American catholics, how come you don't do a procession of saints?

Question

In most latin countries, including the philippines, they do a 'parade' carrying the saints around town. It's so much...fun (for lack of a better word). Why not here in the US?

Answer 1

Most processions of saints happen in towns and cities where the saint has a special connection.

Because the United States is so young, there are not many Catholic saints with connections.

However the influence of Latin America is slowly influencing the US churches and there are more and more processions for Our Lady of Guadalupe.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

It is due to America being a protestant country. There are many places where such Catholic devotion was not looked kindly on especially during the early part of our country. The country was not, and still is not culturally Catholic so, especially in areas that are not culturally Catholic, this doesn't happen. There is still a lot of anti-Catholic bigotry (as witnessed by posters on this board) and this also impacts the degree to which you see these types of devotions.

However, they still do exist and you can find places where there are small processions of the Saints, the Cross, and the Eucharist. They do exist, especially in areas of this nation that have a lot of Catholics.

Answer 3

Processions such as you describe fall into the category of Popular Devotions. These are "grass roots" expressions of faith and are usually very specific to a culture and/or community. There's no driving reason to do them and (as long as we remember that Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit are the only ones to be worshipped) there is no reason to not do them

You will find devotions and processions like this in churchs that have a strong cultural overtone. I used to live near a church with a HUGE Portegese community and let me tell you, they knew how to process with their statues! Amazing. But to do a devotion just cuz it's cool or fun deprives it of its meaning and makes it little more than theatre.