Power of Popular Piety: A Critical Examination

By Ambrose Mong, Michael Amaladoss SJ and Patricia Madigan

This book examines the ambivalence of folk Catholicism as a resource to fight against injustice, exploitation, and oppression. Cases are cited to illuminate the value and potential trespasses of popular religious beliefs and practices. Over centuries, representatives of the powerful middle and upper middle classes did not hesitate to manipulate popular piety to protect their power and privileges. In fact, much of popular religion still reflects the dominant ideology. 

Popular piety has the potential for liberation against unjust social and economic structures. When properly guided, this practice can broaden and deepen political consciousness and mobilize people to act. Without a strong level of political consciousness as well as liberative evangelization, popular religion will be alienating to the poor while strengthening the status quo of the rich and the powerful. This study argues that it will be the elites, the well-educated and committed Christians, not the masses, who would foster the transformation of society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Mar 4, 2019
• ISBN: 9781532656453

Ambrose Mong

Ambrose Ih-Ren Mong, OP, is visiting professor at the University of Saint Joseph, Macau, and part-time lecturer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He holds an MA in English from the University of British Columbia, an STB from the Angelicum, Rome, and an MPhil and PhD in Religious Studies from The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

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Power of Popular Piety

A Critical Examination

Ambrose Mong

Foreword by 
Michael Amaladoss and Patricia Madigan

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Power of Popular Piety

A Critical Examination

Copyright © 2019 Ambrose Mong. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-5643-9

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-5644-6

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-5645-3

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Mong, Ambrose. |

Title: Power of popular piety : a critical examination / Ambrose Mong.

Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2019 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-5326-5643-9 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-5326-5644-6 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-5326-5645-3 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Folk religion. | Religion Christianity Catholic. | Religion and culture. | Social sciences.

Classification: GN470. M6 2019 (paperback) | GN470 2019 (ebook)

Manufactured in the U.S.A. 01/14/19

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1: Popular Piety

Chapter 2: Our Lady of Guadalupe

Chapter 3: Pinoy Piety

Chapter 4: Accommodation and Inculturation

Chapter 5: Superstition and Piety

Chapter 6: Our Lady of Medjugorje

Chapter 7: Sacred Heart and Divine Mercy

Epilogue

Bibliography

For Abraham Shek Lai-him, GBS, SBS, JP

They who are not superstitious without the Gospel, will not be religious with it.

—John Henry Newman

Foreword

by Michael Amaladoss, SJ and Patricia Madigan, OP

Michael Amaladoss, SJ

All of us know what popular piety is because almost all of us practice it at sometime or another. We go on pilgrimages to sacred shrines. We join celebrations of local festivals. We participate in family or group rituals associated with cosmic or life cycles. But we may not always have been fully aware of its significance in our lives. It is so much a part of our lives that we take it for granted. Even those who do not go regularly to church rituals may find popular piety attractive. Ambrose Mong, through this rather small volume, Power of Popular Piety: A Critical Examination, is offering us an occasion to reflect upon it.

Popular piety may be looked at from different points of view. The term popular may be contrasted with the elite. The spiritual elite are busy with the practice of silent meditation or contemplation. The people, on the contrary, engage in pilgrimages, novenas, and noisy celebrations. Popular may also be differentiated from the official. The priests are occupied with their liturgical books and carefully orchestrated rituals. The people are more spontaneous. They improvise their prayers and use all sorts of symbolic gestures and objects. They are the agents of their celebrations. They do not need priestly mediators. They need not go to an official place of worship. They can do it at home or in the field or in the work place.

Aloysius Pieris suggests a distinction between cosmic and metacosmic religions and rituals. Cosmic religions deal with life in the world and deal with the forces of nature, which may sometimes be personified as spirits. Metacosmic religions reach out to the transcendent in various forms. From this point of view, popular piety may be classified as cosmic. But this may not be an adequate identification. Even cosmic rituals may imply, at some moments, a metacosmic dimension, though it may not be too explicit. Metacosmic religions may often operate at cosmic levels. Popular piety, for instance, does involve supernatural manifestations, apparitions, and miracles. In the Catholic tradition, for instance, we note, on the one hand, the apparitions of Jesus with his sacred and merciful heart and of Mother Mary. On the other hand, these are not manifestations of the transcendent divine but of its human forms of Jesus and Mary with their bodies and hearts, to which people can relate in a human way.

