That was the first question following an investigation by the Bexar County Sheriff's Office in February, in which deputies uncovered a house with suspected stolen vehicles used for a human-smuggling ...

The prayer in Spanish sounded like one from an ordinary Catholic Mass. But the man who led it wore a coyote-skin headdress and called himself the last of 13 generations of brujos-- witch doctors -- in ...

Worship was initially clandestine but is now surging. 'From Chile to Canada, Santa Muerte has no rival in terms of the rapidity and scope of its expansion' You can save this article by registering for ...

“People are always looking for a new devotion as a way of acquiring something for themselves.” This is the reflection of Bishop Emeritus Michael Pfeifer of San Angelo, Texas, illustrating a danger ...

A few days after a group of armed men kidnapped her 27-year-old son, María set up a shrine to St. Jude Thaddeus at her home in Guadalajara, western Mexico. "I keep photos, candles and holy water at ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A follower in New Orleans built a public shrine in her honor. An actor in Albuquerque credits her with helping him land a role on the TV show “Breaking Bad.” She turns up routinely ...

Mexico’s Santa Muerte — a folk saint with a grinning skull — attracts thousands of followers in Ecatepec, the same town recently visited by Pope Francis. While some believe Santa Muerte grants special ...

Outside a storefront shop on Melrose in Hollywood, Santa Muerte is revered by her followers as "La Nina," “La Madrina” and "La Madre." She is one word to most others: "Satanic." It's not secretive; in ...

Holding a scythe in one hand and a globe in the other, the Santa Muerte could be easily mistaken for the Grim Reaper. But to her supporters, this skeletal saint, affectionately nicknamed “skinny woman ...

Guadalupe Lopez says a soft prayer in Spanish as the scent of incense fills her living room, rising from a shrine of more than two dozen cloaked statues. Their faces could not look further from the ...

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A follower in New Orleans built a public shrine in her honor. An actor in Albuquerque credits her with helping him land a role on the TV show “Breaking Bad.” She turns up routinely ...

Bishops in the United States are denouncing the skeleton folk saint known as La Santa Muerte — a figure Roman Catholic leaders in Mexico routinely have attacked for the deity's connection to violence ...