SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — It’s Friday night in Downtown Santiago. chileA group of 15 people gather around a table, sharing a bottle of wine as the scent of tobacco and incense fills the air. Black candles burn on an altar decorated with goblets and knives. Members of the Satanic Temple are about to begin a ritual.

Five years after the Satanic Temple in the US made headlines and created a wave of panic, designated as a churchIn Chile, a conservative country where half of its 18 million population identifies as Catholic, a similar organization is asking the government to legally recognize them as Catholics. religion association.

Chile, where a long-standing tradition of Catholicism plays a leading role in public debate, is experiencing a crisis of faith after some of the revelations emerged, scholars, believers and residents consulted by The Associated Press said. Multiple sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic church over the years.

“Such organizations now feel like they have greater support to challenge what was almost impossible before,” said Luis Bahamondes, a professor at the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Chile. The reason for this is that “the Catholic Church had unprecedented power until recently. “He had an opinion on everything: politics, economics, geopolitics, sexuality and education.”

Despite its name, the Satanic Temple: Chile’s Satanists and Luciferians do not offer sacrifices and do not ask their congregation to worship the devil. Among its 100 members there are people working in the organization as journalists, firefighters, police officers, lawyers and psychologists who find a way to challenge moral norms, dogmas and religious impositions.

They embrace the term Satanist, but they do not respect or believe in Satan. Instead, they worship rationality, individuality, pleasure, and ordinary life.

They praise humanity rather than gods.

“You own your present and your future, there is no God who decides on your behalf,” Haborym, the group’s spokesman, said as he wandered among graves and shrines. Santiago General Cemetery. He states that the figure of Satan is purely symbolic and that his rituals are performed “to bring out the emotions and put the mind aside.”

Haborym and other members of Chile’s Satanic Temple spoke on the condition that their real names not be used, noting the growing threats, especially because many of them hold public jobs.

When Hollywood movies are like this “Rosemary’s Baby” TV series like and “True Detective” Helping illustrate the idea that Satanists are associated with sacrifice, evil, pain, and death, modern groups such as the Satanic Temple in Chile are strongly opposed to animal abuse, forbid association with people with criminal records, view pleasures as pleasure rather than sin, and do not express their opinions unless asked.

“We don’t want people to kill in the name of Satan,” Haborym said.

In order to become a member of the Satanic Temple in Chile, candidates are asked to go through a long process of filling out a form, showing proof of no criminal record, meeting with a special commission, and finally being evaluated by a psychologist.

Once accepted, members can choose a new name (normally a demon or fallen angel) by which they will be identified in the Temple and among other associates.

The Satanic Temple in Chile, founded in 2021, has 100 members and more than 400 people have applied in the past few weeks, Haborym said. Interest increased when the group formally requested the country’s Ministry of Justice to legally recognize it as a religious association in late July.

A media frenzy followed, sparking a heated debate and causing excitement among Chile’s main religious sects.

“The history of Satanism is well known (and) has often been the cause of tragedies,” leaders of many churches in Chile, including Catholic, Anglican, Jewish and Evangelical, said in a joint statement.

Following in the footsteps of the Church of Satan, founded by Anton Szandor LaVey in 1966, modern Satanists celebrate skepticism and reason about celestial or supernatural beings. Followers are free to formulate their own beliefs, rituals and spiritual practices.

Many of those who identify themselves as Satanists and Lucifers atheistsOthers are witches or believe in the power of magic.

“We recognize that there are some foundations, both academic and esoteric, that give meaning to our existence and reality,” said Azazel, who left Judaism four years ago and founded the Satanic Temple in Chile a year later.

Their words echo in the darkness of the room and are interspersed with chants, clapping, mantras, and the recitation of passages from the Satanic Bible and the Gospel of the Enemy, the group’s central tenets.

Like Azazel, others turned to the Satanic Temple out of frustration with traditional religions. The new communities include not only occultists and esotericists, but also Catholics, Jews, Protestants and Evangelicals.

“There is no solution or absolute truth in Satanism. “You are your own god and you create your own reality,” said dental student Kali Ma, who was born and raised in a family of Jehovah’s Witnesses. “If we compare both, the main denomination is Jehovah’s Witnesses,” he said. “They don’t let you do certain things; they tell you how to dress, what to do, how to behave, whether you can grow a beard or not.”

Néstor da Costa, an expert on secularism and religion at the Catholic University of Uruguay, said the influx of people seeking answers from different perspectives may be linked to the search for a less dogmatic approach.

“This could be a religious reorientation of people who have left Catholicism and continue to believe in something,” he said.

It’s unclear whether the Chilean government will legally recognize the Satanic Temple as a legitimate religious association, but its very existence has helped spark a debate that was until recently unthinkable in this conservative society.

The demand for recognition is the ultimate expression of everything that Satanic aesthetics celebrates: rebellion against the status quo and breaking with long-established traditions.

“As a religious entity, we comply with everything that is required of us,” says Haborym. “So there will be no reason to reject us beyond the fact that we are a controversial figure.”

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