Another way of understanding popular piety is that its rituals and celebrations cater to various social occasions and needs that the official rituals do not attend to. The Catholic Church has seven sacramental celebrations. Five of them relate to key moments of life like birth, initiation to adulthood, marriage, etc. Only two concern ordinary ongoing life, namely the Eucharist and Reconciliation. These do not concern the life cycle, the cosmic cycle, the agricultural cycle, etc. There is a small book of blessings which is not very much used. Besides, people may feel that a priest may not be required to care for such personal and social needs. There are other rituals agents and community leaders available for these purposes. The people also feel free to evolve their own cultural symbols and rituals for the purpose. The official rituals are tied to a Latin cultural tradition which is not theirs. Efforts at inculturation—at least in Asia—initiated by missionaries like Matteo Ricci and Roberto de Nobili and others have not been encouraged. Popular rituals and celebrations fill this gap. The symbols and symbolic actions used in them are drawn from the cultures of the people in which they feel at home. So what we have in popular piety may be alternative and parallel rituals. People go to the priest and the church for an official initiation, marriage, or funeral ceremony. But the event is celebrated more elaborately at home or in the community. This happens all over the world, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, among people who still seek to live in harmony with the wider social group and the cosmos. Their worldview is not limited to that of the official Latin culture. Such celebrations are not absent even in Europe in rural areas. People tend to assert their agency and freedom. The official agents—priests—are not unaware of these. Sometimes they encourage popular piety because it brings more people to the church.

We often hear complaints that in some parts of the world people are moving away from the church to various Pentecostal movements. The reason is that they seem to be catering to personal, social, and emotional needs of people in a religious context, to which the traditional churches and their agents are not catering. This is often true also of popular piety.

Ambrose Mong starts his book with the theme of liberation. He seeks to show that Latin American liberation theologians, though they were critical of popular piety at an earlier stage, sought to give it a revolutionary perspective later. I do not know how successful they were. They were not emerging from the popular movements themselves. Perhaps they imposed their ideology on them. The recent history of Latin America seems to show that the liberation stream has lost its steam both at official and at popular levels.

But what is surprising in the many apparitions which are at the root of some forms of popular piety which Mong evokes in the book—the Sacred Heart, the Heart of Divine Mercy, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of Medjugorje—is that they represent divine initiative. It is our Lord or our Lady who appear either to children or to an unlettered peasant or to simple religious locked up in their convents to give the world through them a message at a time and a place where and when such a message is urgently required. The official church may seek to downgrade it as a private revelation and approve it reluctantly (in the case of Medjugorje, for example). But the divine persons seem to take over, their involvement manifested by miracles, and they have a clear message to the church and to the world. This is obviously a sign that God continues to be present in our world and is concerned about us. From their fruits, we will know them. The church does not have a monopoly of facilitating divine-human encounter. This is true also of other apparitions like Lourdes and Fatima and others less known in other countries, like Velankanni in India. We can also think of the Black Madonnas in many countries in Europe and other popular saints all over the world. Popular piety acquires in this way a divine—metacosmic—dimension.

This realization also helps us to distinguish between two types of popular piety. One type refers to the rituals and celebrations that people create to cater to their personal and social needs. The other concerns pilgrimages and celebrations that emerge out of divine or saintly self-manifestations to which people respond. These challenge people to change personally and socially—the conversion that Mother Mary constantly talks about in her various apparitions. These are the forms of popular piety that Ambrose is presenting to us in this book.

I am very happy to congratulate Ambrose Mong on his book and welcome its publication. It is characterized by simplicity, clarity and depth. I hope that it will have a wide readership and provoke much reflection.

Michael Amaladoss, SJ, Institute of Dialogue with Cultures and Religions, Loyola College, Nungambakkam, Chennai, India.

***

Patricia Madigan, OP

In a conversation I once had with a Protestant pastor, she shared with me her observation that, in this age of declining formal Christian church membership in Australia, the Catholic Church, unlike her own church community, had the advantage of being characterized by numerous levels of conversation. When communication faded on one level—be it at the level of church leadership, doctrine, or perhaps liturgical practice—the faithful simply moved to another level of devotional engagement so that their basic Christian commitment remained stable despite the disruption.

