MEXICO CITY, May 9 (UPI) -- The Mexican cult of Santa Muerte, or Holy Death, is "blasphemous," a senior Vatican official says.
The Rev. Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council, said worship of the religious icon was a "degeneration of religion," the BBC reported.
Santa Muerte, typically represented as a robed female skeleton carrying a scythe, is a cult that is rapidly growing in Mexico.
Ravasi spoke at an event for both Christian believers and non-believers called the Court of the Gentiles, the Mexican newspaper Milenio reported.
Speaking at a press conference before Wednesday's event, the cardinal said organized crime often uses religious figures such as Santa Muerte to convey a sense of religiosity to their activities. Such beliefs represent "blasphemy," he said, because true religion celebrates life and justice and criminal groups celebrate death.
"It's not religion just because it's dressed up like religion; it's a blasphemy against religion," he said.
It was important, Ravasi said, to impress on young people that criminal groups have no religion, but that their activities run counter to human, social and cultural values.
For that reason, the cardinal said, it was important to combat crime from the spiritual realm just as police do from the physical realm.
