Mexican Catholics Venerate Female Grim Reaper
Religious fanaticism bordering on idol worship is common in Catholic developing countries. In Mexico, a bizarre religious icon is venerated despite having been reproved by the Vatican. The image is that of Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte, colloquially known as Santa Muerte or Holy Death.
The image itself — a skeletal figure holding a scythe — will send shivers to the unaccustomed. The icon's origin is sketchy, but there are indications it is the former La Parca, the female Grim Reaper which was used by friars to convert the indigenous people in the Americas.
The Vatican condemned the devotion to the image not only because it doesn't recognize it as a saint, but also because of its ties to the Mexican underworld. Santa Muerte "is seen as a non-judgmental saint that can be invoked for some not-so-holy petitions," Catholic News Agency reported.
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"If somebody is going to be doing something illegal and they want to be protected from the law enforcement, they feel awkward asking God to protect them," explained Fr. Andres Gutierrez of St. Helen parish in Rio Hondo, Texas. "So they promise something to Santa Muerte in exchange for being protected from the law."
These kinds of petitions which include vengeance are appealing to criminals. "She's basically the poster girl of narco-satanic spirituality," Andrew Chesnut, an expert of Santa Muerte, said. Pope Francis himself rebuked those who "praise illusions and embrace their macabre symbols to commercialize death in exchange for money" when he visited Mexico last year.
But in such a dangerous place where the drug wars have claimed at least 60,000 lives, people tend to look up to deities related to the afterlife. "Paradoxically, a lot of devotees who feel like death could be just around the corner — maybe they're narcos, maybe they work in the street, maybe they're security guards who might be gunned down — they ask Santa Muerte for protection," Chestnut went on.