But Catholics themselves have not always appreciated the depth of richness and engagement that popular piety or religiosity brings to their Christian tradition. Popular piety is often judged to be a hodgepodge of superstition, idolatry, or magic, a distorted understanding of the Christian mystery, a sop for the poor and ignorant. It can be easily dismissed as not culturally progressive. Some pastoral responses have discouraged or condemned it as drawing its adherents away from more conventional forms of religious belief and practice.

The post-Vatican II Catholic Church has manifested a certain ambivalence in its relationship with popular piety. It is recognized that popular religion has both the potential to become a resource for the fight for liberation against unjust social and economic structures, but also the possibility to be manipulated by those with an interest in protecting their power and privileges. The official Church has often been more supportive of the latter. Pope John Paul II was notoriously negative about the influence of a liberative theology in Latin America, where he believed it was distorting Christianity, although he supported it in the context of the political struggle in his homeland of Poland. However, often missing in these various pastoral responses is an attempt to understand the complex and multilayered meanings of popular Catholicism from the perspective of the practitioners.

As we experience a post-colonial globalized instability in the Christian project, we note also the rise of popular religion as a way in which ordinary people make sense of and identify with a religious tradition that, at an official level of doctrine or practice, no longer speaks to them. There is a growing recognition in the Catholic Church that popular expressions of faith centred on a religious symbol such as a particular apparition of the Madonna have the potential not only to reinforce identity and a sense of belonging, but also to give meaning to one’s pain and suffering, and to become a force for change and the basis of liberation.

The phenomenon of popular piety is explored in this book by Ambrose Mong in several of its many inculturated forms, including in Mexico, Medjugorje, the Philippines, and China. As an assistant parish priest and part-time lecturer and researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, who has spent time living in, India, Canada, Rome, and the Philippines as well as in China, he is well qualified to examine these many examples within the broad realm of Catholic tradition. He holds that popular piety, when properly understood and guided, can be a powerful force broadening and deepening political consciousness, and mobilizing people to act and bring gospel values to bear on their current situation.

In this he is very much within the framework of Catholic Church teaching as expressed by Pope Paul VI, who acknowledged the significance of the existence of these particular expressions of the search for God and for faith (Evangelii Nuntiandi, 48). Pope Francis has stated:

Underlying popular piety, as a fruit of the inculturated Gospel, is an active evangelizing power which we must not underestimate: to do so would be to fail to recognize the work of the Holy Spirit . . . Expressions of popular piety have much to teach us; for those who are capable of reading them they are a locus theologicus which demands our attention . . . (Evangelii Gaudium,

126

)

This book offers its readers such an opportunity to develop further a critical understanding and appreciation of the power of popular piety.

Dr. Patricia Madigan, OP, Executive Director of the Dominican Centre for Interfaith Ministry, Education and Research, Sydney, Australia.

Preface and Acknowledgements

There are a number of reasons why pilgrimages are popular in Hong Kong. Living in a crowded city and usually in small apartments, many Catholics feel the need to travel with their families and friends in the company of spiritual directors to places where they can pray and deepen their knowledge of the faith. The small but affluent Catholic community in Hong Kong allows them to travel with ease and comfort. A world-class airport and well-established tour companies are added advantages for pilgrims.

In fact, pilgrimages have become so popular and widespread that a number of priests involve themselves in leading the various groups as spiritual directors; they have to leave their parishes, each time lasting one to two weeks, three or four times a year. Unfortunately, this has affected the running of parishes where there is already a shortage of priests. Thus, on March 26, 2018, the Chancery Office has issued a notice regarding priests going on pilgrimages. The notice has decreed that with effect from April 1, 2018, priests working in parishes may join or lead pilgrimages outside Hong Kong no more than twice a year. While acknowledging that leading a pilgrimage is a form of pastoral ministry, the Chancery Office rightly insists that priests must give first priority to the parish ministry or other ministries they have been assigned to.

Be that as it may, this phenomenon reveals the emergence of popular piety in Hong Kong and many parts of Asia. Besides going on pilgrimages, novenas, devotions to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Divine Mercy, and processions on Feast days are also attended by the faithful with great enthusiasm.

