KZN Catholic bishops ban ancestral rituals

ON SUNDAY mornings, townships, suburbs, and villages across KwaZulu-Natal come alive with the rhythm of Catholic life.

- TRIBUNE REPORTER

ARCHBISHOP Siegfried Mandla Jwara of the Durban Archdiocese. | File

Families rise early, children tug at polished shoes, elders clutch rosaries in their uniforms, and the scent of incense drifts from parish halls as the faithful congregate for Mass.

For many, however, the spiritual week does not end at the church doors. At home, ancestral rituals continue, goats and chickens are slaughtered to honour the ancestors and traditional healers are consulted.

For generations, the two practices have sat side by side, a rhythm of faith and culture woven into everyday life. But now, KwaZulu-Natal's Catholic bishops have issued a stern warning that such blending of traditions, known as syncretism, is no longer to be tolerated within the Church.

In a rare joint pastoral letter, Archbishop Siegfried Mandla Jwara of the Durban archdiocese and eight fellow bishops condemned the mixing of Catholic teaching with African spiritual practices such as ubungoma (divination).

The three-page September 16 letter explicitly forbids priests and laypeople alike from seeking the guidance of izangoma (traditional healers), offering animal sacrifices to ancestors, or weaving traditional rituals into the sacraments.

"It is grievous and a source of profound sorrow that some Catholic priests and religious are reported to engage in these practices," the bishops wrote.