2014
video, color, no sound, 2’31”
(video stills) / footage Youtube
A recent confrontation between the “popular expression of religiosity” and the institutional dogmas of the church is the event of Centeno (Argentina) where a woman, in 2010, claimed to have seen the Virgin Mary who indicated her a source of healing water. The Virgin also performed and still do, many healings through the seer’s laying on of hands. The laying on of hands is a ritualact in which a priest or other religious functionary places one or both hands palms down on the top of another person’s head, usually while saying a prayer or blessing.The church use this ritual act, primarily in the rites of the dedication and commissioning of ministers.One year later the archbishop of Santa de la Vera Cruz (Argentina) declared the untruthfulness of the Marian apparitions in Centeno, because of the disapproval of the woman’s practice of blessing the faithful.
