The Pope and witchcraft : swap one set of superstitious nonsense for another set of superstitious nonsense
The Pope calls on Africans to reject witchcraft.
...he urged his listeners to reach out to those Angolans who believe in witchcraft and spirits.
"So many of them are living in fear of spirits, of malign and threatening powers. In their bewilderment they even end up condemning street children and the elderly as alleged sorcerers," he said.
In his homily, the pope urged Catholic to try to convince those who had left the Church that "Christ has triumphed over death and all those occult powers.
Errr, this from a Church that has a Chief Exorcist :
Father Gabriele Amorth who is Pope Benedict XVI's 'caster out of demons' made his comments during an interview with Vatican Radio.
Father Amorth said: "Of course the Devil exists and he can not only possess a single person but also groups and entire populations.
"I am convinced that the Nazis were all possessed. All you have to do is think about what Hitler - and Stalin did. Almost certainly they were possessed by the Devil.
"You can tell by their behaviour and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That's why we need to defend society from demons."
According to secret Vatican documents recently released wartime pontiff Pope Pius XII attempted a "long distance" exorcism of Hitler which failed to have any effect.
Father Amorth said: "It's very rare that praying and attempting to carry out an exorcism from distance works.
"Of course you can pray for someone from a distance but in this case it would not have any effect.
"One of the key requirements for an exorcism is to be present in front of the possessed person and that person also has to be consenting and willing.
Apparently the Chief Exorcist is quite a busy man :
In a small room, well away from the street so that no one hears the screams, Father Gabriele Amorth does battle with Satan. He is a busy man.
As the Vatican’s top exorcist, Amorth performs the mysterious, ancient ritual dozens of times a week. A confused world engulfed in tragedy and chaos is turning increasingly to black magic, the occult and fortune-telling, he said, proof that the devil and his handmaidens are having a field day.
“These customs open the door to evil spirits and to demonic possessions,” Amorth said. “Exorcism is God’s true miracle.”
The practice of exorcism driving demons and evil spirits from people or places has been experiencing a renaissance of late, from Europe to the Americas to Africa.
........
In Italy, the number of exorcists has increased more than tenfold in the last decade to about 300. This year, one of the country’s largest archdioceses established a special task force to handle the growing demand for devil detox.
Amorth is arguably the world’s most famous practitioner of exorcism and certainly its greatest promoter.
He co-founded the International Assn. of Exorcists, an organization of priests that meets in secrecy every two years, and he remains its president emeritus. Author of numerous books on the subject, he has had a hand in recruiting, training or inspiring most of today’s exorcists.
Amorth said his calendar is always full. “I have three this afternoon,” he said matter-of-factly recently.
With little prompting, he whipped out his equipment, sheathed in a weathered leather bag that is always at his side: a silver and wooden crucifix, an aspergillum for sprinkling holy water and a container of baptismal oil.
He acted out simple steps from the ritual, wrapping his purple priest’s stole around the shoulders of a visitor and making the sign of the cross on her forehead. (All clear, he pronounced.)
In an exorcism, that opening is followed by prayers, anointment with the holy water and oil, then a demand to the devil that he state his name and be gone. Anything can happen: If the person is possessed, and that’s a rarity, he or she will often turn violent and fight the intervention, Amorth said.
Hmmm, seems the Pope does irony.
...he urged his listeners to reach out to those Angolans who believe in witchcraft and spirits.
"So many of them are living in fear of spirits, of malign and threatening powers. In their bewilderment they even end up condemning street children and the elderly as alleged sorcerers," he said.
In his homily, the pope urged Catholic to try to convince those who had left the Church that "Christ has triumphed over death and all those occult powers.
Errr, this from a Church that has a Chief Exorcist :
Father Gabriele Amorth who is Pope Benedict XVI's 'caster out of demons' made his comments during an interview with Vatican Radio.
Father Amorth said: "Of course the Devil exists and he can not only possess a single person but also groups and entire populations.
"I am convinced that the Nazis were all possessed. All you have to do is think about what Hitler - and Stalin did. Almost certainly they were possessed by the Devil.
"You can tell by their behaviour and their actions, from the horrors they committed and the atrocities that were committed on their orders. That's why we need to defend society from demons."
According to secret Vatican documents recently released wartime pontiff Pope Pius XII attempted a "long distance" exorcism of Hitler which failed to have any effect.
Father Amorth said: "It's very rare that praying and attempting to carry out an exorcism from distance works.
"Of course you can pray for someone from a distance but in this case it would not have any effect.
"One of the key requirements for an exorcism is to be present in front of the possessed person and that person also has to be consenting and willing.
Apparently the Chief Exorcist is quite a busy man :
In a small room, well away from the street so that no one hears the screams, Father Gabriele Amorth does battle with Satan. He is a busy man.
As the Vatican’s top exorcist, Amorth performs the mysterious, ancient ritual dozens of times a week. A confused world engulfed in tragedy and chaos is turning increasingly to black magic, the occult and fortune-telling, he said, proof that the devil and his handmaidens are having a field day.
“These customs open the door to evil spirits and to demonic possessions,” Amorth said. “Exorcism is God’s true miracle.”
The practice of exorcism driving demons and evil spirits from people or places has been experiencing a renaissance of late, from Europe to the Americas to Africa.
........
In Italy, the number of exorcists has increased more than tenfold in the last decade to about 300. This year, one of the country’s largest archdioceses established a special task force to handle the growing demand for devil detox.
Amorth is arguably the world’s most famous practitioner of exorcism and certainly its greatest promoter.
He co-founded the International Assn. of Exorcists, an organization of priests that meets in secrecy every two years, and he remains its president emeritus. Author of numerous books on the subject, he has had a hand in recruiting, training or inspiring most of today’s exorcists.
Amorth said his calendar is always full. “I have three this afternoon,” he said matter-of-factly recently.
With little prompting, he whipped out his equipment, sheathed in a weathered leather bag that is always at his side: a silver and wooden crucifix, an aspergillum for sprinkling holy water and a container of baptismal oil.
He acted out simple steps from the ritual, wrapping his purple priest’s stole around the shoulders of a visitor and making the sign of the cross on her forehead. (All clear, he pronounced.)
In an exorcism, that opening is followed by prayers, anointment with the holy water and oil, then a demand to the devil that he state his name and be gone. Anything can happen: If the person is possessed, and that’s a rarity, he or she will often turn violent and fight the intervention, Amorth said.
Hmmm, seems the Pope does irony.
Labels: God squad
posted by stroppybird at 10:11 am
|
