Police say shrine near bodies not tied to killings

By Michael Grabell ("Dallas Morning News," February 8, 2007)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/24194/?&place=north-america&section=occult

Dallas, USA - Police and religious experts say that a pot containing a human skull, found near the bodies of a missing couple last week, appears to be a shrine of the Afro-Caribbean religion Palo Mayombe.

Detectives stressed that there is no connection between the killings and the shrine. And religious scholars said that despite stereotypes, there is no element of human sacrifice in Palo Mayombe or other Afro-Caribbean religions, such as Santeria or Voodoo.

The pot was found Jan. 29 near Interstate 45 and Dowdy Ferry Road as police searched for the couple. But it was across a river and hundreds of yards from the bodies.

The three-legged iron vessel was wrapped in black and red cloth and contained animal bones, chicken feathers, a machete and an 18-inch statue of a man, carved from dark wood. Police also found a human skull.

It appears to be a prenda or nganga, used by followers to house the spirits of the dead and of nature, said Eoghan Ballard, who wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on African religions.

Palo Mayombe originated in the Congo in west-central Africa. Like Santeria and Voodoo, it spread to the Caribbean through the slave trade and to the U.S. after the Cuban exodus of the 1960s.

"It's important to remember these aren't synonyms," Mr. Ballard said. "They are names for very different African religions."

Palo Mayombe is a naturalistic religion in which followers believe in drawing energy from the earth, said Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, a religious studies professor at the University of Miami.

Ms. Maldonado said there is much less scholarly research on the religion than on Santeria or Voodoo. Palo Mayombe is rare and secretive.

There are numerous Palo denominations, and as they developed through the slave trade, followers mixed in other customs. Some Palo priests believe they can make bad things happen to other people, giving the religion a reputation for black magic, Ms. Maldonado said.

"There's no governing body that dictates religious ritual, so there's not as if there is a manual you're given," she said.

Ms. Maldonado said she had never come across a human skull in her studies of Palo Mayombe, but Mr. Ballard said he had.

But both doubted that the skull had been stolen from a grave.

"Most of them now buy them through legal sources [such as medical supply stores] because like most people, they don't want to be arrested," Mr. Ballard said. A search of eBay found a handful of purported human skulls being sold for about $300.

Hutchins police Detective Emily Owens said it remains a mystery why the shrine was in the woods because the vessel is usually associated with home worship.

"We don't think there was any rituals going on out at the site," she said. "There may be a reason why it was out there. I haven't found that out yet."

Mr. Ballard suggested two theories. He said a follower might have been instructed through a ritual to set it there for a certain time to allow it to gain energy from nature. It's also possible that a follower converted to Christianity and disposed of an object they now considered an implement of the devil.

Other experts said it might have been disposed of after its owner died, allowing it to return to nature.

The shrine's discovery near the bodies of Linoshka Torres and Luis Campos and the initial linking by police to Santeria has angered followers of that religion, who said it only fuels stereotypes that the group practices human sacrifice.

"This is absolutely, absolutely not Santeria," said Ernesto Pichardo, a vocal Santeria priest in the Miami area.

He said Santeria has been given a bad name by criminals. In 1989, a cult and drug-smuggling ring killed 15 people near Matamoros, Mexico, under the guise of Santeria.

"He was just outright killing people related to the drug trade, and he was using this delusion of religion to control the people he was involved with," Mr. Pichardo said.

There is a double standard for Afro-Caribbean religions, he said: When crimes happen and ritual objects are found, people automatically think it's part of the religion. But when mothers kill their children to give them to God or to protect them from the devil, people attribute it to mental illness.

Body snatching is mark of a cult

By William Kleinknecht ("Star-Ledger Staff," May 1, 2002)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/9450/?&place=north-america&section=occult

The two men slipped into Newark's Holy Sepulchre Cemetery on a January night in 1999 and crept through the cold stillness of gravestones and crypts.

They came upon the mausoleum of Leonard Perna, a bar owner from Orange whose body had lain undisturbed for 13 years.

The men smashed through the plexiglass entrance. A heavy marble slab covering Perna's coffin was lifted, and his remains -- which became part of a black-magic ritual -- were stolen.

