How does a Catholic priest minister in a town famous for its devotion to the occult? Well, first you are attempting to be a very good neighbor.
“We open the church, we invite people in, we allow them to make use of our bathrooms, get a bottle of water and just sit and pray,” the Rev. Robert Murray, pastor of Mary, Queen of the Apostles Parish, positioned in the center of Salem, Mass., told America.
Salem, in fact, is today synonymous with witchcraft, owing to its infamous history in executing people accused of being witches within the late seventeenth century.
Certainly one of the 2 churches that comprise Father Murray’s parish, Immaculate Conception Church, sits lower than a two-minute walk from the Salem Witch Trials Memorial, a small park that houses locust trees, “that are considered the form of tree which will have been used for the hangings” of 20 people executed for witchcraft in 1692, in accordance with the memorial’s website.
How does a Catholic priest minister in a town famous for its devotion to the occult? Well, first you are attempting to be a very good neighbor.
The history of the Salem witch trials is well-known to individuals with a solid grasp of colonial-era history. (Not less than, it’s to me. Having grown up about 35 miles from Salem, I read concerning the trials, it seemed, in class every October. Once I questioned my Midwestern friends during a gathering in Chicago over the weekend about the small print of the witch trials, they checked out me like I used to be nuts.)
So for individuals who didn’t read “The Crucible” 12 months after 12 months, here’s a transient breakdown of what went down in Salem.
Greater than 200 individuals were imprisoned—and, as mentioned earlier, roughly 20 men and women were executed—by authorities over a span of 4 months in 1692 for his or her alleged involvement in witchcraft. The witch hunt began when 4 young girls played fortune telling games with Tituba, an enslaved woman from the West Indies owned by Salem’s minister, the Rev. Samuel Parris. When the ladies soon after exhibited unusual physical maladies, a physician claimed they were “bewitched.” The 4 girls accused others of being witches, including Tituba and other marginalized residents, and eventually, distinguished residents of the world were also accused.
After some initial embarrassment concerning the witch hangings, the town of about 45,000 people eventually got here to embrace its history. Nicknamed by some “the Witch City,” Salem includes images of witches on its emergency services vehicles, its highschool mascot is a witch, and Salem is home to greater than its fair proportion of stores promoting the occult. A whole lot of hundreds of tourists descend upon Salem each fall, taking within the magic shows, mock witch trials and this 12 months, a special outdoor screening of “Hocus Pocus 2,” set, in fact, in Salem. (Even when it was actually filmed in one other colonial-era city, Windfall, R.I.)
Father Murray said that the majority visitors to Salem appear to view witchcraft in a spirit that feels more tongue-in-cheek than serious. But interest within the occult is growing, with some estimates claiming that as many as two million Americans discover as Wiccan or pagan. Some undoubtedly view Salem as a spiritual place. Last 12 months, Boston Magazine reported that Salem is home to a disproportionately high number of people that say they practice earth-based spiritualities. The town can also be home to The Satanic Temple, which opened its doors in 2016 and courts controversy across the country, mostly for its Satanic art, its trolling of the religious right and its promotion of Black Masses.
Over time, there have been efforts by some religious groups to call attention to Christianity’s condemnation of witchcraft and the occult.
For Father Murray, welcoming people from internationally presents a possibility for a more quiet sort of evangelization, one focused on hospitality and presence.
In 1992, Christian activists staged a rock concert in Salem to supply an alternative choice to the concentrate on witchcraft. A gaggle of evangelical pastors and seminary students raised $10,000 in 2000 to support a “Holy Happenings” week, wherein they hosted discussions and distributed pamphlets discouraging participation within the occult, the Religion News Service reported. More recently, a journalist who chronicles witchcraft wrote that evangelical protests against pagan gatherings have increased across the country.
But for Father Murray, welcoming people from internationally presents a possibility for a more quiet sort of evangelization, one focused on hospitality and presence. The doors of the church remain unlocked, inviting visitors “to take a minute, a respite, from what’s a really noisy experience” outside, he said. Parishioners stick around inside, available to reply questions, and in addition to hope for the protection of tourists and first responders.
For his part, Father Murray says he doesn’t hear too often from parishioners concerned concerning the effect of the town’s concentrate on witchcraft on children, though he sometimes sees people among the many crowds sporting shirts emblazoned with anti-Christian messages. And he does think Catholics should keep away from the occult, including seances, tarot cards and ouija boards. Mostly, nonetheless, he and other Catholic residents of Salem “recognize that it is a industrial enterprise,” one wherein the parish is glad to participate.
[Explainer: What Catholics need to know about Ouija boards]
Witchcraft tourism brings about $140 million to Salem every year and along with offering a quiet place to flee a few of the crowd, Father Murray said the parish also “takes advantage of the economic fruit of the month, in that we rent out our parking spaces throughout the week and on the weekends once we don’t have services,” he said. “So that really becomes a beautiful thing for us to assist out the parish financially.”
