Card. Francis Arinze, then President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue, participated in an event at the Tekakwitha Conference in Fargo, North Dakota, in 1989. On that occasion he celebrated a Mass. Before the Mass, he received a pagan ritual "blessing" from a shaman, who passed an eagle feather over his head invoking the protection of the Manitous (spirits that inhabited nature), above. Another shot of the same act is shown below first row.

Addressing the Indians who were present, the Vatican Cardinal in his homily affirmed :

"The Creator has walked with you and your ancestors along the centuries. You are richly gifted in your traditions, history, customs, sacred ways and cultures. ... Your collective historical consciousness merits respect and credibility."

It is difficult not to see in these words a clear endorsement of Pantheism, which underlies the pagan worship of the American Indians.

During the Mass, another shaman offered tobacco to the four winds of the earth, below second row, and then filled a sacred pipe with it, which he passed to the Cardinal.

Photos from Tekakwitha Conference

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