Ronald Knox had a character in his book _Let dons delight : being variations on a theme in an Oxford common-room_, "It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up
beliving in the devil, when he is the only explanation of it."
OK. I'm officially creeped out. I found myself whispering the Leo XIII prayer while reading the article. No, sir,that sorta power I don't wanna experience!
"Charismatics firmly believe in the spirit world, and take
literally the stories in the Gospel of Christ casting out demons."
Given that Jesus tells us God is a spirit, I would think that believing in the 'spirit world' is kind of a prerequisite for being a Christian, unless you're going to start discounting the existence of angels, too. And as for the spirit world influencing the material world, Christians believe that every person has an immortal soul.
You may not believe every story like this you hear, and that's fine because maybe they're not all true, but to discount them all just because you believe them to be impossibe is a choice that doesn't seem to be open to the orthodox.
Good point, Adam. I also find it interesting that some folks are selective about this sort of stuff in inconsistent ways. They'll be glued to Johnathan Edwards talking to the dead - forbidden in the Bible, BTW - but discount phenomena like that described in this article. Is it the effect of the New Agers influence? And, as you say, the attitude seems to be that these practices are all OK for everybody except if they're related to the orthodox & the Church in any way. Strange.
In Covington? Where I went to grade school? Where Walker Percy used to live? My goodness.
Oh yes, Sandra. The subdivision where this house was located was fairly new, and filled with beautiful luxury homes. As I think I said in the article, the house was newly constructed, but it was falling to pieces, inexplicably. I wish I could remember the widow's name; I'd love to call her and ask what happened next, if anything.
Fr. Termini, Shelby and the others were amazing. As I've written on this blog before, they came to my parents' house in 1994 to help after my grandfather's death sparked some poltergeisty occurrences. Though the activity was centered around my father, whose father had just died, I was part of one of the incidents. Shelby came to the house with Father T., and not knowing anything about us, located a hidden photo of my dead grandfather behind a board in a closet, and said, "This is important." In prayer, she discerned that my grandfather's spirit couldn't move on, and he was begging my father either to forgive him (he'd wronged my dad), or to "get me forgiveness." I can't recall exactly what. In any case, Fr. T. led my dad in a prayer of forgiveness for all the wrongs his father had done to him, and a mass was said for the repose of his soul. (My family are all Protestants, so this was extraordinary for them). And there were no more problems.
But we found out months later that widow of my grandfather, his second wife, who had been involved in embezzling money from him and in turning him against my dad, was experiencing an extraordinary variety of ghostly occurrences. They were scaring her out of her wits. Fr. T. agreed to come see her, but I knew he would tell her she wouldn't have peace until she returned the money she took, and made things right with my dad. I went to see the old lady, and she looked like a wreck, as if she hadn't slept in months. She told me that it was all true, but she refused to acknowledged that there was anything spiritual about it. She wouldn't see the priest. I couldn't help her.
She eventually had to leave the house. She moved into a nursing home, where according to her grandson, she continued to have these incidents. They thought she was hallucinating. I don't think she was hallucinating. She died a few years ago, without returning the money, and without making things right.
O.k. That's creepy. Very creepy. But I don't doubt it.
I also find the inclination of post Christians to dabble in anything like John Edwards and such a bit much with the testimony of the Gospels to the Resurrection. The John Edwards thing also bothers me due to the fact he keeps saying that everyone who "crosses over" is o.k. Problem is when John Edwards first began he was on a morning show in New York he was bi-weekly or so regular and was stunningly right from people on the phone who gave no name, and no nothing. My take was, we don't know where this info is coming from. What if it is a huge deception?
Believe me I pray for the conversion of every soul. But based on human experience alone, that seems a bit hard to believe if there is an after life and a God we have to account to.
Always strange to me that people are so willing to gobble up that stuff as gospel, but not willing to investigate The Gospel.
Pray for me and all!
I wonder if Sgt. Wilson ever tracked down those human sacrifices. Killing babies is often attributed to satanists - anyone know if it has ever been confirmed as a common (or even uncommon) practice?
Wow. Any other scary stories?
I am reminded by that show, Scariest Places on Earth. The kooky author guy kept proposing these elaborate pagan practices (using snakes as "spirit guides", etc.) to bring out and ward off demonic spirits. I kept laughing to myself, knowing that all these scared people needed was a rosary, holy water and a good exorcist.