As unholy as the crime may seem, it was only one of a series of body thefts -- including four others in Holy Sepulchre -- authorities say are linked to Palo Mayombe, a religious cult whose priests use human remains in their rituals.

"It is an unfortunate thing in Newark that the theft of human bodies has become a business," Dean Maglione, an assistant Essex County prosecutor, said yesterday as a Palo recruit named Franklin Sanabria Jr. was sentenced for taking part in the burglary of Perna's crypt.

Perna's body was stolen Jan. 13, 1999. Newark police lifted a print from the broken plexiglass and arrested Sanabria, 28, of Newark, who told police he broke into the crypt with another man who was introducing him to Palo Mayombe.

Sanabria told authorities that he panicked and fled after they entered the crypt and that his associate left with the remains. Maglione said the associate is in prison on other charges and is not likely to be prosecuted. He said the remains have not been recovered, and the investigation is closed.

A grand jury declined to indict Sanabria for theft, but charged him with burglarizing the crypt. He pleaded guilty in February to third-degree burglary.

Superior Court Judge Michael Petrolle sentenced him yesterday to four years of probation and ordered him to serve 200 hours of community service doing maintenance at Rosemount Memorial Park in Newark. He also ordered him to pay $4,200 in restitution to repair the Perna crypt.

Before the sentencing, Rosanne Perna, the dead man's daughter, told Petrolle that her family is still in agony over the loss of his remains.

"My father is missing," she said. "My father cannot rest in peace. I have a grandmother who cries every time the subject comes up."

Afterward, Rosanne Perna criticized Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, which is operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark, for what she said was its failure to put lighting in the cemetery even though it has been plagued by vandalism. She said her family's crypt had been vandalized several times before.

Holy Sepulchre officials referred questions about the Perna case and the issue of body thefts to the archdiocese. Jim Goodness, a spokesman for the archdiocese, said he would not comment.

Maglione said that while he was handling the Perna case, managers of Holy Sepulchre told him that two other bodies were stolen in November, as well as one in January and one in 1997.

In 1999, Kearny police charged a Palo priest and several of his followers with stealing the 83-year-old remains of an infant from a crypt in Arlington Cemetery. Detective Thomas Silkie, who handled the case, said the priest had been using the cemetery for midnight rituals with severed animal tongues and other bizarre items.

And two Paterson men were prosecuted in Passaic County in 1997 after breaking into a crypt at Cedar Lawn Cemetery and stealing a woman's skull. They are believed to have sold it to a religious cult for $500, but John Latoracca, senior assistant Passaic County prosecutor, said the cult was never identified.

Palo priests, known as Paleros, conduct ceremonies around a steaming cauldron filled with human bones, sticks, railroad spikes, tools and other symbolic items. A human skull is put in last and is said to give spiritual powers to the mixture.

Palo is an illegitimate offspring of Bakongo, a West African religion that slaves brought to Cuba in the 19th century and was transported to the United States with Cuban immigration in the last few decades, said Oloye "Baba" Ifa Karade, an East Orange teacher who has written books on African religions.

Karade said practitioners of Bakongo worship at the graves of their ancestors, but they do not remove remains. He said Palo adherents are shunned by legitimate Bakongo worshippers.

"This is something done by people who really don't know what is going on with their own faith," he said. "I am leading a movement to bring people out of Palo and into Bakongo."

Silkie, the Kearny detective, said the 3-month-old boy's remains were stolen from a crypt in Arlington Cemetery in August 1999. Inside the crypt, police found a decapitated rooster with its head placed inside a small clay cup.

After consulting with the FBI, New York City police and other authorities on religious cults, Silkie said he learned that Palo priests adopt a specific cemetery for their rituals and operate there exclusively. He said that even before the body theft, Arlington Cemetery staff reported a series of suspicious discoveries.

He said they found machetes imbedded in trees, animal tongues on the ground and stuck to trees, and clothing buried just below the soil in front of graves.

Silkie said police conducted surveillance of the cemetery after the body theft and arrested the priest, Alberto Lima, a Cuban immigrant, after he was seen entering the cemetery. They found a cauldron in his car.

