Evil spirits alive and well in Rome; Soon not to be

robindch

Hi -

A story about the Vatican starting up a new course on exorcism has been doing the rounds of the news services for the last few days, on the the BBC website, CNN, the LA Times, and many other places.

Looks like the course is needed too, following a spine-chilling story which turned up a couple of weeks ago about a telly and some vacuum cleaners catching fire, presumably satanically, in Siciliy earlier in the month, and various fraudulent demon-caster-outers doing this kind of thing without proper training in Japan, England, Mexico, The Congo and fatally in the USA and Italy (reference missing; it was about 8 years ago, close to Naples).

Unlike previous course, this one apparently includes some tuition in psychology, though I can't find out exactly about what.

Comments?

- robin.

Goodshape

robindch wrote:

some vacuum cleaners catching fire, presumably satanically

Satanically, eh? I'm having a hard time visualising how something could catch fire 'satanically'

So what's the official catholic word on spirits (eVil or otherwise).. Do they acknowledge there existence - or is this sort of a piece-of-mind exercise?

And what, according to these teachings, happens to the exorcised spirit?

john kavanagh

C4 11pm this thursday

robindch

> C4 11pm this thursday

Thanks for this. From C4's listings pages:

> 23:05 The Exorcism: In a unique investigation of a
> much-misunderstood religious practice, Channel 4
> examines what happens inside the brain during an
> exorcism. The exorcism will be performed by an
> experienced minister and cutting-edge neuro-imaging
> technology will monitor the activity in the subject's
> brain during the process.

...and there's a related link to an article on the Guarniad's website which quotes Chris French, speaker at one of last year's skeptics talks.

> So what's the official catholic word on spirits

'zfar as I can make out (and I have asked various self-qualified people), these little blighters are everywhere and come in two sizes: 'good' and 'bad'. Bad ones are responsible for all the 'evil' in the world, from GW Bush, down to a streptococchus who/which causes a disease ('creation' is 'fallen', meaning that it's 'corrupt' and this kind of thing is therefore likely to happen). Anyhow, when communicating with a spirit -- and they can all speak and answer for themselves, whether it's a microscopic bug, a tree or somebody's guarniad angel -- you can ask them if they're good or bad and the good ones will say they're good, but the bad ones are duty-bound to tell you that they're bad(*), so you know who you're dealing with.(**) You can perhaps see that a mind like a laser is not a requirement for carrying this particular meme.

BTW, anyone got any ideas about who or what the program's 'experienced minister' might be? One can't help but picture Michael McDowell or perhaps Bertie himself out there with a cross held out flat in the right hand, with the other curled dramatically over the left shoulder, while wearing a black cape + pointy hat with tinfoil stars stuck to it, grinning maniacally all the while...

- robin.

(*) Looks like any similarities to those old logic problems about arriving at a junction on an island populated by knaves or knights are co-incidental.

(**) I'm not joking here -- I've been told this consistently by catholics of my acquaintance. And the bit about the bugs and the trees. And the guardian angels.

robindch

The Vatican may soon have some Romanian Orthodox takers for that course. See this story about the horrific case of a woman in Romania who was found dead after being "bound to a cross, gagged and left alone for three days in a cold room".

"They all said she was possessed and they were trying to cast out the evil spirits," police spokeswoman Michaela Straub said. Father Daniel who is accused of orchestrating the crime is said to be unrepentant. "God has performed a miracle for her, finally Irina is delivered from evil," AFP quoted the priest as saying.

Zombrex

robindch wrote:

The Vatican may soon have some Romanian Orthodox takers for that course. See this story about the horrific case of a woman in Romania who was found dead after being "bound to a cross, gagged and left alone for three days in a cold room".

Reminds me of the old test for witches, throw her in a river, if she dies she wasn't a witch. If you protested and said you actually didn't want to drown then you must be a witch because no true christian is fearfull of death and heaven. Catch 22 and basically you are screwed. How do you argue with a system that says you shouldn't be afraid of dying and if you are you are guilty. Horrific.

toiletduck

ffs, very distrubing that people believe that kinda crap