Last year, I met a drawn, defeated 14-year old girl who had been possessed by Satan, until he and his Armies of Evil were tortured out of her.
That is how her priest explained it to me. That is how she explained it to me.
They spoke as if it was all as obvious as her scars. Clarice was a tiny girl wrapped in a big white woollen cardigan. In a church in the middle of Congo's carnage she explained how she had chosen to let the demons enter her when she was twelve.
Since then, Satan had forced her to make her mother fall, breaking her leg.
Satan had forced her to jinx her father, making it impossible for him to get a job. Satan had forced her to kill her little sister, by giving her a deadly fever.
Her Pentecostalist priest, Papa Enoch Boonga, told me with pride how he had driven the demons out. They starved Clarice for four days, whipped her and threatened to burn her, until finally she "confessed."
Then they forced her to admit to everything she had done, and performed a long exorcism ceremony. They only believed it was working when her little body began to judder and howl and curse. I ask Clarice quietly if she really believed she had done all these things. "Yes," she said. "I do." And so we sigh lazily: another example of African primitivism. But no. Exorcism, even of children, is being aggressively promoted today by one of the most powerful men in the Western world, Pope Benedict XVI, in only slightly watered-down form. Presidents and Prime Ministers fawn over this man.
His every word is reported with the respect we are required to show to "religion", lest we are accused of bigotry.And yet he is openly commanding an army of exorcists to tell horrifically disturbed and mentally ill people that demons and devils are within them – because they invited evil in.
This December, Father Gabriele Amorth, official exorcist of the Rome Diocese, and friend of the "Holy Father", announced that the Pope will soon undertake a new campaign to unleash a fresh batch of 400 exorcists on the world, in addition to the thousands already in operation. "Thank God," he said, "we have a Pope who has decided to confront the devil head-on." (One representative of this evil, he added, is Harry Potter.)
The Catholic Church has officially denied having such a plan – but they admit the Church has had official exorcism rites since 1614, and that bishops and priests are encouraged to act on them today "where appropriate."
In practice, official Catholic exorcisms have been dramatically increasing since the mid-1970s, according to Michael W. Cuneo, a sociologist at Fordham University in New York who conducted a four-year study into this topic.
Before things go too far off track and our Christian members notice the obvious problems that most non-Christians do not understand.
1. The Pope does not represent all Christians, just the roman Catholics.
2. Pentecostals are not roman Catholic. There are very many churches that call themselves Pentecostal, some are legitimate Christian worship, some are pure fabrications and of dubious origin.
The point with pointing that out, is there does seem to be a world wide out break of self proclaimed evangelical people that are rapidly promoting and spreading some very bizarre concepts of exorcism.
Each case needs to be viewed on an individual basis and try to learn who is following who.
Exorcism is extremely rare, but one sometimes hears of these cases of abuse carried out by certain fringe denominations...I should probably even call it a fringe inside of a denomination. I've never heard of one actually happening except on the news.
"Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not, and a sense of humor was provided to console him for what he is."
They used to do such things in backward countries such as india pakistan and many other african places. Yes, you get some people who are genrally possesed by a sprit, but being causing GBH on the person in question is not the method that should be used. It's down to being uneducated too. Because anybody with mental illness was presumed to be ''possessed by the devil'' Cretins!
Ėk Gusā Alhu Mėrā
The One Lord, the Lord of the World, is my God Allah.
Dhan Guru Arjan Dev Mahraaj Ji!
Kal Meh Bėḏ Atharbaṇ Hū Nā Kẖuḏā Alhu Bẖa.
In the Dark Age of Kali Yuga, the Atharva Veda became prominent; Allah became the Name of God.
a few notes... Pentecostals are heretics and not the same as Catholics, in the RCC extensive psychological and medical screening is performed before the Church examines the possibility of possession. if in the very rare instance a possession is found to be true there is a very strict ritual that is performed. the specifics of it are found in Ch13 of the Roman Ritual, it involves a great deal of prayer, not physical torture or beatings and the like as described above.
it can take hours, days, months or even years to expel the possessing entity. it is also a very clandestine ritual, the Church is sensitive about not encouraging panics and wants to cut down on attention seekers or people who simply hold a medieval mindset. these things are usually not published nor spoken of.
I watched a History Channel special on witchcraft a few years back. They used to torture the "witches" by whipping them and the historians thought this was a way to get out certain fantasies. This almost sounds like that in a way.
i do not know about the last 8 years but i know there have been exorcisms performed in the 20th century, the late Holy Father John Paul II performed one.
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