Pope's excorcist squads will wage war on Satan

I can see it coming now a new TV series, a real Satanic blockbuster: I was an exorcist for the Papacy.


Pope's exorcist squads will wage war on Satan
By NICK PISA

The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism
squads to tackle the rise of Satanism.

Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an
increased interest in the occult.

They have introduced courses for priests to combat
what they call the most extreme form of "Godlessness."


Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a
number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.


The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father
Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican "exorcist in chief," to
the online Catholic news service Petrus.

"Thanks be to God, we have a Pope who has decided to
fight the Devil head-on," he said.

"Too many bishops are not taking this seriously and
are not delegating their priests in the fight against
the Devil. You have to hunt high and low for a
properly trained exorcist.

"Thankfully, Benedict XVI believes in the existence
and danger of evil - going back to the time he was in
charge of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith." The CDF is the oldest Vatican department and
was headed by Benedict from 1982, when he was Cardinal
Ratzinger, until he became Pope in 2005.

Father Amorth said that during his time at the
department Benedict had not lost the chance to warn
humanity of the risk from the Devil.

He said the Pope wants to restore a prayer seen as
protection against evil that was traditionally recited
at the end of Catholic Masses. The prayer, to St
Michael the Archangel, was dropped in the 1960s by
Pope John XXIII.

"The prayer is useful not only for priests but also
for lay people in helping to fight demons," he said.

Father Paolo Scarafoni, who lectures on the Vatican's
exorcism course, said interest in Satanism and the
occult has grown as people lost faith with the church.


He added: "People suffer and think that turning to the
Devil can help solve their problems. We are being
bombarded by requests for exorcisms."

The Vatican is particularly concerned that young
people are being exposed to the influence of Satanic
sects through rock music and the Internet.

In theory, under the Catholic Church's Canon Law 1172,
all priests can perform exorcisms. But in reality only
a select few are assigned the task.

Under the law, practitioners must have "piety,
knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life."

The rite of exorcism involves a series of gestures and
prayers to invoke the power of God and stop the
"demon" influencing its victim.

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