Palo priests typically use bones and skulls smuggled into this country from Latin America, he said, and resort to thefts in this country less commonly. But he said there is a black market for such objects and that skulls can be sold for thousands of dollars.

"The rituals go on in cemeteries all the time," he said. "They are more common than the actual theft of bodies. But if police are not trained in the practice of Palo Mayombe, they won't even know what they are looking at."

William Kleinknecht covers criminal justice issues and the Essex County courts. He can be reached atwkleinknecht@starledger.com or (973) 642-4065.

Resting Without Peace

By William McGowan ("Wall Street Journal," November 8, 2002)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/9478/?&place=north-america&section=occult

NEWARK, N.J.--On Halloween, the tenements at the corner of Central Avenue and Norfolk Street lacked jack-o'-lanterns, cardboard skeletons and other ghostly iconography. But they didn't need Halloween decorations to be scary.

The police say that, until recently, one of them housed a basement temple devoted to Palo Mayombe, a secretive Afro-Cuban cult believed to be linked to recent grave robbings in the area. Authorities think they have the skulls and bones to prove it.

Scholars consider Palo a "magico-spiritual tradition" with West African roots. It took shape in the New World among slaves in 19th-century Cuba. According to one slave account, Palo was "the Congo man's revenge against his master." Many plantation owners were terrified of it.

Raul Canizares, a former University of South Florida instructor, is a palero, or Palo priest. He says that Palo believes in "a clear and longstanding battle between absolute good and absolute evil, the tension between the two being the energy that propels existence." Experts not of the faith say that Palo is "simply evil."

The cult includes a hierarchy of spirits, including a major god called Sambi, a host of demigods, and menial spirits, some with ragged or even comic emanations. Humans can access those spirits for practical assistance in the affairs of daily life (e.g., business, love, health).

Unlike its close relative, Santería, which stops at animal sacrifice, Palo believes that dead humans can also help connect believers to the spiritual realm. Paleros, says Mr. Canizares, believe that "the body has a right to be resurrected as a religious aid." In the mythology of Palo, he says, "there is nothing wrong with asking a skeleton to work with you."

Central to Palo ritual is an iron cauldron referred to as a nganga or prenda. The repository of all palero power, these pots are sometimes passed from generation to generation. They hold sacred Palo icons, such as sticks from sacred shrubs, rocks, dirt from graves, the bloody remains from animal sacrifices, bugs, lizards--and, not least, human bones.

Skulls are the most prized form of human remains put into the nganga. Effort is made to leave at least three-quarters of the skull exposed, to enhance the visual effect for adherents at services. The nganga is the home to the spirit of a particular Palo god as well as the spirit of the dead person whose remains are "fed to the nganga."

Which brings us to grave robbing, or "so-called grave robbing," as paleros like Mr. Canizares refer to it, objecting to Western judgmentalism. Palo doctrine insists that those who take remains from graves perform elaborate "permission rituals." The dead are to be left alone if they say no. A palero can gauge skeletal interest by sprinkling liquor on a grave and listening for a rumbling sound--i.e., "yes." Other permission rituals involve nailing an animal's tongue to a tree so the spirit can speak through it.

Not all skeletons are created equal: The more evil or powerful a person was in life, and the more violent the death, the better. This makes criminals and corrupt politicians especially appealing, along with murder victims and suicides. The longer a person has been dead, the better, too. An infant's full skeleton is also highly prized for its power.

With its high concentration of Cuban immigrants, northern New Jersey has become a Palo hotbed. In 1999, Kearny, N.J., police charged a Palo priest and several followers with the theft of the remains of an infant dead for 83 years. Workers at the cemetery had found machetes in trees, and animal tongues.

Newark seems to be the favorite target now. One case involved the theft of Leonard Perna, a tavern owner dead for 13 years before robbers broke into his crypt in 1999. According to his son, Michael, Perna may have been targeted by Palo robbers who thought he was related to a mobster named Perna and thus a source of extra mojo. One man was indicted, but connections to a Palo conspiracy remained elusive until an informant led police to a religious-items store, or botanica, while a ritual was in progress in August of this year. Inside the pots were three skulls and body parts from five corpses. Police charged the store owner with burglary, theft and conspiracy.

