100
123.âPopular piety enables us to see how the
faith, once received, becomes embodied in a cul-
ture and is constantly passed on. Once looked
down upon, popular piety came to be appreciated
once more in the decades following the Council.
In the Exhortation
Evangelii Nuntiandi
, Pope Paul
VI gave a decisive impulse in this area. There
he stated that popular piety âmanifests a thirst
for God which only the poor and the simple can
knowâ
100
and that âit makes people capable of
generosity and sacrifice even to the point of her-
oism, when it is a question of bearing witness
to belief â.
101
Closer to our own time, Benedict
XVI, speaking about Latin America, pointed out
that popular piety is âa precious treasure of the
Catholic Churchâ, in which âwe see the soul of
the Latin American peoplesâ.
102
124.âThe Aparecida Document
describes the
riches which the Holy Spirit pours forth in pop-
ular piety by his gratuitous initiative. On that be-
loved continent, where many Christians express
their faith through popular piety, the bishops
also refer to it as âpopular spiritualityâ or âthe
peopleâs mysticismâ.
103
It is truly âa spirituality
100
âNo. 48: AAS 68 (1976), 38.
101
âIbid.
102
âOpening Address of the Fifth General Conference of
the Latin American and Caribbean Bishops (13 May 2007), 1:
AAS 90 (2007), 446.
103
âF
ifth
G
eneral
C
onference
of
the
L
atin
A
merican
and
C
aribbean
B
ishops
,
Aparecida Document
, 29 June 2007, 262.