Word: santeria
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...Hialeah, Fla., devotees of the Santeria religion are outraged by a 1987 public ordinance prohibiting animal sacrifice, a practice which is vital to the Santeria rituals. After several years of legal battles in the lower courts, the santerias' case against the city finally reached the Supreme Court last Wednesday...
...Santeria is a mixture of Roman Catholic and Yoruba (West African) religious practices. Its main focus is the worship of saints, who are equated with Yoruba deities. As in Catholicism, one prays to these saints to intercede in a crisis. Unlike Catholics, however, the santeros invoke their saints by sacrificing an animal as an offering. Ritual sacrifice also plays a role in priests' ordination rites...
...takes another view of such practices. To them, and to some residents and religious leaders in Hialeah, sacrifice should be banned because it is cruel to animals and may also be a public health hazard. The ordinance was passed following pressure from residents who protested the building of a Santeria church in their neighborhood...
...ordinance exempts the Jewish ritual slaughter techniques practiced by kosher butchers, because kosher slaughter methods are designed to prevent the animals' suffering while Santeria sacrifices are not. The issue of cruelty to animals, say the city officials, distinguishes rites deserving of protection from rites which the city can prohibit...
Although the above facts suggest that the ordinance unfairly targets the Santeria religion, the city claims that the ordinance is a neutral governmental decision not formulated with religion in mind. Richard G. Garrett, the lawyer who will argue the city's case, protests rather disingenuously that both secular and religious animal sacrifices are outlawed by the ordinance...