Just a month ago, Newark police raided the scruffy tenement at Central and Norfolk. Inside a basement worship room, 10-gallon Palo pots held at least two sets of human remains, including two skulls. Leonard Perna may have been found: A ring thought to be his, as well as a matchbook with his date of birth and date on death written on it, was found on the premises. The other bones may belong to a juvenile. This, police say, raises the prospect of an unreported grave robbery or even a murder.

The scene inside the worship room, says Newark Detective Donald Stabile, was ghastly. Animal parts were arranged on altars around the room. The basement "had an odor that you keep with you--like your first DOA." Charged with receiving stolen property and desecrating human remains were Eddie Figueroa, 56, and Eddie Jr., 35. According to police, the younger Figueroa admitted that he was a palero; the older one simply blamed others unknown to him for putting remains in the vessels without his knowledge. Both men made bail.

"Most members of my family are no longer planning to be buried," says Leonard Perna's son. "We will be cremated." As for the mobster Perna's "family," police don't know whether they are upset about having their dead apparently targeted by grave robbers. But if HBO ever plans a joint episode of "Six Feet Under" and the "The Sopranos," this would be the storyline to follow.

Palo Mayombe Priest Gets Jail For Possessing Stolen Human Remains

By (AP, May 7, 2004)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/9552/?&place=united-states&section=occult

A priest in the Palo Mayombe religious cult who was convicted of possessing human remains stolen from cemeteries was sentenced this week to five years in state prison.

Oscar Cruz, 50, was charged in August 2002 after Newark police raided a city botanica he owned and operated and found him in the basement with caldrons that contained bones from five people. Two sets of the remains were later identified as those of Jacob Schmidt and Richard Jenkinson, whose bones were stolen from Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark.

Palo Mayombe is a derivative of a West African religion that enslaved Africans brought to Cuba in the 19th century and was transported to the United States in the last few decades, according to experts. The faith's practitioners conduct ceremonies around iron caldrons containing skulls and other human bones.

Cruz was convicted in January on two counts of receiving stolen property. He has served 105 days in jail and, under the sentence imposed Wednesday, will be eligible for parole in about nine months.

Remains Found in Temple Basement

By (AP, October 9, 2002)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/4375/?&place=united-states&section=occult

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A raid on the basement temple of a religious sect uncovered human body parts allegedly stolen from cemeteries and the remains of several animals that may have been sacrificed by worshippers.

The human remains, including three skulls, were found Monday in caldrons set up on altars in a building owned by Eddie Figueroa, 56, who authorities believe is a high priest in the Palo Mayombe sect.

Figueroa and his son, Eddie Figueroa Jr., 35, pleaded innocent Tuesday to possession of stolen property and desecration of human remains.

Authorities found the animal remains later in the day when they dug up the rear yard of the building.

It was the second time in two months that Newark authorities have recovered stolen body parts from worshippers of the sect, whose priests use human remains in their rituals. The raid grew out of an investigation that began in July, when some remains were stolen from a crypt at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Newark.

Palo Mayombe is a derivative of Bakongo, a West African religion that slaves brought to Cuba in the 19th century. It was taken to the United States by Cuban immigrants who have arrived within the past few decades.

While most Palo Mayombe worshippers do not steal human remains, members of the local sect have taken bones from above-ground crypts, said Dean Maglione, an assistant Essex County prosecutor.

"We received a number of calls while we were prosecuting (another theft) case," Maglione told The Star-Ledger of Newark. "There is obviously a lot of this going on and it's of great concern to us."

Mother pleads guilty over bloody religious ritual

By John Petrick ("North Jersey," May 23, 2011)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/35514/?&section=native-religions

Paterson, USA - A mother who exposed her 7-year-old daughter to bloody religious initiation rituals in Paterson that included making her watch a chicken being sacrificed and feeding the girl its heart pleaded guilty in state court Monday to cruelty and neglect of a child.

A Paterson couple who were practitioners of the Palo Mayombe religion and who the mother asked to perform the ritual were also accepted into pre-trial intervention Monday for one year.

