20th November.  Turning to Other Spirits.    Witchcraft and satanism in some form are phenomena in South Africa and the wider world, today, but they are not the same.  Witchcraft tends to be concerned with traditional cultures, ancestors, spirits, and curses.  but not with Satan, the devil which is a different form or worship that surfaces from time to time, often among the youth. Fear and anxiety over life situations leads people to have recourse to traditional practices and consulting their ancestors.  Turning from the God who revealed himself to Abraham and the Israelites and adopting false gods of other neighbouring tribes has also been done frequently over the centuries.  As Christianity spread over the centuries and has came into contact with other religions there cannot but be two-way influences too.

Reflect, share, Scripture.   Many, even from Israel, gladly adopted the false religion, they sacrificed to idols and profaned the Sabbath. 1 Maccabees.   Pope Francis It is important to realise that there are no lasting changes without cultural changes, without a maturing of lifestyles and convictions within societies, and there are no cultural changes without personal changes.  LD 70.  From the Synod on Synodality Africa Continental Report. The Church came with a culture into another culture. Synodality should help to listen to the cultural practices that have been either ignored, condemned or suppressed by the Western culture through which the Gospel was preached to Africans. These cultural practices, some deeply influenced and changed by Western and Christian cultural influences, continue to affect the way Christians live out the Gospel. They should, therefore, be listened to in view of either integrating, purifying or collectively rejecting them based on a clear understanding of the exigencies of the Gospel. Action and prayer:  Remember in prayer the needs of those we have loved and lost.