"to bring in healing and healthy positive vibes, and to cleanse and remove any past negative energies" - I guess this sounds like the same general intent as when we (laypeople) have brought a squirt bottle of holy water to the vicinity of an abortion clinic (for use on exterior surfaces when we are not closely observed by staff/volunteers, which doesn't really happen anymore), except that we would just use the word "demons", it's shorter. I am generally in favor of the acknowledgement that there are bad things we can't see and that they should be got rid of.
Some forms of inculturation I actually really like and actively promote, like Native Americans performing their ritual tribal dances, oriented now in worship to the One True God.
But this is eerily similar to smudging IMO - in fact it sounds like kinda the same thing. And so it's something I don't think we should entertain, especially when it's spoken about in the way that Mayer spoke about it: "to bring in healing and healthy positive vibes, and to cleanse and remove any past negative energies... that it cleanses the area and brings success and confidence to you all... to just take it in, let it cleanse you, take all that the elders have to offer.”
This is not an "inculturated" Christian practice. This is pagan speak. This is smudging.
Many Australians now view the Traditional Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony as mere tokenism by elite City dwellers, while conditions in the Outback for our indigenous citizens are still persisting. In fact, it didn't become a " thing" until the 1990s.
Banality through apathy does not mean an action is harmless. This is why the Church has instructed us to not use ouija boards... doesn't matter if the modern oija board is just seen as a milton bradley board game. Same principle applies. The devil wants us to see (even unintentional) interaction with paganism and the such as trite and mundane (and therefore "harmless").
Matthew: I had the privilege of watching St. Pope John II participate in a smudging rite as part of the ordination of a native deacon here in Canada. If it was OK with him, it's OK for the rest of us, imho.
Father, we do not believe that saints are actively divinely guided/inspired in all their acts. An appeal to example cannot stand if the act in question is demonstrably not a good. I am making the case that smoking ceremonies are synonymous with smudging, and both are demonstrably not good acts.
+Chaput, as always, brings wisdom and peace to anything he addresses. Thank you for including his perspective.
As an American raised in the era of Sesame Street, I have a hard time reading about Wakka Wakka without giggling behind my hand. I mean no disrespect. Some words, though, trigger a tittering fit.
So I’ve been seeing smoking ceremonies since… forever being born in 1990 and these were basically standard practice at big events since I’ve been able to remember. Good points, it was done outside the church itself and Mass so there’s nothing directly violating rubrics or sacred space there.
The “good vibes” language IS I’m pretty sure a recent development, like last couple of years. My memory is elders/representatives specifically using the smoke to cleanse bad spirits in that language of “spirits” which I am far more comfortable with than “good vibes” and “energy”.
Off the top of my head, this recent shift in language is driven in part by the routinisation of indigenous recognition and ceremony in public life which is putting a universalist secularising pressure on it to make non-religious people feel comfortable (Australians have an allergy problem with religious language used publicly) and the fact that there is a weird neo-paganism entering into Aboriginal spirituality that is shot through with marxist decolonisation language driven in part by urbanised aboriginal people in cities who have a very broken or tenuous connection to their ancestral spirituality and often reject the adopted (and usually heartfelt) Christianity of their elders.
I’m going to have to dive back into Aboriginal religious studies as it stands to see if my hunch is right and actually talk to some elders about it.
One thing we should as Christian’s be absolutely un afraid of in Aboriginal Spirituality is language of “good and bad spirits” and encouraging to elders to be ‘less religious. It’s our language too and we are all for driving away bad spirits, honouring ancestors and drawing out a common monotheistic thread that seems fairly common in aboriginal dreaming.
That’s just off the top of my head. Point is, it’s NOT smudging and it’s done very carefully with lots of guidance from the ACBC who have been working this out for 50 years.
I definitely echo your desire for younger aboriginals to not outright trash the Chrisitan devotion of their past generations (we see the same thing here among younger Native Americans in the US, when many of their grandparents and farther back were in fact devout Christians).
However, I must ask: if you say the smoking ceremony is not smudging, then what *is* smudging? How would *you* define smudging? I'm just not understanding how the actual act/the end its oriented towards/and the object of the act of a smoking ceremony differs substantially from those of smudging:
Both involve ritualistic burning of some herbal-type material.
Both are meant to ward ward off evil spirits and offer protection from said evil spirits in a way that borders on the practice of superstition (we don't even believe this about how we use incense in Catholic liturgical celebrations).
Both are aimed at evil spirits *not* in a Christian understanding, but in a pagan animism understanding (the same goes for a lot of the talk of connecting with elders) that is steeped in an Oriental Animism that is incompatible with Christian ontology and eschatology.