Yenitza Colichon, of Jamesburg, Pa., brought her daughter to the Paterson home of Julio Cano and Zahira Cano in May of 2007. Prosecutors have said Colichon was about to begin Army basic training and sought to protect her daughter while she was away at that training by cloaking her in the Palo Mayombe religion, which originated in central Africa.

The girl told a teacher after the ritual that she was having nightmares and felt she could not talk to her mother, Del Russo said. The state Division of Youth and Family Services was contacted, and investigators executed a search warrant at the Canos’ Pacific Street home where the ritual occurred.

Dolls, a shrine, religious statues, bones, machetes and bundles of sticks bearing numbers and names were among artifacts found at the home. The items, some of which had blood and animal hair on them, matched a description the girl gave about what she saw at the home.

Colichon and the Canos each were indicted on charges of fourth-degree cruelty and neglect of a child. Colichon also was indicted on a second-degree endangerment charge, and the Canos also were charged with third-degree endangerment.

Passaic County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Del Russo said outside of court Monday that the Canos have since parted ways with the Palo Mayombe religion. Under the terms of their acceptance into the pre-trial intervention program Monday, they will each be required to serve a probation-like term for one year after which their records will be clear.

Colichon, meanwhile, faces up to five years probation for her guilty plea when she is sentenced before state Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Portelli in Paterson on June 24.

New trial ordered for leader of grave-robbing cult

By William Kleinknecht ("Star-Ledger," April 26, 2007)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/24893/?&place=united-states&section=occult

Newark, USA - A state appellate court yesterday ordered a new trial for a leader of a grave-robbing religious cult who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for directing a follower to steal human remains from two Newark cemeteries.

Miriam Miraballes, an alleged high priestess in the Palo Mayombe sect, was unfairly convicted in a 2004 trial after an expert on cults was improperly allowed to give his opinion on her guilt, according to a ruling by the Superior Court Appellate Division.

Miraballes' appellate attorney, William Welaj, also argued that 15 years was an excessive sentence for the 61-year-old Cuban immigrant, who is being held in the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility in Clinton. But the court said it did not have to rule on that question because it was ordering a new trial.

Paul Loriquet, a spokesman for the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, said his office believes the Mi raballes trial was handled properly and that it would seek to have the matter reviewed by the state Supreme Court.

Miraballes' trial in April and May of 2004 came after a highly publicized series of thefts from above-ground mausoleums at Holy Sepulchre and Mt. Pleasant cemeteries.

In one theft, the bones of Richard Jenkinson, a prominent industrialist and Newark mayoral candi date in the early 1990s, were dragged from his crypt at Mt. Pleasant.

Newark police and the FBI linked the grave robbing to practi tioners of Palo Mayombe, a religion with African roots that experts say is practiced by a small number of Cuban immigrants. Palo worship ers at times use human skulls and other remains in their ceremonies.

Miraballes -- also known as Mi riam Mirabal -- was accused of di recting one of her followers, Ramon Gonzalez, who testified at her trial, to carry out crypt thefts. She was found guilty on May 3, 2004 of seven counts of burglary, theft and conspiracy to commit theft. On June 25, 2004, Superior Court Judge Michael Ravin sentenced her to 15 years in prison.

During her trial, Marco Qui nones, who investigates religious cults for the New York Police Department, took the stand as an ex pert witness. According to the ap pellate decision, Ravin improperly allowed Dean Maglione, then an assistant Essex County prosecutor, to ask Quinones what role he be lieved Miraballes played in the cemetery thefts, instead of limiting his expert testimony to the general nature of Palo worship.

The ruling said Maglione "elicited an opinion that the '61-year-old Cuban woman' was responsible for the cemetery thefts" and that his questions "called on the expert to opine on the credibil ity of the state's case."

The 3-0 ruling, written by Judge Harvey Weissbard, found that the "question and answer were erro neously admitted" by the judge, despite the failure of Miraballes' trial attorney, Francisco Guzman, to vigorously object.

In addition, the appellate panel found that Maglione should not have been allowed to ask Quinones whether, in his expert opinion, a Palo priestess would be truthful in court testimony. Quinones responded that a Palo priestess would lie rather than reveal the cult's secrets.

