[Vision2020] Bishops Warn Priests Against Witchcraft

[Tom Hansen]

Bishops warn priests against witchcraft
Wed Aug 16, 2006 2:20 PM BST

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Southern Africa's Catholic bishops have warned
priests to stop moonlighting as witchdoctors, fortune tellers and
traditional healers, and to rely on Christ for miracles.

The Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference, which represents bishops
in South Africa, Swaziland and Botswana, said on its Web sites some priests
were adopting the traditional African practice of calling on ancestors for
healing.

The bishops ordered priests to "desist from practices involving spirits",
and to steer clear from witchcraft, fortune-telling and selling spiritual
powers or magic medicines.

"The belief that ancestors are endowed with supernatural powers borders on
idolatry. It is God, and God alone, who is all-powerful while the ancestors
are created by him," said the pastoral letter to priests issued earlier this
month.

Many in Southern Africa turn to sangomas -- or traditional healers -- to
cure illness, ward off evil spirits and even improve their sex lives.
Sangomas, who play a key role in rural communities but are also revered by
many in towns and cities, call on ancestral spirits to heal and give advice.

Some Christian sects, like the South Africa-based Zion Christian Church,
fuse traditional African beliefs about the power of the ancestors with
orthodox Christianity.

The Southern African bishops said Catholic priests should instead heal in
the name of Jesus Christ, and should tend to the soul, not just the body.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving
safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in
sideways, chocolate in one hand, a drink in the other, body thoroughly used
up, totally worn out and screaming 'WOO HOO. What a ride!'"