Archbishop John Wester recently told The Associated Press he believes some Catholics may be fooled into venerating Santa Muerte even though the focus on death runs counter to the church's teachings.

"It's really wrong," Wester said. "I think in part, it's (because) people are looking and searching. It's a symptom of a search looking for answers."

But the devotion to death is not in line with the church's teachings, Wester said, and Santa Muerte is misleading to people.

"Our devotion is to the God of life," Wester said.

Popular in Mexico and sometimes linked to drug cartels, La Santa Muerte in recent years has found a diverse following north of the border: immigrant small-business owners, artists, gay activists and the poor, among others — many of them non-Latinos and not all involved with organized religion. Shrines and statues of the skeleton figure — typically depicted wearing a black nun's robe and holding a scythe — can be found in New Mexico, California, Louisiana, Texas and elsewhere.

People pray to Santa Muerte for all manner of otherworldly help, from fending off wrongdoing and exacting revenge to landing better jobs and stopping lovers from cheating. Others seek her protection for their drug shipments and to ward off law enforcement.

Wester is one of only a handful of U.S. Roman Catholic bishops who have denounced Santa Muerte. In 2017, he joined El Paso Bishop Mark Seitz and San Angelo Bishop Michael Sis in Texas in urging Catholics to avoid honoring to the folk saint.

Sis said La Santa Muerte is "spiritually dangerous" and has no link to Catholicism. "It should be completely avoided. It is a perversion of devotion to the saints," Sis said.

But so far no other high-ranking Catholic church officials have publicly criticized the worshipping of Santa Muerte, according to Andrew Chesnut, author of "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint" and Bishop Walter F. Sullivan chair in Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University.

"In Latin America, church officials rebuke Santa Muerte almost weekly," Chesnut said.

Chesnut said he believes U.S. Catholic officials have been reluctant to aggressively attack Santa Muerte because of their focus on defending migrants' rights and concerns about portraying Mexican immigrants as "dangerous and all connected to drug trafficking."

More: Faith / Saints
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Especially in places like the United States, where structures like pastoral councils are already relatively common, it is important to hear the synod’s call to ensure that consultation and dialogue are effective and not merely nominal.
The EditorsNovember 11, 2024
The Vatican has announced the appointment of Capuchin Father Roberto Pasolini as the new papal preacher, succeeding Cardinal Raniero Cantalamessa who served since 1980.
It is often the task of responsible citizens and faithful Christians to work patiently from wherever we are to plant new seeds, soften ugly impulses and blow on whatever promising sparks we may see
Rachel LuNovember 11, 2024
A historical photo of the Italian opera composer Giacomo Puccini seated at a piano.
Giacomo Puccini, the composer of “La Bohème,” “Tosca” and “Madama Butterfly,” has been called the world’s most popular songwriter, and with good reason.
Christopher SandfordNovember 11, 2024