Author: Staff Writer

Source: AOL News

Wire Service: AP

http://news.aol.com/story/_a/protestants-jews-african-influenced/n20080321141709990003

Although 85 percent of Cubans were nominally Roman Catholic before the 1959 revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power, church experts say fewer than half of Cubans identify themselves as Catholics today, with a very small percentage ever...

Author: David Olson

Source: The Press-Enterprise

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_D_nigerian14.4260d79.html

Chief Fama chanted as she stood on a straw mat in a bamboo-walled room behind her home near San Bernardino.

The priestess sprinkled water in a white ceramic pot containing a single sacred kola nut and then prayed to God for peace, longevity, protection and good health. Her husband...

Author: JORGE RUEDA

Source: The Providence Journal

Wire Service: AP

http://www.projo.com/religion/content/LB_Santeria_02-09-08_1E8TQN5_v8.21a1f49.html

The man says he is possessed by a god. He shouts, his body trembles and he lifts a sacrificed lamb to his lips, drinking its blood from the jugular.

This initiation ceremony, seldom witnessed by outsiders, has become increasingly...

Author: Michael Grabell

Source: The Dallas Morning Star

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/011908dnmetsanteria.36ae749e.html

A Santeria priest who sued Euless for the right to sacrifice goats in his home lost a key round in court Thursday when a judge ruled that one of the laws he sued under doesn't apply. Jose Merced filed the federal discrimination lawsuit in December...

Author: Gary Nelson

Source: CBS4

http://cbs4.com/local/animal.sacrifice.vodoo.2.633345.html

Scholars, priests and spiritual leaders gathered in South Florida on Friday, seeking an understanding of African culture and religion in the mainstream.

The aim is to achieve mainstream acceptance of practices that some might view as extreme.

Voodoo rituals, spells and ritual sacrifice are the stuff movies are made of, but at...

Author: Jennifer Bordelon

Source: www.kristv.com

Author: Madison Park

Source: The Baltimore Sun

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-md.kwanzaa.31dec31,0,3256398.story

Baltimore museums held Kwanzaa celebrations yesterday with craft activities, musical performances and art tours on the fifth day of the holiday.

Visitors packed into the Baltimore Museum of Art for an annual Kwanzaa family day, a tradition of more than 10 years....

Author: ERIKA BERAS

Source: The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/360425.html

Those who came to Oba Ernesto Pichardo's fall semester course at Florida International University's Biscayne Bay campus expecting chicken heads, seashells and drum circles probably left disappointed.

The controversial, charismatic and enterprising Pichardo, a Yoruba priest and the country's leading expert on Santeria, spent...

Source: United Press International

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2007/11/30/santeria_principal_agrees_to_leave/3649/

NEW YORK, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A New York school principal has admitted using city funds to pay for a Santeria ritual at the school.

Source: News Tribune

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/religion/story/211741.html

A Norwich man’s religious belief was not enough to convince a judge to reduce his jail time for marijuana possession.

Vernon Smith, 43, is a Rastafarian who believes his use of pot is a God-given right. He had pleaded guilty to two counts of possession of marijuana with intent to sell after police found him with more than 20 pounds of the drug in July.

In...

Author: Steven Gray

Source: The Times

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1671984,00.html

In a small shop in one of this city's largest Mexican neighborhoods, Laura Martinez scans rows of candles bearing the images of Saint David, Saint Raphael, and Saint Jude. But she overlooks those and grabs two candles featuring Santa Muerte — Saint Death. "She's my patron saint," says the 24-year-old Martinez, who arrived here from a...

Author: TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE AND ELAINE DE VALLE

Source: The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/203628.html

Noriel Batista has had little peace since a swarm of Coral Gables police officers burst onto his property, disrupting a Santeria ritual intended to initiate him into a special order of his religion's priesthood.

''It has ruined my life,'' said Batista, a Cuban-born pharmacy owner who bought the...

Author: Jennifer Milne

Source: DowntownExpress.com

http://www.downtownexpress.com/de_222/downtownprincipal.html

A Soho high school principal was removed from her job Aug. 7, following allegations that she engaged in Santeria rituals in the school involving dripping chicken blood on the floors.

Maritza Tamayo, principal at The Unity Center for Urban Technologies, located at 121 Sixth Ave., has been under investigation by the Office...

Author: Elaine de Valle

Source: The Miami Herald

http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/153502.html

Two Santeria priests -- including one who fought for the religious right to sacrifice animals -- say police used excessive force earlier this month when they stormed, guns drawn, into a Coral Gables home where the homeowner was conducting a ritual involving the sacrifice of 11 goats and 44 fowl.

''They came inside this house where priests, old...