What the Church teaches on superstition, idolatry, divination, irreligion, atheism,..

[Michie]

...and agnosticism

The Anchoress, Elizabeth Scalia, has done an excellent job of investigative work at keeping us all up-to-date regarding the events of this darkness; I would encourage you to check out her blog posts here. I would also encourage you to read the blog – God and the Machine, written by Thomas L. McDonald. His post titled...

What the Church teaches on superstition, idolatry, divination, irreligion, atheism, and agnosticism...

 

[Gnarwhal]

Interesting subject.

Currently in my Cultural Anthropology class we're covering Magic, Witchcraft and Religion and my instructor briefly discussed Catholicism in Central and South America and how it has mixed with a lot of the native religions that were already rooted in the culture when the Spanish arrived. Kind of like in Haiti where Catholicism is mixed with voodoo (I think it's called Santería), there's a lot of superstition and what not such as with Santa Muerte.

I'm wondering if the church considers these people to be true Catholics if they're theoretically not practicing pure Catholicism..?

 

[Rhamiel]

Cogent, I do not want to sound condescending, but I think you are looking at this from a more Modernistic/Protestant view
are they "real Catholics"

yes, yes they are

are all their beliefs and practices in keeping with sound doctrine?
no... probably not

are some of them guilty, to varying degrees, of witchcraft?
probably yes...

I am not excusing their sins, but those are temptations that are popular in that culture.

look at how Christians in the "Global North" have a tendency to fall into avarice, immodesty, consuming media that is disrespectful to religion, being lukewarm, ect ect ect. We can say that these people are not living the Christian virtues that they are called to, but very rarely do we question if they are "real Catholics"

kind of the same here, really bad sins do not necessarily make you "not Catholic" but it does mean you might not be in a state of grace (depending on culpability)

hope that makes sense

 

[Rhamiel]

here is a sermon on St. Michael the Archangel

enemy of Satan and his servants.

people often look at it like the opposite of God is Satan, I think that is an incorrect view, we are not Dualistic faith, we do not have a "Good God" and an "Evil God"

God is above Satan,
in power, dignity, and ontological necessity God "outranks" Satan
the opposite of Satan is not God, God
the opposite of Satan is St. Michael

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfDB2rpmgUM

 

[Gwendolyn]

While Santeria has Catholic elements, I would not call it Catholicism. It is syncretic and distorted. However, it is also possible to be Catholic but ignorant of the errors of mixing other religions/magic into your practice. I'm embarrassed to say that when I was a teenager, I was really into astrology and some new age stuff (I wondered if reincarnation was possible). I was Catholic, but misguided.