Pope Leo Warns African Catholics Against Mixing Faith With Superstition
(ANALYSIS) During his recent visit to booming churches in Africa, Pope Leo XIV sounded a warning to Catholics tempted to embrace pieces of other religions, including sorcery and superstition.
Consider, he said, biblical accounts of throngs following Jesus because of his miracles and healings.
“The crowd sees Jesus as means to an end, a provider of services. If he had not given them something to eat, his actions and teachings would not have interested them,” said the pope, during an April 20 Mass at Saurimo in Angola.
READ: Pope Leo Clashes With German Bishops Over Same-Sex Blessings
“This happens when genuine faith is replaced with superstitious practices, in which God becomes an idol that is sought only when it is advantageous to us and only for as long as it is. ... Even the motivation of the crowd is inadequate: they were not seeking a teacher whom they love, but a leader to applaud for their own advantage.”
The pope's warnings about syncretism — mixing beliefs and practices from clashing faiths — were important since many Catholics in Africa are surrounded by tribal religions, Islam and "health and wealth" forms of Pentecostal Christianity. Still, Africa's conservative Catholic churches are growing faster than those on any other continent, according to Vatican statistics.
However, the pope's remarks were timely for another reason.
Recently, a 1995 photograph surfaced showing Father Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo, at an "ecotheology" event in Brazil that included references — in words and symbols — to Pachamama, an Andean fertility goddess, or “Mother Earth.”
Some Catholics flashed back to a 2019 controversy, a Vatican synod of Pan-Amazon bishops with an event featuring a pregnant “Our Lady of the Amazon” statue, which Pope Francis later described as Pachamama.
These photos of the future pope may be important, but Catholics will need to see how Leo responds, said Mark Lambert, writing for the conservative Catholic Unscripted Substack. Ultimately, what matters is how the pope addresses the first of the Ten Commandments, "You shall have no other gods before me."
Yes, the release of these photos is "enough to raise questions, but is it really enough to settle them? Irrespective, within a matter of hours those questions have been converted into accusations,” he added. “Presence has become participation. Participation has become worship. Worship has become idolatry. The distinctions have collapsed and with them, any sense of proportion. This is not how serious Catholics should think.”
These debates highlight "how easily good intentions can blur into theological confusion if the boundaries are not clearly maintained. But concern is not the same as panic, and it is certainly not the same as certainty,” wrote Lambert.
The Africa tour offered other relevant Leo remarks. During an April 19 Mass in Kilamba, another Angolan community, the pope directly addressed syncretism-related issues.
Discussing the centrality of Holy Eucharist, he added: "It is here that we encounter God. For this reason, we must always be vigilant regarding those forms of traditional religiosity that certainly belong to the roots of your culture, but at the same time risk confusing and mixing magical and superstitious elements that do not aid your spiritual journey.
“Remain faithful to what the Church teaches, trust your pastors, and keep your gaze fixed on Jesus, who reveals himself in the word and in the Eucharist. In both we experience that the risen Lord walks beside us and, united to him, we too overcome the 'deaths' that besiege us and live as those who have 'risen.'"
Pope Leo directly addressed syncretism even earlier during this Africa visit, during an April 16 Mass at the Bamenda International Airport in Cameroon. While seeking "consolation for broken hearts" and hoping for “change in society,” Christians must “always keep the Apostle Peter's exhortation in our hearts and bring it to mind: obey God, not human beings. To obey him, because he alone is God.
“This calls us to foster inculturation of the Gospel. It also calls us to be vigilant, even regarding our own religious practices, so as not to fall into the trap of mixing the Catholic faith with other beliefs and traditions of an esoteric or Gnostic nature, which in reality often serve political and economic ends. Only God sets us free; only his word opens paths to freedom; only his Spirit makes us new people capable of changing this country.”
Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.
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