The appellate court noted that the defense did not object to that question.

"It put defendant in a position," the opinion said, "where before she ever testified -- which she did not -- she was labeled as untruthful. That is unacceptable."

Ritual Killing v. Factory Farming, Or, Are There Roosters in Heaven?

By Meera Subramanian ("Religion Dispatches," August 29, 2011)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/36074/?&place=united-states&section=occult

USA - On August 16, city inspectors closed down William Camacho’s barbershop on Pleasant Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts after they discovered three chickens, two pigeons, and four roosters in the basement. Votive candles and saint statues surrounded the birds, one of which was dead and placed neatly in a box. Black and white markings of arrows and lightning bolts and the words “El Palo Congo” were boldly inscribed on the walls.

The 41-year-old owner of Bad Boyz Cutz is a Bronx native, an unabashed Yankees fan in Red Sox territory, and a follower of the Afro-Caribbean religion, Palo Mayombe. It is a hybrid faith similar to Santeria and, like it, is derived from Yoruba, a West African religion that sailed over with slaves to places like Brazil and Cuba, infusing its animism into the Roman Catholicism of the colonialists.

This is clearly a First Amendment-rights story, a question of religious liberties. Camacho was the first to point this out when he spoke to the paper South Coast Today, which broke the news. “They had no right to shut me down,” he said, explaining that he planned to take the birds out of the city and ritually sacrifice them in his religious tradition, releasing the powerful life force he believed was contained within their blood. He would then eat them.

Within the borders of the United States, most of the remnants of animal sacrifice that once infused the world’s religions have fallen away. In 1987, the Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye in Florida’s Dade County banned animal sacrifice after it began plans to build a church where religious rites including animal sacrifice would take place. Six years later, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the city ban violated the church’s religious freedoms. It was the same year that Congress passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which prevents laws that place an undue burden on people’s ability to express their religion.

The religious methods of slaughter such as the Jewish shechita and the Islamic dhabh remain in most countries, though that is slowly changing. The Dutch parliament recently passed a bill requiring an animal to be stunned before slaughter, following in the footsteps of New Zealand and Switzerland, effectively eliminating the procedures that make meat kosher for Jews or halal for Muslims.

As for the sacrificial taking of human life, every Sunday, millions of mainstream Americans partake in a symbolic ingestion of blood and body that is so common in the Christian world that one forgets to use the word “cannibalism.” For the Catholics if not the Protestants, the magical process of transubstantiation makes the wafers and wine truly become the Body and Blood of Christ, and the symbol becomes, on the tongue of the beholder, quite literal. But the remainders of truly ritualistic killings of the Palo Mayombe variety still linger on the fringe of the bounds of faith.

There are other considerations at play here besides religious freedom. Which brings us back to the blunt reality of those chickens. Setting aside legitimate animal cruelty and public health and safety concerns, could it be that people who use animals in their religious practices, even when they kill them, might just be kinder than the millions who are enjoying the last of their factory-farmed summer evening barbecues?

Last year alone, about eight billion chickens were slaughtered in the U.S., according to the USDA. So why does the idea of animal sacrifice so easily fall into the realm of heebie jeebies? Why do stories about people like Camacho and their doomed animals get picked up so quickly, not just by ABC, but also sites with names like Wacky Bastards?

The fact that there are that many slaughtered chickens, and only about 50,000 chicken and egg farms, indicates that the carnivorous portion of our population is quite satisfied with other forms of animal sacrifice. Most of those birds were raised under conditions that are undeniably miserable, their beaks often cut off when they’re young to keep them from cannibalizing their neighbors. Their short lives are then ended with little ritual. Implicitly, people are fine with letting someone else chop the head, drain the blood, and scrape out the entrails of our favorite fowl, as long as they do not utter a prayer.

Camacho broke the rules. No chickens within city limits. But what shutting down his barbershop and the initial talk of throwing animal cruelty charges at him reveals is really our discomfort and alienation from the animals at the heart of the New Bedford controversy. It lays bare our preference that animal killings, whether as a part of a religious ritual or not, stay hidden out of view. It asks that any connection that animals might have to the spirit world remain tamely leashed to our household pets.

