The Traditionalist Mexican-American Catholic Church (''Iglesia Católica Tradicionalista mexicana-estadounidense''), sometimes known as the Traditionalist Mexico-USA Tridentine Catholic Church, was an independent Catholic church in North America. They broke away from the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

over their

veneration Veneration ( la, veneratio; el, τιμάω ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Ety ...

Santa Muerte ''Nuestra Señora de la Santa Muerte'' (; Spanish for Our Lady of Holy Death), often shortened to Santa Muerte, is a cult image, female deity, and folk saint in folk Catholicism and Mexican Neopaganism. A personification of death, she is associa ...

. They are primarily active in the border regions of the United States and Mexico and have a particular presence among the Mexican immigrant communities in major United States cities. It was founded by David Romo Guillén, who served as its archbishop and primate. However, in 2012 he was sentenced to 66 years in prison for kidnapping, and as a result the church is now no longer operational.

Beliefs and organization

The Church follows both the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed, maintains the seven sacraments, an all-male priesthood, are open to homosexuals in the faithful and, generally speaking, are socially conservative on abortion but do not practice clerical celibacy, allow contraceptives and do not require

chastity Chastity, also known as purity, is a virtue related to temperance. Someone who is ''chaste'' refrains either from sexual activity considered immoral or any sexual activity, according to their state of life. In some contexts, for example when ma ...

before marriage. They also maintain their veneration of the Mexican

folk saint Folk saints are dead people or other spiritually powerful entities (such as indigenous spirits) venerated as saints, but not officially canonized. Since they are saints of the "folk", or the ''populus'', they are also called popular saints. Like o ...

Santa Muerte, which the

had condemned as blasphemy and as Satanic. They reject

Papal infallibility Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope when he speaks '' ex cathedra'' is preserved from the possibility of error on doctrine "initially given to the apos ...

, the

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

, and the

Assumption of the Virgin Mary The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution ''Munificentissimus Deus'' as follows: We proclaim and define it to be a dogma revealed by Go ...

. Church services are conducted every Sunday and attendees often invoke the name of the Santa Muerte to intercede before God, rather than other saints, and leave offerings to the folk saint. The church follow the Roman Catholic practice of

baptism Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...

, holy communion, confirmations,

weddings A wedding is a ceremony where two people are united in marriage. Wedding traditions and customs vary greatly between cultures, ethnic groups, religions, countries, and social classes. Most wedding ceremonies involve an exchange of marria ...

exorcisms Exorcism () is the religious or spiritual practice of evicting demons, jinns, or other malevolent spiritual entities from a person, or an area, that is believed to be possessed. Depending on the spiritual beliefs of the exorcist, this may be ...

and the praying of

rosaries The Rosary (; la, , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), also known as the Dominican Rosary, or simply the Rosary, refers to a set of prayers used primarily in the Catholic Church, and to the physical string of knots or b ...

.Archived
in 2016

Status in Mexico

Due to the connection between Santa Muerte and drug trafficking in Mexico, the Mexican government ruled that the Church did not have the qualifications for a religion and removed the Church from the list of officially recognized religions. Protests arose in 2006 among church members, yet the Church can legally worship without recognition from the government.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Official website
Christian denominations established in the 20th century Christian denominations founded in the United States Mexican-American culture Independent Catholic denominations