Where will this world be without Christ, e? 
I don't want to be a heel, but didn't the FBI do some research on this topic and discount a satanic conspiracy that involved things like human sacrifice?
Not to suggest that this sort of thing never happens, but if it was so seemingly widespread, one would think that some more evidence of this sort of thing would be present.
Now, I'm not suggesting that anyone is being dishonest or anything, but shouldn't there be some objective evidence to support this type of claim?
Pax Christi
As of 1992, the FBI Special Agent who was looking for organized ritual abuse had found no corroborating evidence.
To say that there are no orgaznized conspiracies of Satan worshippers murdering babies and raping children is NOT the same as saying there are no malign spirits.
No, but it certainly demonstrates a tendancy on the part of the writer to accept the statements of these witnesses of supposedly supernatural activity at face value, without considering their crediblity.
Let me play the heel on a different topic: what's all this about spirits not being able to "move on?" Isn't the whole notion of that at odds with Catholic theology of the afterlife? My baseline presumption that all such encounters are the work of evil spirits, who often masquerade in the forms of the dearly departed.
Or did I miss something in my catechism about how the souls of the dead can linger on earth rather than going on to their proper reward?
Well, the writer saw the events he recounts in the story with his own eyes. I was there. I have a tape-recording of the event.
About the human sacrifices, no one told me there were organized conspiracies of baby-killers, and I didn't report that. I simply reported what the priest claimed, and quoted a police official saying that the priest was telling the truth. It was impossible to verify the story further without the police detective being willing to share further evidence.
Remember, I'm from south Louisiana, and I know a little something about occultists down there. I'll try to find a story I wrote for another publication about a psychotherapist who found herself dragged into a dangerous situation with a satanic group that had ritually abused a patient of hers. If I can find the piece, I'll post it.
Regarding the last post, it's my belief, and was the belief of Fr. Termini, that at least some ghostly activity was attributable to souls bound here as a form of Purgatory. That was clearly the case when my grandfather died in 1994, and hung around my mom and dad's house for a week, until Fr. Termini and his team came to discern the problem, and say a mass to free him. My grandfather died with some unresolved issues over the way he'd treated my father. On the afternoon of the day we buried him, I was in my bedroom at my folks' house, and I heard banging on the window behind me. No one was there, and I told no one about it. My dad, who is not terribly religious and not at all superstitious, had lots of things happen to him before he told me what was going on, and asked what I thought about it. My mom saw a man that looked like my grandfather walking in the yard, but no one was there, as it turned out. Etc.
When Shelby came, she located a hidden photograph of my grandfather behind a board in the closet. She had no idea that anyone had died in the family, or what the matter was; only that we needed help on a spiritual matter. She told my folks that my grandfather couldn't move on until my father forgave him (or "got him forgiveness," I can't recall the exact words). A mass was said, and we had no more problems. That was not the case with my grandfather's second wife, who had stolen money from him and helped cause a rift between him and my dad. She experienced poltergeist activity until the day she died. I went to see her to see if she'd see a priest (none of these people in my family are Catholic), but she refused. I don't say that my grandfather was doing things to her, but she was definitely being spooked by something.
It is not necessary to believe any of this to be a good Catholic, obviously. But it did happen. I saw it myself.
But there are still RC priest exorcists. If anyone's in the NYC area, you can hear Fr. Lebar, the NY exorcist, speak on Monday, Nov. 17. See www.totnyc.org for details. (Unfortunately, I can't make it that night, but oh how I wish I could; bet he's got some amazing stories to tell!)
Fr. Benjamin Luther, a lineal descendant of Martin, was the official exorcist of Bowling Green and used to write the question box in TWIN CIRCLE.
Well, I am wicked crreped out. And a cop in one of my old reserve units gave a very extensive briefing in 1994 about satanist related crime patterns.
What's the 'question box in TWIN CIRCLE'?
"Killing babies is often attributed to satanists - anyone know if it has ever been confirmed as a common (or even uncommon) practice?"
Thousands of babies a day to the "god" of Choice.
Anyway, what's this about this Fr. Benjamin Luther? He's a direct decendent of Martin Luther? And he's a priest? Interesting. I'll have to try to find out more about him.
If anybody's interested, here is a companion piece to my Fr. Termini article. It's about a haunted house in my Louisiana hometown. I wrote it in 1992 as a sidebar to the Termini feature in The Washington Times.
