Ancestral Blessing Over the Altar: Bishop Strickland on the Threat to Catholic Worship

Bishop Joseph Strickland criticized a reported ancestral blessing performed at the Basilica of Our Lady of Caacupé in Paraguay in December 2022, before Mass and over the Catholic altar and an image of the Virgin Mary. He warned that incorporating separate spiritual rites into Catholic ceremonies could blur religious boundaries and compromise Church teaching, while distinguishing such rituals from cultural traditions compatible with Catholic worship.