Many people have assisted me in the writing of this book. First I wish to thank Professor Lai Pan-chiu and Henrietta Cheung for providing some of the books not easily available in Hong Kong libraries. Special thanks to Francis Chin, Columba Clearly OP, Scott Steinkerchner OP, Patrick Tierny FSC, Patrick Colgan SSC, Venny Lai, Hilia Chan, Kim Tansley, Kenzie Lau, and Adelaide Wong for proofreading and editorial assistance. I would also like to thank the following who have encouraged and supported me in my writing endeavors all these years: George Yeo, Peter Phan, Josephine Chan, Teresa Au, Vivencio Atutubo, Emmanuel Dispo, Rosalind Wong, Denis Chang SC, Philip Lee, George Tan, Michael Nerva, Patrick Chia, Anthony Tan, James Boey, Joseph Yim, Mary Cheung, Dominic Yeo-Koh FSG, Esther Chu, Tommy Lam, Emily Law, William Chan, Vivian Lee, Lea Lai, John K. S. Goh, Garrison Qian, Teoh Chin Chin, Wendy Wu, and Leo Tan.

Working in St. Andrew’s Church, a very vibrant parish in Hong Kong, has given me many opportunities to reflect on the prevalence and power of popular piety. Thanks to the parish priest, Rev. Jacob Kwok, and my fellow colleagues, Fabio Favatta, PIME, and Mechelle Reginio, CICM, for sharing their experiences and insights on a host of issues regarding pastoral work and popular piety.

Last but not least, I owe my thanks to the superb staff at Cascade Books, especially Matthew Wimer, Rodney Clapp, Jesselyn Clapp, Ian Creeger, and Daniel Lanning. Special thanks to Robin Parry for his encouragement and support.Any shortcomings in this volume are my own.

Introduction 

The inception of this volume, Power of Popular Religion , is derived from the Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy and the theology of liberation, which also has its origin in Latin America. Most writings on popular religiosity ( religiosidad popular ) such as devotions to Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the saints, patronal feasts, and novenas are set within the context of Latin America. While many literary works on popular piety in the context of Latin America have been published, in this volume I have included the practice of popular religion in Asia and Eastern Europe.

In this work, the term popular piety is used synonymously with popular religiosity, popular religion, folk religion, common religion, or popular Catholicism. Popular piety by no means suggests that Christianity is trendy or fashionable; instead, it is defined as devotional rituals that originated from and are practiced by the common people, as opposed to church-sanctioned liturgical worship. In actuality, the church encourages popular pieties provided they conform to Canon laws and local regulations. The Constitution of the Sacred Liturgy states: these devotions should be so drawn up that they harmonize with the liturgical seasons, accord with the sacred liturgy, are in some fashion derived from it, and lead the people to it, since, in fact, the liturgy by its very nature far surpasses any of them.¹

In the years following Vatican II (1962–1965), we witnessed a decline in the practice of popular piety such as devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, processions celebrating patronal feasts and novenas. However, there was a revival of popular religion in both developing countries as well as developed ones in the late twentieth century. In addition to trips to Jerusalem and Rome, pilgrimages to Marian Shrines, such as Fatima, Lourdes, and Medjugorje are extremely popular among Hong Kong Catholics. These are mostly Catholics who have retired with the means and luxury of time to deepen their faith through such journeys. 

Why was there a resurgence of popular piety? One leading explanation is that the faithful find the church liturgy rather dull and monotonous. Church worship has not been able to successfully respond to the emotional and psychological needs of the congregation. Perhaps this is the reason many Christians have flocked to Pentecostalism or charismatic renewal, which emphasizes the power of the Holy Spirit as being spontaneous and joyful. People want to feel and experience God working in their lives. In the nineteenth century, a German theologian, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), equated religion with intuition, a motivating force, and a feeling of absolute dependence. He writes: Your feeling is piety in so far as it is the result of the operation of God in you by means of the operation of the world upon you . . . These feelings are exclusively the elements of religion.² Thus, the sum total of religion is to feel that, in its highest unity, all that moves us in feeling is one; to feel that aught single and particular is only possible by means of unity; to feel . . . that our being and living is a being and living and in through God.³ In other words, all sensations are pious except when the person is sick. For Schleiermacher, religion is founded neither on doctrine nor morality.  

Views of two Pontiffs

Recognizing the sign of the