Spiritual Warfare

VATICAN Vatican's official exorcist Fr. Gabrielle Amorth recounted in his recent book the exorcism that Pope Benedict XVI performed on two men, known only as "Giovanni" and "Marco," during a general audience at St. Peter's Square in 2009. Amorth said that two of his helpers brought the men before the audience to see the pope. When the Pope's car arrived, the two became agitated and fell into the ground. One of the helpers told Giovanni to control himself. "I am not Giovanni," the reply came from a voice not his own. “The pope began to wave to the crowd," Amorth recalled, "and Giovanni and Marco started to howl, drool, shake and fly into a rage. The pope did not get flustered, he raised an arm and blessed the four people. The possessed were then hit by a wild jolt, their whole bodies were hit. They flew three meters backwards… and howled no longer." [ READ MORE ] ...

ITALY While parish priest Father Lorenzo Tanganelli started reading his Sunday sermon on a Gospel of Saint Matthew that tells of Jesus saying, "If your eyes causes you to sin, gouge it and throw it away," before his flock of around 300 parishioners in the parish of Sant'Andrea in Viareggio (northern Italy), Aldo Vianchinni (46), who sat in one of the back pews, started hearing voices commanding him to tear his eyes then and there. Then he started tearing his eyes from its sockets to the horror of the flock. An off-duty tried to help him. But even the doctor who attended to him in the nearby hospital failed to reinsert his eyes to its sockets. Father Tangenelli proceeded to finish the Eucharistic Celebration though, not letting the horrific commotion deter it. [ Full Story ]v

GHANA British Prime Minister David Cameron demanded that countries who receive British financial aid must "reform" legislation banning same-sex marriage. And the Ghana Parliament replied, "No way."  Parliamentarian Catherine Afeku said, "If any sector of the ministry should sponsor a bill legitimizing same-sex marriage, it will be dead upon arrival."  Ghana President John Atta Mills reiterated that Cameron "does not have the right to direct other  sovereign  nations as to what they should do especially where their societal norms and ideals are different than those which exist in the Prime Minister's society." [ DETAILS ]

PHILIPPINES Father Michelle Joe Zerrudo, one of the less than a dozen exorcists in the Philippines, led on 15 August 2011 a reparation rite outside the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) where the controversial "Kulo" art exhibit was held. Before the rite, he led some 200 lay people in a Tridentine Latin Mass at the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions in Pasay City. One of the artworks in the exhibit was the blasphemous mixed-media works Poleteismo of Mideo Cruz that incorporate sexual materials into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. The CCP closed down the main gallery on August 9 after indignations erupted from largely Catholic Filipinos.  

Preternatural beings (angels and demons) have power over nature. That means they can manipulate nature at will. Is it possible that natural disasters are acts of evil spirits (not of God) contrary to what legal views of disaster have it? There is an obvious benefit to the cause of evil when a natural disaster strikes communities. The devastation that these events bring can shake any person's faith. A family whose residence and properties disappear after a tsuanami hit their village can likely tell God: "You're supposed to protect us from danger. But you did not. Why do you do this to us? A natural disaster is an effective tool at torturing people into a shakened, and even crumbling faith.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois, the chairman of the United States Bishops Conference's Committee on Canonical Affairs and Church Governance, organized a two-day conference on exorcism as more than 100 Catholic priests gathered in Baltimore to attend the affair. [ Read report ]