Voodoo Given Official Recognition in Haiti

President Jean-Bertrand has granted official recognition to Voodoo in Haiti, something that has made him very popular with the many people who practice Voodoo. The Voodoo religion is treated as a symbol of Haitian independence and culture. It has long been practiced only in the shadows, but not it is coming out into the open.

Carol J. Williams writes for the L.A. Times:

By bestowing legitimacy on the African-origin religion, which is embraced by the vast majority of Haiti's 8.1 million residents, the beleaguered president of this poorest of Western countries has signaled to his people that they should be proud of their African heritage, not forced to subvert it under the religious practices of the European Christians who once repressed them.

Williams also explains that members of the religious establishment in Haiti aren't too happy about the changes:

Haiti's Catholic clergy has reacted with alarm at the moves to empower voodoo practitioners to conduct rituals with legal significance, especially baptisms, which the church contends are an exclusively Christian domain. The bishop of Port-au-Prince, Msgr. Joseph Lafontant, issued a statement shortly after the government decree deeming the status accorded voodoo "excessive" and its application to civil ceremonies "an obvious mistake."

I find it very interesting that the Roman Catholic Church seems to think that it's religious rituals somehow are more deserving of inclusion in civil ceremonies than those performed by a Voodoo practitioner. Lafontant's arrogance would be astounding if it weren't so typical - it's really not far different from the position that Christian traditions should be the sole defining factor in what does or does not constitute civil marriage.

Read More:

• What is Voodoo?
• Religion in Haiti
• Roman Catholicism