There is a growing movement of people who are not farmers but are trying to get more in touch with their food, a la Michael Pollan, moving toward experiencing the death throes of the creatures they consume. They raise chickens in their urban backyards before butchering them and inviting their friends over to share. This is generally seen in a fashionable light, which means it is okay (even hip and cool) to raise your own chickens before you kill them and eat them, but not okay (and considered downright weird) to raise your own chickens, kill them in religious rituals… and then eat them.

What happened behind the doors of Bad Boyz Cutz offers us a moment of reflection on the First Amendment, sure, but it is also a chance to think about what we eat, what we kill, and how we kill. And more expansively, it reveals something about how we recognize life in the world. Who—or what—has power and when—and how—can it be tapped? When is religious ritual a way to honor the positive powers of good, and when is it devil-worshipping, occult, black magic? Why is transubstantiation of a cracker less wacky than the wringing of a chicken’s neck that was bound for a dinner plate already?

“The roosters go to heaven after the sacrifice. It’s the traditional way,” Camacho told his local paper. Maybe that is the root of discomfort for Westerners who have long ago left the animals, two by two, out of their vision of Heaven. We want our burgers with no blood, we want our body of Christ wafer-thin, and we’d prefer if Heaven posted a “No Chickens Allowed” sign. But what will those who pass the pearly gates eat, and will they say a blessing?

Oh, and Bad Boyz Cutz? Back open for business as of last Monday, all charges dropped.

Catholics change position on Wicca and witchcraft

By Barry Albin ("Examiner," February 7, 2011)


Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/34954/?&section=native-religions

London, UK - According to Elizabeth Dodd, a former Wiccan, in her pamphlet: Wicca and Witchcraft: Understanding the Danger, published by the Vatican associated publisher, the Catholic Truth Society in England, the Roman Catholic Church has changed its position on the treatment of persons who are Wiccans and witches. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1353517/Catholic-Church-issues-guide-convert-Harry-Potter-witches-Christianity.html;http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/04/catholic-church-issues-guide-on-how-to-convert-witches. In the guide, the author says that it is important to recognize that Wiccans are on a genuine spiritual quest providing a starting point for dialog that may lead to their conversion. She goes on to say that "whether spellwork is effective or not has no bearing on the psychological damage that can be done to a young person who is convinced that they have summoned the dead, or have performed a spell that has hurt or injured another."

John Lenz, the assistant manager of the popular Kansas City religious bookstore, Aquarius Books, and a Second Degree Initiate of Wicca, commented on the statements in the article. He noted that most former Catholic witches have left the Church because they have been "bludgeoned" with the Love of Christ. He means that they have been told that to believe in a spiritual path not approved by the Church would be a sure pathway to hell and that because people love you and want to help you, you should not follow this path. He points out that true followers of the Path of Wicca do not believe in harming others as the adopt the creed of Wicca, which is "Do what thou willst, harming none."

Thomas Albin, a Third Degree Wiccan High Priest of the Gardnerian Wiccans and a Tata of Palo Mayombe (Voodoo), responded that he is offended that the church would think that he needed to be converted. He considered the proselytism to be wrong and even violent. He argues that there is no difference between Mayombe's veneration and prayers to saints and the Catholic church's veneration and prayers to saints except that the followers of Mayombe believed it worked more than the Catholics. He said that Gardnerian Wiccans were sincere followers on a legitimate pathway to G-d who had to study much before they were initiated and continued to study and grow as they acquired higher and higher degrees. He pointed out that the Gardnerian system, the mother system of Wicca, does not admit anyone under the age of 18 and therefore they are adults, not young people. Further, it is strongly frowned upon in Wicca to do a spell that injured another and he hoped that there sense of regret would stop them from doing those kinds of spells again. He pointed out that Wiccans had begun to feel unwelcome in the Catholic church, and he was a Catholic at one time, long before they became witches. He argues further that many of the prayers that Catholics pray are not 100% pure but if those prayers are answered Catholics feel no regret for having prayed those prayers.