The aboriginal community is making it clear in these statements that a Christian anthropology has not been sufficiently applied to the act to properly inculturate it and root out the pagan anthropology. All the pagan/neo-pagan undertones remain very present.
Okay, so delay resulted from small sick children and fortuitously so, because it clarified my objection to the conflation. You are making a classic error that I see a lot of Americans make in that they presume that the American protestant-secular functionalist approach to religion is the base mode of all human ways and assume, because X functionally looks like something Americans do (Native or more recent) the are therefore the same thing.
Aboriginal Australians have been doing smoking ceremonies long before even Native Americans even populated America and started smudging. Its its own thing unique to its own culture. Just because there are significant parallels or functionally similar rituals in other cultures, that doesn't mean that the ARE the same. I would argue that, rather similar looking uses of smoke (broadly speaking) point to something far more primal and universally human like the offering of burning SOMETHING as having deeper meaning, whether its white sage, gumbi leaves, sandalwood, or lambs. From a Christian point of view, that is what the Australian bishops try to tap into when inviting Aboriginal elders to perform smoking ceremonies.
The bad timing of our current neopagan moment and VERY poor religious literacy in general brings some less desirable things come through, but we cant sort out the wheat from the weeds if we refuse to even sow some seeds down. Then all we will get is weeds.
What exactly constitutes Christian prayers and intentions in the context of these smoking and smudging ceremonies? By negative energies do we mean Satan? Everything about these inculturation practices is couched in very vague terms and only confuses. Can someone provide the text and rubrics for such ceremonies in Catholicism so more Pachamama chaos can be prevented?
You could try looking at local bishops conferences for those kinds of documents. The Vatican usually devolves judgment to local bishops in that matter.
There’s a lot of modern mythologising of Australian aboriginal culture and history that has been pitched to the - let’s say “unquestioning” - Australian public. Add a healthy dash each of colonialist guilt and ecumenical indifferentism and voila! - your bishops get smoked with those welcoming, cleansing vibes.
"to bring in healing and healthy positive vibes, and to cleanse and remove any past negative energies" - I guess this sounds like the same general intent as when we (laypeople) have brought a squirt bottle of holy water to the vicinity of an abortion clinic (for use on exterior surfaces when we are not closely observed by staff/volunteers, which doesn't really happen anymore), except that we would just use the word "demons", it's shorter. I am generally in favor of the acknowledgement that there are bad things we can't see and that they should be got rid of.
That’s incredibly charitable Bridget. Well done and a good reminder that intentions do matter even if the execution doesn’t reflect them perfectly.
Some forms of inculturation I actually really like and actively promote, like Native Americans performing their ritual tribal dances, oriented now in worship to the One True God.
But this is eerily similar to smudging IMO - in fact it sounds like kinda the same thing. And so it's something I don't think we should entertain, especially when it's spoken about in the way that Mayer spoke about it: "to bring in healing and healthy positive vibes, and to cleanse and remove any past negative energies... that it cleanses the area and brings success and confidence to you all... to just take it in, let it cleanse you, take all that the elders have to offer.”
This is not an "inculturated" Christian practice. This is pagan speak. This is smudging.
Many Australians now view the Traditional Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony as mere tokenism by elite City dwellers, while conditions in the Outback for our indigenous citizens are still persisting. In fact, it didn't become a " thing" until the 1990s.
Banality through apathy does not mean an action is harmless. This is why the Church has instructed us to not use ouija boards... doesn't matter if the modern oija board is just seen as a milton bradley board game. Same principle applies. The devil wants us to see (even unintentional) interaction with paganism and the such as trite and mundane (and therefore "harmless").
Matthew: I had the privilege of watching St. Pope John II participate in a smudging rite as part of the ordination of a native deacon here in Canada. If it was OK with him, it's OK for the rest of us, imho.
Father, we do not believe that saints are actively divinely guided/inspired in all their acts. An appeal to example cannot stand if the act in question is demonstrably not a good. I am making the case that smoking ceremonies are synonymous with smudging, and both are demonstrably not good acts.
Positive vibes and making a wish. Ahhh,modern Aussie Catholicism. Gotta love it!
+Chaput, as always, brings wisdom and peace to anything he addresses. Thank you for including his perspective.
As an American raised in the era of Sesame Street, I have a hard time reading about Wakka Wakka without giggling behind my hand. I mean no disrespect. Some words, though, trigger a tittering fit.
