I was not going to pay much mind to
this bit of Vatican gossip until I reached this part about liturgical dance:
In Mexico in 2002 when John Paul II canonized Juan Diego, native Aztec dancers gyrated down a walkway towards the pope in the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe as native music blared forth. The next day, when the pope beatified a pair of Mayan martyrs in the same spot, another native song-and-dance routine was performed. This time there was the further twist of a limpia, or purification, ceremony. The Indian blessing is believed to cure spiritual and physical ailments by driving off evil spirits. Indian women bearing smoking pots of incense brushed herbs on the pontiff, Mexico City Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera and other prelates as the dancing unfolded.
In effect, these indigenous dancers exorcized the pope.
Heh. Which reminds me that once in my undergrad days, the students at the adjoining seminary invited us "laity" for mass & breakfast in celebration of the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Some traditional Aztec dancers from a local parish were also invited. As their celebrations are generally carried on outside the Basilica in Mexico, you should have seen the extreme discomfort on their faces when the celebrant invited them into the sanctuary to dance during the canon of the mass. They were all looking around nervously as if they couldn't believe what was being asked of them, but the priest kept insisting until finally they reluctantly broke down and did their highly effusive dance number with the insistent drums. At which point, the seminarian who'd invited me leaned over and said:
7:00 am: Mass of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
7:45 am: Re-dedication of the Chapel.
Oh, man. To stifle the laughter was actually painful.
