Paganism Is Back in South Africa: Animal Sacrifice, Drinking Blood, Invoking Demons

The South African Bishops' Conference has commissioned Father Michael Wojciechowski, a Polish missionary with the 'Koinonia John the Baptist Community', to look into "the growing presence of ancestor worship".

He told PillarCatholic.com (5 February) that there's a lot of witchcraft and encounters with the demonic in the country.

There are many Pentecostal churches in the cities and only about 6% of the South African population is Catholic. But many of them visit local shamans: "The problem is that culture is often mixed with the occult, and that's a big problem."

One example is the invocation of spirits that they believe are their ancestors: "People will tell you things that they couldn't possibly know through natural means".

Father Wojciechowski believes that, at least in some cases, "we are talking about demons".

There's also a huge wave of young people returning to these pagan practices: "Many young people are becoming shamans," which is considered "a vocation."

It involves a long apprenticeship under a senior shaman to learn how to communicate with ancestors, interpret divination tools and heal people through spiritual practices and herbal remedies.

Part of the process involves animal sacrifice, pouring animal blood on the initiates, drinking the blood and going into a trance while invoking spirits, Wojciechowski explains: "They are not allowed to go to church that year."

He warns that "the Church" is confused about paganism: "For years, Archbishop Buti Joseph Tlhagale of Johannesburg defended ancestor worship, but recently he admitted he was wrong and said in an interview that ancestors are enemies of Christ.

Picture: © Pascal Parent CC BY-NC-ND, #newsHokpcuzziu