Smoking ceremonies are not ‘inculturation’ … and it is irresponsible to suggest otherwise. A July 13 article from Pillar Catholic, which was presented as an ‘explainer’ of indigenous smoking ceremonies, completely missed the mark by failing to look behind the sympathetic facade to see the real harms being perpetrated by the use of pagan rituals. Particularly disappointing was the manner in which commentary from the emeritus Archbishop of Philadelphia, Archbishop Chaput, was used to sanction anti-Catholic ‘inculturation’.