One question that should be raised is if the Catholic Church admits that Wicca is a "genuine spiritual quest" how is it different from Islam, Buddhism, Judaism, Hinduism, Daoism, Sikhism, or any other great religion. Is the Catholic Church willing to enter into an ecumenical dialogue with Wiccas as it has done with most of the other great religions? Who would represent the Wiccans? John suggested that Selena Fox might have the standing to represent all Wiccans. Thomas suggested Ray Buckland, the man who brought Wicca to America.

One other question that should be asked is if the Roman Catholic Church is willing to try to convert rather than kill witches despite the clear statement of scripture which says "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live", is it now willing to rethink the treatment of gays who are called faggots because their bodies were used to light the bonfires around witches as they were burned to death? After all, witches are to be killed, while gays are only abominable.

This is the first of a series in which other local churches are asked about their position on Wicca.

Ex-priestess reflects on time in prison

By Dane Schiller ("San Antonio Express-News," March 25, 2004)

Extracted from http://wwrn.org/articles/9547/?&place=north-america&section=occult

With long bleached hair and hip-hugger jeans, Sara Aldrete more resembles a mall rat than the priestess of a border town cult that ritually killed college student Mark Kilroy and a dozen other people.

Fifteen years after Aldrete was convicted of a crime so grisly it's still part of border and spring break lore, she teaches other prisoners English, runs a hamburger stand from her cell and plays on the prison volleyball team. And she published a book about how it feels to be branded the devil's concubine.

"I look over my shoulder and I see all these years pass and I say, `I am going to be 40,' " Aldrete said. "That is hard. ... That is tough."

In a recent interview at the women's prison here, Aldrete spoke of how she has changed, and how she confronts the possibility of dying behind bars.

Kilroy, 21, a pre-med student at the University of Texas at Austin, was kidnapped from the streets of Matamoros, Mexico, on a spring-break outing with friends on the night of March 14, 1989. He last was seen near the border.

Dozens searched for him. Hundreds of handbills were distributed. San Antonio Mayor Henry Cisneros helped pressure Mexican authorities.

Police got a break April 10 when they arrested Serafin Hernandez, a drug trafficker who was a cult member.

He confessed to helping kidnap Kilroy and later burying him on the Santa Elena Ranch near where the Rio Grande rounds the southern tip of Texas.

Cult members thought their self-styled religion, which drew from the Caribbean Santeria and the African Palo Mayombe traditions, would make them invisible so they could smuggle marijuana without risk.

All their victims except Kilroy were from Mexico. They were slaughtered in what police said were satanic rituals involving candles, machetes and chants.

On the property that the now-closed San Antonio Light newspaper quickly billed as the "Devil Ranch" -- a name other media outlets soon adopted -- was a shack used for the sacrifices. Inside, authorities found a cauldron with human remains, including a brain and a heart. Some spines had been crafted into necklaces.

Authorities said Aldrete was a godmother of the cult and presided over the rituals.

Kilroy's parents said they have forgiven her, but added they believe she's too dangerous to let go.

George Gavito, former chief investigator for the Cameron County Sheriff's Office, said he has no sympathy for Aldrete.

"The witch deserves everything she got," said Gavito, who was involved in the search for Kilroy and was there when his body was recovered.

Aldrete, then 24, was a college student with two lives.

North of the Rio Grande, she was an honors student and avid volleyball player at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville.

In Mexico, she pursued her fascination with Santerma, which she said she learned about in an anthropology class.

She became close to Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, a charismatic Cuban American, said to be a Santerma godfather.

After they fled the border area in the wake of the Kilroy murder investigation, Constanzo died in a gunbattle with Mexico City police. Aldrete surrendered.

As she rolls up her sleeves and hikes her pant legs, the scars and bumps serve as visible reminders, she said, of the ensuing torture by federales.

Not that she'll ever forget it. She says she was stripped, blindfolded, hung upside down, beaten, had her toenails yanked out and was burned inside and out -- so severely, she says, a doctor said she could never have children.

Release won't happen for at least 10 years. The law stipulates Aldrete can serve up to 50 years and is eligible to ask for early release after 25. Her sentence was reduced from 647 years.

Police deny they tortured Aldrete. It is difficult to verify her claims.

There are no juries in Mexico and testimony is given in written declarations. Aldrete was convicted behind closed doors.