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Established in 1954, Matridham Ashram was for over thirty years an important Catholic retreat and education center focusing on inculturation or adapting Catholic religious practice to Indian cultural symbols and expectations. While it still holds retreats as part of its “Indian Christian Experience Program,” it is now much more widely known as a center for Catholic charismatic religiosity as well as the Khrist Bhakta movement among Hindu villagers who worship Jesus. Matridham literally means “abode of the mother” and is situated outside the Hindu holy city of Banaras in India’s most populous

Family related norms have changed rapidly across the last two generations in Europe, but in few places have they changed as rapidly as Spain.

The celebration surrounding Dhori Mata draws upon what is called “inculturation.” After the Second Vatican Council, India was a primary area for liturgical experimentation. Going by the name, “inculturation,” the movement for liturgical adaptation, was most specifically associated with the work of the National Liturgical Center in Bangalore under the direction of D.S. Amalorpavadass. What emerged during this period of experimentation were “12 Points of Adaptation” to Indian culture, which were approved by the Vatican in 1969. 1 1See Mathew N. Schmalz, “ Ad Experimentum: Theology, Anthropology

The story of Dhori Mata1 begins in 1956 when the present day state of Jharkhand was part of Bihar. The coalfields were worked by miners from the Bilaspuri community from neighboring Madhya Pradesh. On Tuesday, June 12, 1956, Rupa Satnami, a Bilaspuri miner at Dhori Coalmine, was excavating coal when he reportedly heard a voice say in Hindi: “Strike gently, I am here.” After 1For a fuller discussion of the history of the Dhori Mata shrine upon which this section draws, see Suresh Gaikwad, Mary as Dhori Mata: Miraculous Mother of Coal Mines (Hazaribag: Hazaribag Catholic Diocese, 2014).

Every Friday night, for almost all of the night, huge crowds gather in the outskirts of Enugu, Nigeria for a prayer event that is easily among the best attended weekly gatherings in the Catholic world. Worship combines preaching, ecstatic Eucharistic adoration, two Masses, anointing and dance in a way that is hard to imagine for anyone who has not seen it before.

One of the enduring—and literally compelling—aspects of Igbo traditional culture is the practice of naming. Today, parents still choose Igbo names to carry on that tradition in Christianized fashion.

The growth of the Church in Igboland has depended from the beginning on the dedicated work of lay catechists. At Hearts of Jesus and Mary Parish there is an abundance of lay organizations.

Both traditionally and today, family is a primary social institution in Igbo tradition. Catholic belief has altered the concept of the family in limited ways, but has left traditional structures and relationships significantly intact.

Traditional Igbo society was built on a series of initiation rituals that spanned the whole course of life, from naming rituals after birth to funerals that were conceived as initiation into the realm of the ancestors. Christian missionaries worked to eliminate or replace many initiation rituals, but some continue as culturally important.

According to Igbo tradition, funerals are huge—by the financial standards of most families, extravagant—and highly ritualized events. Modernization and the advent of Christianity have done little to change that. Funerals are an occasion when two worldviews, traditional and Catholic, often play out together.