The bishop of Raleigh, North Carolina presided over a shamanistic “smudging” ceremony to celebrate St. Catherine “Kateri” Tekakwitha, who rejected her native Mohawk religion.
Pascua Taqui tribe member Richard Duran led the congregation of Holy Cross Catholic Church in Durham in a “smudging” ceremony in July, according to an archived page of North Carolina Catholics, a diocesan publication. Smudging is a shamanic ritual that involves burning herbs and resins to “cleanse” a space of negative energy and “brin(g) in good spirits,” according to a Native American site. The smoke is “shared with people as an act of prayer and spiritual connection,” NC Catholics reported.
RELATED: Bishop Zarama Started Pagan Dances In 2023
“Father David Miller, who is chaplain to the Native American Catholic Community in the diocese and has ancestral ties to the Shawnee, Lenape and Cherokee tribes of his home state of Oklahoma, offered a traditional prayer in the four directions,” the report stated.
The prayer in the four directions is a pagan prayer traditionally understood to be directed to the Creator but also calls upon “spirits” associated with the North, South, East and West.
Continue reading at LifeSite News