Santeria

Santeria is an Afro-Cuban cult that is endeavoring to be known as the official religion of Cuba. It is much akin to Catholicism, but identifies the Catholic St. Lazarus with Babalu Ayo, the god who comforts and heals. Santerias combine African rituals with Catholic paraphernalia, including crucifixes and Sacred Heart pictures.

A Santeria spokes woman said that Catholic priests will give Communion to Santeria followers, who are recognizable by their colored bead bracelets and necklaces.

The cult is a mixture of Catholicism with African gods, but followers say this presents no problem to them. The pope, however, spoke out against putting "the Catholic Church on the same level as certain other cultural expressions of religious piety."

From The Guardian Havana, 1/29/98: Nearly everyone in Cuba, Fidel Castro included, is rumored to believe, to some degree, in Santeria, the Way of the Saints .... Belief is everywhere. When you open a new bottle of rum in Cuba, you always pour some onto the ground. Not much, mind you, as you often have to pay for bottles of rum with dollars, and dollars are rare - but just enough "for the saints."

For the officially atheist population of Cuba, it is merely a superstition. But unofficially, it is a symbol signifying a primitive belief in either Catholic or voodooism, or both, for they are frequently the same.

The center point of the Pope's visit was a trip to Santiago de Cuba for the coronation of the Virgen de la Caridad (Our Lady of Charity), the wooden image found floating in the Atlantic by three fishermen in 1606, with a helpful note attached to it, "I am the Virgen de la Caridad." It is the most sacred Catholic relic in Cuba.

The relic is also one of the most sacred saints in the Santerian canon, and the Virgin is associated with Ochun, the Yoruba goddess of love. A copy of the relic stood prominently in the babalaw's shrine, the part of his living room he called his power base.

The replica was next to a primitive sculpture of an African warrior, and scattered about were colored stones draped with shiny necklaces. The stones are be to contain the spirits of both the saints and the Yoruba gods of distant Africa.

The babalaw was at pains to point out as many parallels as he could with Catholicism .... A Santeria ceremony ... takes place in a private house. As drums summon up the saints, a makeshift "altar" is erected in the front room with a variety of offerings, including an iced cake. There is a lot of singing and dancing. ... Most people chant in African languages, and a few people speak in tongues as the saints possess their bodies.