After I reported and published these stories, I had dinner in Washington with an immensely learned and solidly orthodox RC priest friend, and asked him what to make of all this. He told me the Church doesn't have a lot of clear direction on the matter of what ghosts might be, and how they might be, but that there seems no doubt that something is going on. He recalled some time he spent in a castle in Scotland, in which he had several unnerving spectral encounters that he could not explain.
I believe that Purgatory accounts for the presence of some spirits that we call "ghosts." C.S. Lewis' portrait of Purgatory in "The Great Divorce" makes this understandable to me. In that book, he depicts Purgatory as a place in which we are purged, in part, of earthly attachments that keep us from moving to the light of Christ in the hereafter. Ghosts are typically encountered as attached to certain places, often where an act of violence related to the death of the person took place. When we had the business with my grandfather and my father, that seemed to me a case of my grandfather, who had depended heavily on my dad for the last decade or so of his life, being so grieved in death by the way he had treated my dad that he clung to him -- literally, in one incident. The night before Fr. Termini and his team came to our house, my dad was sleeping with his shirt off (this was summertime in Louisiana), and he woke up when he felt something clinging to his back. He told me it felt like the softest flesh imaginable resting on his back, and he felt fingers clutching his shoulders. "It wasn't trying to hurt me," he said. "It was just trying to hold on to me." My dad sat up in bed, realized he wasn't dreaming, felt the thing let go, then heard a hiss and a pop ... and it was gone.
I should say also that two days before this (and a day after my grandfather was buried), my dad was sitting in the living room at midnight, reading, while everyone else in the house was asleep. My dad heard an insistent, hard rapping running along the side of the house. My folks live out in the country, and there aren't neighbors nearby. My dad went out to see what it was; the dogs bark if an armadillo comes into the yard, but they were silent. He saw nothing outside.
When he sat back down in his chair, he heard the door to his bedroom open and close. He saw at the far end of the darkened hall a "figure in white" standing there. He thought it was my mother in her bathrobe, and he called to her. No answer. He put his glasses on, and went to the bedroom to see why she had ignored him. He found her sleeping soundly.
The next morning, he told me about th
Sorry, to continue: the next morning he told me about what had happened, and asked what I thought we should do about it. That's when I told him about the rapping on the window I'd heard hours after we buried Grandfather, and when I suggested that we call Father Termini.
Fr. Bejamin Luther was a priest of the diocese of Bowling Green. I don't know if he's still active or alive, but anyone with access to a PJ Kennedy can check. He was the official exorcist although I never had occasion to ask him about his work. He did the Question Box in TWIN CIRCLE but the Legionaries of Christ were suspicious of any priest not of their order doing such delicate work and hedged him around with restrictions. He was not carried over when TC became CATHOLIC FAITH & FAMILY.
I too believed in ghosts, demons, and evil spirits.
Then I turned 7.
What is the spirit? It is the nature of grace. So is there now such a thing known as 'anti-grace'?
This is one thing I find a stark difference between Catholicism and Protestantism. Catholicism defines evil as the 'lack' of grace (whereas Protestants find evil as a real and substantial thing). This difference can be seen in the nature of the fall of Adam and Eve.
But evil cannot have a spiritual form. The idea of satanic is the fall, is the lack of spirit, lack of grace.
How can a negative be substancial? How can a negative be SOMETHING?
Nevermind that a person, with the lack of grace (say extorting money), will seem to be 'possessed' but this is the lack of grace, not some 'evil' spirits going into her.
Jesus said his kingdom was the spiritual. It is the satanic whose kingdom is the earthly. But with this 'exorist's view, this is not the case. Indeed, the exorcist must say that Jesus was wrong because another spiritual realm exists, an 'evil' one.
Is it just me or does all this sound like nonsense on stilts?
You should all read Fr. Gabriel Amorth's book "An Exorcist Tells His Story" (Ignatius Press). Fr. Amorth is the chief exorcist of Rome. The book details many of the phenomena involved in people who are diabolically possessed or obsessed (and he explains the difference between the two). He reviews the general procedures that exorcists use in diagnosing a person.
