Mexico City, Mexico -- Dressed in white and clutching statuettes of their beloved skeleton saint, followers of Mexico's fast-growing Santa Muerte death cult marched across the capital on Friday to demand recognition of their faith.
Angered by the Roman Catholic Church's disapproval of their ghoulish cult and a government bid to strip their main shrine of its license, housewives marched alongside petty criminals chanting: "Listen, government, the Saint is fighting."
"We are being persecuted," said Catholic Bishop David Romo, who has become the black sheep of Mexico's Catholic church for leading services to the bejeweled, scythe-wielding Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, in the rough Mexico City neighborhood of Tepito.
Santa Muerte, a centuries-old pagan cult which has sprung back up in recent years to claim some 2 million faithful in Mexico, the second-biggest Catholic country, has followers that range from elite politicians to kidnappers and gangsters.
Followers do not see a contradiction between their worship of death and being Catholics. In Mexico, it is not uncommon for Catholic churches in indigenous villages to practice unorthodox rituals and worship their own saints.
Worshipers, many of whom spring from Mexico City's grimiest, most lawless suburbs, say their offerings of fruit, dollar bills, tequila and cigarettes bring them protection.
"She helps me when I'm ill or in danger. She's saved my life several times. I've been shot at and assaulted but I'm still here," said prostitute Sandra Cadena, 22, of the macabre figure she goes to worship on the first day of each month.
As she spoke, marchers carried life-sized Santa Muerte statues in white robes, looking like gaudy versions of the grim reaper.
"She's my life. She's everything. Underneath we are all like her," said Alberto Avalos, 40, holding a large picture of the saint. "If I went to a Catholic church with my shaved head and tattoos they'd say I was a thief. Here nobody judges you."
Yet a perceived tolerance for criminals, who visit Santa Muerte shrines to pray for protection from their enemies, is exactly what concerns the authorities.
DEATH TO ENEMIES
The government is threatening to revoke a license granted to Romo's church in 2003 on the grounds the cult goes against Mexican rules on religion.
Catholic priests complain that criminals use Santa Muerte to justify and glamorize their lifestyles.
Romo said Santa Muerte was being wrongly portrayed as a haven for criminals and said he would take legal action if necessary to protect the cult.
"We are feeling the black hand of the church. They want to take away our license because they say we are unofficial, that we are an underground faith with an illegal nature," he said.
"The allegation that we are all criminals is completely false. The reason for all this commotion by the clergy is the growth in our faith."
The spurt in interest suggests many Mexicans today relate better to the cult's colorful, unorthodox practices than to the austere Catholic faith, which in Mexico has always been spiced up with pagan elements from pre-conquest religions.
At the Tepito shrine, the start point of Friday's protest, pop song odes to Santa Muerte blare from a speaker and candles flicker, different colors representing health, prosperity, justice and love. Some are marked: "death to my enemies"
A man glanced up as a Santa Muerte statue swept by dressed in a black lace dress and purple veil, her vacant eye sockets peeping coquettishly past a black feather fan.
"How beautiful she is," he sighed.