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Nov. 20, 2010 I admit to being a “fallen away” Catholic. I prefer the term “flown away” Catholic. It clearly comes closest to accuracy. Quite a few years passed before I realized “my church” was attempting to slap down and suffocate my immortal soul. After the nunish hot air I inhaled from the first grade through the twelfth, the church had come damn close to its objective. So I took an honest, close-up look at the state of affairs and observed how angry, desperately sad and disconcerted my co-religionists were. Despite allegedly submitting their souls to God and the handfuls of blessed beads they carried, they seemed to despise their God-given lives. In reality, they were living grimly empty lives, for the most part. And so was I, a Mass-going married mother of five baptized children and teacher of CCD (Catholic Church Doctrine) classes. Much older and hopefully wiser now, I’m no longer a disgruntled demagogue. I am a happy heathen. Nonetheless, this article is not meant as a confessional except that I do plan on dealing with the Devil here. It seems that the old Prince of Darkness is making another move on planet Earth. It may not be his final scheme to take over our environs but he’s cooking up a lot of news in parts of the religious world. I used to love reading the daily news. The newsprint smelled smart. Now, I don’t read newspapers at all. Nowadays they all smell of TV news shows, heavy on the “show” element. Just can’t trust them to tell me anything of use or real interest, or the truth. On the other hand, I screen the online/www news articles thoroughly. Sure I have to read a bunch of them to get more than the gist of almost any story, but I’m retired. I’ve got time. HULIQ, based in Hickory, NC, “the site for breaking news reviews”, earlier this year presented its article on Lucifer’s latest foray into soul-snatching under the title, “Satan’s rampage prompts bishops to call for exorcists.” To set his article in motion the reporter interviewed a former policeman we’ll just call Jim. Jim told the reporter he has seen the Devil while dealing with pedophile priests. Now retired from the L.A. police department to Reedsport, Oregon, Jim claims to have met Satan face-to-face “in the guise of a Catholic priest.” This particular priest had molested more than 130 boys in his care during the 1970s and wondered if he would be going to jail when Jim confronted him with his contemptible crimes. The priest, Jim claims, looked like The Beast. The evil he saw in the man’s face chilled Jim “to the bone.” This brings us to the meat of the HULIQ article. Scandals, such as the numerous pedophile priests, have thrown the Vatican into what might kindly be called a tizzy. When “tizzied” what does the Catholic Church do? Generally, the bishops and cardinals get out the stakes and begin to barbeque a few skeptics, agnostics and atheists as “examples.” Not this time. The Vatican has a centuries’ old recipe for abolishing demons or even Lucifer Himself from a person’s body and mind. It’s called exorcism and it is purportedly a sure cure for demonic possession. The present pope has a problem however. Benedict is low on exorcists. Since science created psychiatrists there hasn’t been a huge call for priests to take exorcism lessons. So the American bishops set up a short course (two days) in Baltimore. More than 50 (51?) bishops and 66 priests signed up. At the training conference, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of the Galveston-Houston, Texas archdiocese, claimed that the liturgical rite is the easiest aspect of exorcism. The tough part lies in the exorcist-priest-and/or-bishop’s personal essence. Discernment in the form of gentle diplomacy on the part of the exorcist is especially important in the rite of exorcism. It appears that high-quality judgment and gentleness are sadly lacking in most Catholic clergymen. Speaking to the Catholic News Service, Archbishop DiNardo goes on to explain his conception of how things stack up in regard to the clergy and exorcism. He notes that each diocese should have its own exorcist, saving the parish priest for his responsibilities to his congregation. The Archbishop then goes on to say, “For the longest time, we in the United States may not have been as much attuned to some of the spiritual aspects of evil because we have become so much attached to what would be either physical or psychological explanation for certain phenomena. We may have forgotten that there is a spiritual dimension to people.” (Begging your