The Cult of Death
Swamp Church directs us to an unusual permutation of Catholicism; the veneration of La Santa Muerte, "Saint Death" by a group called the “Traditional Catholic Church Mex-USA” or the “Mexico-US Tridentine Catholic Church”. According to one news article that Swamp Church links to:
In Mexico City, in the tough Tepito neighborhood, where poverty, corruption and violence are daily realities, there is a beloved "saint" who understands and forgives the frailties of all human flesh. Her domain is a labyrinth of grimy streets lined with auto body shops and humble mom-and-pop stores. From her perch behind a glassencased altar adorned with candles, decayed flowers and shot glasses of tequila, she watches scruffy curs pick through garbage while a constant stream of pilgrims lays offerings at her feet.One site goes so far as to label this group The Death Cult of the Drug Lords
To Roman Catholic Church officials, the skeletal woman in the long, flowing robes is an evil figure, a grisly embodiment of satanic purposes. But to the desperately poor and overlooked residents of Tepito she is a popfolk idol and often a last, best hope for answering unanswered prayers.
She is La Santa Muerte, "Saint Death," or as others call her, "La Santisima Muerte," "Sacred Death." Her petitioners are prostitutes, drug dealers and murderers, as well as multitudes of ordinary housewives, taxi drivers and street vendors hoping to cure a sick child or pay the rent or simply make it through another day without getting robbed or kidnapped or shot.
