Los Angeles, Calif., Oct 30, 2019 / 04:00 am (CNA).- Dia de los Muertos, or “Day of the Dead,” is a primarily Mexican way of celebrating the feasts of All Souls Day and All Saints Day.
The celebration is an expression of Latin American culture and Catholic beliefs, which makes use of some familiar symbols to teach and celebrate the Church’s teaching on the communion of the saints and the souls in purgatory.
Annual celebrations typically involve skeletal costumes and face makeup, parades and processions, as well as traditional foods such as “pan de muerte” (bread of the dead) and sugar skulls (calaveras).
Los Angeles Auxilary Bishop Alex Aclan, a native of the Philippines, celebrated a Mass in honor of Dia de los Muertos Oct. 26 at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard, California.
The Mass featured pilgrim images of Our Lady of Guadalupe and San Juan Diego, as well as over “ofrendas,” or altars, which are traditionally used in Dia de los Muertos celebrations to honor deceased loved ones.
Aclan told CNA the celebrations at the cemetery were very typical Mexican style, he said, with the altars set out with pictures and personal items for the faithful to remember and honor loved ones.
There were more than 100 ofrendas set up throughout the cemetery, and participants took part in dancing, processions and prayers for the dead.
Dia de los Muertos is sometimes popularly thought of as “Mexican Halloween,” and the ofrendas may be seen as a means for people to conjure up their deceased loved ones.
“That’s a corruption of the original notion of the celebration of the feast,” Aclan said.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “all forms of divination are to be rejected” which includes the “conjuring up the dead.”
However, the Church encourages Catholics to pray for the dead as one of the spiritual works of mercy.
Aclan he said he made sure that archdiocesan offices are involved in planning celebrations, to make sure that Dia de los Muertos customs are in accord with Catholicism and the Catholic tradition.
The bishop was quick to point out that the real focus of Dia de los Muertos are the two Catholic feast days within it, not primarily Halloween.
In his native Philippines, Aclan said, celebrations around this time primarily take place on Nov. 1, All Saints Day, which is marked as a national holiday in that country.
“I grew up with that tradition of All Saints Day, and I remember us staying in the cemetery praying all day long for the souls, even though we do it on the day of All Saints rather than All Souls,” he said.
In Mexico, the bulk of the celebrations take place from Oct. 31 to All Soul’s Day, Nov. 2, incorporating both of the Catholic feasts.
“All Saints Day of course for those who are already in Heaven, and All Souls Day for those who are still on their way to heaven,” he said.
Aclan said whenever he preaches or speaks about Dia de los Muertos, he tells people it is a beautiful manifestation of the Church’s belief in the communion of saints.
“I think it’s a wonderful way to teach people about our beliefs as Catholics on the communion of saints,” Aclan commented.
“For Mexicans to celebrate Dia de los Muertos, my experience is the remembering of the dead is really the most important part of it. Making sure that the dead are remembered, that their deceased are remembered, and that we really are one with them even though they’re on the other side and we’re still here.”
“And that’s basically our teaching on the communion of saints. The different parts of the Church: the ones in Heaven, the ones that are still on their way trying to find their way to the gates of Heaven, and us here on Earth, and we are still together as one. We are still one Church.”
[…]
By 
Well, that’s a big fat lie.
Thankfully he addresses one subject at a time! One cause of divisive results! Typically journalists love to water down the affected subjects by drawing attention to other events!
Snort. Consider the source.
A source of scandal??? The Latin Mass? REALLY?? Can this guy exaggerate even more?? The opinions from the nest of vipers which is Germany hold no water for many in any case. .
Okay, Boomer.
Can you explain your cryptic comment? To whom is it addressed?
As I understand it, the phrase is a way to avoid substantial discussion by dismissing the opinions of any persons born from 1946 to 1964 (so, some 71 million people in the United States) as valueless because of when they were born.
Kasper has dedicated his life to fostering division by undermining and contradicting Church teaching on the Virgin Birth, Resurrection, the Real Presence etc. and by deliberately undermining Pope’s St John Paul Ii and Benedict XVI as a member of the Sankt Gallen mafia. Pot, meet kettle.
From Cardinal Kasper: “As far as I know, none of the bishops wants any schismatic act and there is a slowly growing number in the bishops’ conference who are resistant.”
About the German Synodal Way(ward) we have only “worries” and wishful thinking from Kasper. Perhaps the possibly shifting results of Kasper’s nose count of German bishops can be made as public as could be the also undocumented results of the Vatican survey regarding the Latin Mass?
The “slowly growing number” of resistant bishops rests on an originally small handful. I recall a reported 13 out of 69 bishops against the directions taken early by the synodal way. The schismatic and invalid blessing of homosexual unions is already a well-known “schismatic act”. From Rome, case-specific corrections would be most welcome, as such an approach could have been made against only those alleged traditionalist enclaves who reportedly reject the Second Vatican Council. Unlike the theology of Aquinas, for example, a similar precision in policy making is too-often vastly undervalued (but how to do this without being duped into creating photo-op martyrs and seemingly triggering the full-blown schism?)
As for the German Catholic laity: “The Catholic weekly newspaper Die Tagespost reported Sept. 17 [2020] that 53 percent of German Catholics said they were not interested in the Synodal Path” (https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2020/09/cologne-cardinal-warns-german-churchs-synodal-path-could-cause-schism/).
On the other hand, also in 2020, “conservative clerics were repeatedly outvoted by 80% to 90% when they tried to change the [unstructured membership] rules governing the [eventually “binding” synodal] talks” (https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/reformers-ideas-gain-momentum-german-synodal-way).
Apart from any future results, is the synodal-path process itself, in Germania, already schismatic?
This is the clerical equivalent of “You are a racist because you don’t agree with me.” EVERY single person who attends a Latin Mass rejcts Vatican II??? What world are these people living in? And he is a cardinal? So much for mercy and dialogue.