So I’ve been seeing smoking ceremonies since… forever being born in 1990 and these were basically standard practice at big events since I’ve been able to remember. Good points, it was done outside the church itself and Mass so there’s nothing directly violating rubrics or sacred space there.
The “good vibes” language IS I’m pretty sure a recent development, like last couple of years. My memory is elders/representatives specifically using the smoke to cleanse bad spirits in that language of “spirits” which I am far more comfortable with than “good vibes” and “energy”.
Off the top of my head, this recent shift in language is driven in part by the routinisation of indigenous recognition and ceremony in public life which is putting a universalist secularising pressure on it to make non-religious people feel comfortable (Australians have an allergy problem with religious language used publicly) and the fact that there is a weird neo-paganism entering into Aboriginal spirituality that is shot through with marxist decolonisation language driven in part by urbanised aboriginal people in cities who have a very broken or tenuous connection to their ancestral spirituality and often reject the adopted (and usually heartfelt) Christianity of their elders.
I’m going to have to dive back into Aboriginal religious studies as it stands to see if my hunch is right and actually talk to some elders about it.
One thing we should as Christian’s be absolutely un afraid of in Aboriginal Spirituality is language of “good and bad spirits” and encouraging to elders to be ‘less religious. It’s our language too and we are all for driving away bad spirits, honouring ancestors and drawing out a common monotheistic thread that seems fairly common in aboriginal dreaming.
That’s just off the top of my head. Point is, it’s NOT smudging and it’s done very carefully with lots of guidance from the ACBC who have been working this out for 50 years.
I definitely echo your desire for younger aboriginals to not outright trash the Chrisitan devotion of their past generations (we see the same thing here among younger Native Americans in the US, when many of their grandparents and farther back were in fact devout Christians).
However, I must ask: if you say the smoking ceremony is not smudging, then what *is* smudging? How would *you* define smudging? I'm just not understanding how the actual act/the end its oriented towards/and the object of the act of a smoking ceremony differs substantially from those of smudging:
Both involve ritualistic burning of some herbal-type material.
Both are meant to ward ward off evil spirits and offer protection from said evil spirits in a way that borders on the practice of superstition (we don't even believe this about how we use incense in Catholic liturgical celebrations).
Both are aimed at evil spirits *not* in a Christian understanding, but in a pagan animism understanding (the same goes for a lot of the talk of connecting with elders) that is steeped in an Oriental Animism that is incompatible with Christian ontology and eschatology.
The aboriginal community is making it clear in these statements that a Christian anthropology has not been sufficiently applied to the act to properly inculturate it and root out the pagan anthropology. All the pagan/neo-pagan undertones remain very present.
Okay, so delay resulted from small sick children and fortuitously so, because it clarified my objection to the conflation. You are making a classic error that I see a lot of Americans make in that they presume that the American protestant-secular functionalist approach to religion is the base mode of all human ways and assume, because X functionally looks like something Americans do (Native or more recent) the are therefore the same thing.
Aboriginal Australians have been doing smoking ceremonies long before even Native Americans even populated America and started smudging. Its its own thing unique to its own culture. Just because there are significant parallels or functionally similar rituals in other cultures, that doesn't mean that the ARE the same. I would argue that, rather similar looking uses of smoke (broadly speaking) point to something far more primal and universally human like the offering of burning SOMETHING as having deeper meaning, whether its white sage, gumbi leaves, sandalwood, or lambs. From a Christian point of view, that is what the Australian bishops try to tap into when inviting Aboriginal elders to perform smoking ceremonies.
The bad timing of our current neopagan moment and VERY poor religious literacy in general brings some less desirable things come through, but we cant sort out the wheat from the weeds if we refuse to even sow some seeds down. Then all we will get is weeds.
What exactly constitutes Christian prayers and intentions in the context of these smoking and smudging ceremonies? By negative energies do we mean Satan? Everything about these inculturation practices is couched in very vague terms and only confuses. Can someone provide the text and rubrics for such ceremonies in Catholicism so more Pachamama chaos can be prevented?
You could try looking at local bishops conferences for those kinds of documents. The Vatican usually devolves judgment to local bishops in that matter.
There’s a lot of modern mythologising of Australian aboriginal culture and history that has been pitched to the - let’s say “unquestioning” - Australian public. Add a healthy dash each of colonialist guilt and ecumenical indifferentism and voila! - your bishops get smoked with those welcoming, cleansing vibes.
Oh boy... I know. Australian History has been an embarrassment in education for quite some time. Just don't get me started on the ANZAC legend.
Pagan nonsense.