The Catholic Church, Haiti, And Voodoo

[Dave]

I realize that most, if not all, of the Catholics in Haiti also practice voodoo. Why won't it go away? Do the priests not preach against it enough? Or do they preach and preach and yet get ignored by the congregation? Could such people be invincibly ignorant? Or could they not be? Thoughts?

[God Conquers]

It's tough to root out ingrained culture such as voodoo. I'm not sure why it takes so long, but I know it should take a long time.

[M.SIGGA]

Some of my ancestors are folks who got kicked out of Haiti!

The situation in Haiti is not very different from other parts of the Carribean, South and Central America and it's basically a result of slavery and why forced conversions do not work. Vodun, Santeria, Umbanda, Quimbanda and Candomble etc. are remnants of the Old African and Indian religions, and the European Christians who came to the America's weren't exactly perfect Christian witnesses.

On top of this the Blacks and Indians were baptized by law, so to be counted as Catholic, but never catechised properly and when the Europeans either left or got kicked out, many of the priests left too and Catholics left there had to pick up the slack the best that they could - and you know and I know that if 'business' hasn't been taken care of for 100+ years it's going to be hard as hell to pull things together in the future.

There are many orthodox Catholics in Haiti, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Equador, Cuba, etc. but Voodoo is so widespread and so intertwined with the culture and the history and national identity it would take a lot of effort for population to totally get rid of it.

Louisiana had a similar slave&indian culture so there are still remnants of it here, but the only reason Voodoo&Superstition has almost been wiped among the Catholic population here is because so many other groups of Catholic clergy from Germany, Ireland, and Italy came with the American inflow of immigrants who picked up the slack where the French and Spanish left off.

I played football with a guy from Haiti and he said that another issue is that it is often practiced in secret, so no one really knows the extent of how many people really practice Voodoo. Plus historians often suggest that Native/non-European expressions of Catholcism are Voodoo so you can't always believe what you hear.

[Laudate_Dominum]

freaky.. but thanks for a very informative post.

[mulls]

in Nigera, Yoruba deities are assimilated with Catholic saints.