Pagan rituals are planned for Francis' July 24-29 trip to Canada where he will apologise for “abuse crimes” that never happened.
In Edmonton's Sacred Heart Church, an "elder" will perform a smudge ritual before Francis' eucharist. The smoker will enter the church ahead of Francis with a bowl of smouldering cedar, sage, sweetgrass and tobacco.
Father Cristino Bouvette (Calgary Archdiocese) who has an Italian mother and an indigenous father and is assisting in planning Francis' Eucharists and prayer services admitted to CruxNow.com (July 15) that those rituals are “outside of any particular Catholic expression of faith” but "certainly not contrary to it.”
The goal is to show a "recognition" of these rituals and to make the church “more hospitable” to welcome Francis by “a ritual of purification.”
John Paul II allowed already during his 2002 Mexico City Eucharist a "purification ritual" carried out by a woman in traditional costume waving medicinal herbs in front of the Pope, and other …More