Nuggets from Occult Invasion—Roman Catholicism and Voodoo

Images, holy water, and Catholic rituals cannot be found in the Bible, but have all been adapted from paganism. Their counterpart is found today in voodoo and related cults. Haiti, which is said to be “eighty-five percent Catholic and one hundred and ten percent Vodoun,” is one of many modern examples of Catholicism’s adaptation to pagan occultism. Latin America (which is 90 percent Catholic) is similar. A Catholic newspaper describes religion there as “a synthesis of [native American] Indian and European cultures. …”

Voodoo is only one of several pagan religions that slaves brought to the West from Africa. The frightening spiritist cult of Santeria, imported from Cuba and exploding in barrios across America, is another blend of African paganism and Catholicism involving “gods” who front for demons passed off as Catholic saints. In Brazil and Cuba, Spiritism and voodoo-related African religions (such as Macumba and Candomble) blend with Catholicism. Most Latin Americans are active both in Catholicism and indigenous or imported occultism.