holy pardon, Archbishop, but didn’t you chaps sign into the seminary from day one to learn how to succor God’s people in their spiritual lives?) Another bishop-type – Thomas Paprocki – notes that there are only 5 or 6 American priests who know how to perform exorcisms. His conclusion? “The sacrament of penance is much more powerful than an exorcism. The work of the Devil is much more regular and our response should be rather regular. It’s not that you need a special exorcism when you deal with the Devil.” (Sorry, Bishop Paprocki, you lost me somewhere back there with the regularity of the Devil.) A priest, Father Jeffrey Grob of Illinois, was one of the leaders in the two day exorcism seminar. He, fortunately, is a working exorcist. He speaks of possessed people scratching, biting or cutting their skin, speaking in an unknown language and having a “violent reaction to holy water.” These are just a few of the symptoms a priest should look for to ascertain whether or not an exorcism is vital. The Vatican’s chief exorcist, 85 year old Father Gabriele Amorth, believes that some peculiarities are taking place at this very moment inside the Vatican. Such as, the Devil is lurking at the heart of the Roman Catholic Church and he (Satan) has been very busy attacking the Holy See. Father Amorth points to the Christmas Eve assault on the Pontiff by a woman “demenziale”. The good Father also believes that those people possessed by demons vomit shards of glass and sharpened pieces of metal “as long as a finger.” Sharing a rare insight into exorcism, the Italian priest told La Repubblica newspaper that the 1973 film, “The Exorcist,” was significantly correct in depicting what possession consists of. The possessed not only spew silverware and glass bits. They are often enormously strong and must be restrained, sometimes by multiple people. One point Father Amorth made during his interview I am really tempted to agree with. He declares that both Hitler and Stalin were demonically possessed. I can believe this; however, doesn’t it leave their innumerable and horrendous murders in Satan’s lap? But, if those two scums of the earth can get away with the excuse “the Devil made me do it,” why not our pedophile priests? An excellent character to conclude this article is a Spanish exorcist named Father Jose Fortea. In a photo of him standing next to Father Amorth I’m sorry to say that Fr. Fortea looks just like our human idea of the Devil. He even has Mr.- Spock-pointed eyebrows. Add a tight, thin-lipped mouth, a sharp nose and the fact that in the picture he’s situated beside a jolly, fat old elf like Fr. Amorth and you’ve got a close picture of Beelzebub, the supreme spirit of evil. However, let’s give the Spanish priest a break, if not a round of applause. He may look like he just arrived from Hell but his heart is in the right place, here on Earth. He came to the defense of those upper echelon clerics in the Vatican, cardinals for the most part, who weathered the wrath of Fr. Amorth when the exorcist charged them with being in cahoots with The Evil One. In fact, charging them with being members of a satanic cult. Let’s start with the Spaniard’s sentence, “Among exorcists, some have come to similar conclusions as Fr. Amorth. Others have not.” (Take that, you old elf!) Fr. Fortea goes on to conclude, “Our College of Cardinals, if we compare it with past centuries is the most edifying and virtuous that history has ever known. One would have to go back to the epoch of the Roman Empire to find a body of electors so distanced from all earthly pretentions as the current one is.” Finally, HULIQ, the breaking new site, blasts the Catholic Church for “using the media” to get the Vatican’s exorcism problem out to the general public, not merely Catholics. It’s a indictment against unjustified conduct.
(I loathe having to tell you this, HULIQ, but you are part of the media and you’ve been exploited by the Vatican. But don’t feel too bad. The Vatican has two thousand years of experience in malfeasance, small and large.)
Writing was always my first choice in life. I began writing at the age of 8, small books about pioneers heading west. Little did I know then that I would be living in the most "western" of all the states, Texas. No one told the Texans that they are simply Southerners who, like Bugs Bunny, took a wrong turn at Albuquerque and wound up here.
I am sneaking up on 70 years of age and now own a vast store of useless knowledge. Happy to share any or all of it with you all.
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