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 ...