The book is filled with stories of:
1. young children spontaneously and fluently speaking dead languages
2. superhuman strength, i.e. children throwing large pieces of furniture that grown men could not lift
3. the exorcist hiding a saint's relic in his coat, approaching the person, thereby triggering a violent reaction of blasphemies toward that saint, by name, even though the person could not have known through his five external senses that the priest even had the relic on him
4. people vomiting glass shards. Yes, he describes it.
One of Fr. Amorth's primary laments is that even many Bishops no longer assent to the Church's dogmas on the reality of Satan and demons.
Furthermore, the book has many wonderful theological observations about these matters, and a profound reflection on Christ's ministry of exorcism.
He also describes what laity can do in the Chruch's battle against evil spirits.
Finally, it has some wonderful deliverance prayers in the back that are worth knowing or at least having in the house.
There are many accounts of ghosts from medieval times, either as apparitions of souls from Purgatory or souls serving their Purgatory on earth. People here might enjoy Jean-Claude Schmitt's GHOSTS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. His more famous and hard-to-find HOLY GREYHOUND is possibly the strangest piece of popular religion you will ever encounter.
"Father Termini sprinkles
consecrated wine from the chalice on the ground surrounding the altar." Forget the creepy stuff. Sprinkling the Precious Blood on the ground is much more horrifying- it's sin- as in sacrilege. Is this report believable? If so, it undermines, in my mind, the group's entire effort.
Well, if you believe me, then the report is believable. I saw it with my own eyes. Fr. Termini was disciplined by his bishop for having done that -- correctly disciplined, I believe. He maintained that he had to do it, but I strongly believe he was wrong. In any case, he obeyed his bishop.
But I wouldn't be too hard on Fr. Termini. He always obeyed the bishop, to the best of my knowledge, because he was a faithful Catholic, and because he knew that his efforts to combat "the Enemy" (as he called him) would come to naught if he didn't have apostolic approval. I do believe, however, that any irregularities and eccentricities in his approach can in large part be laid at the foot of the bishops, who in too many cases want to have nothing to do with exorcism, or deliverance from malign spirits. In too many cases, priests are left on their own to do what they can.
In 1959 while I was attending St.Clement's College in Galong NSW Australia, to discern a vocation to the priesthood, there was a story of a demonic possession and excorcism which, I believe is docmented at the College.
A girl - I believe about 15 - was performing fantatic feats - leaping out of second story windows unhurt, flying around a room and suffering severe bruising etc. A priest from St. Clements went to the house where she lived and excorcised the demon.
In ther late 40,s a maori rangatira (chief) died as a result of a hunting accident. The burial was to take place at the top of a small mountain, Taupiri, in the Waikato region about 100 miles south of Auckland, where the Waikato chiefs were traditionally buried.
The coffin had to be carried on the backs of six robust maori men up a steep track to the top of the mountain. As they progressed up the track, the coffing appeared to get heavier and heavier - much more so than one would expect, despite going up a steep track - so much so, thast the men had to rest. One of the accompanying rangitira banged on the coffin, and said (in Maori ) " Lighten up, Billy, lighten up."
Immediately the coffin appeared to lose most of its weight, and the remainder of the procession proceeded with ease.
Billy Wilson (his English name) was the chief, and my uncle(my father's older brother) married his daughter. My father was there, and saw this happen, so I have no reason to doubt my father's word.
Do I believe it ? I won't make a judgement.....
What is the spirit? It is the nature of grace.
Only when you are speaking of the Holy Spirit. There is no reason why lack of material being, and so purely spiritual being, has to be good, since wickedness lies in that spiritual thing, the will.
But evil cannot have a spiritual form. The idea of satanic is the fall, is the lack of spirit, lack of grace.
Do you mean that the devils, by falling, cease to be spirits and become material bodies?
Nevermind that a person, with the lack of grace (say extorting money), will seem to be 'possessed' but this is the lack of grace, not some 'evil' spirits going into her.
There are wicked people, and there are demonically possessed people, and they are two different things. This does not mean that they do not both exist.
Jesus said his kingdom was the spiritual. It is the satanic whose kingdom is the earthly.
This is Manchinean. There are plenty of spiritual evils. Envy is purely spiritual. So is pride. But they are still evils.
Indeed, the exorcist must say that Jesus was wrong because another spiritual realm exists, an 'evil' one.
Indeed, by that argument, Jesus must say that Jesus was wrong, because Jesus was an exorcist himself. We are repeatedly told that he drove evil spirits out of people.
I would just like to point out that I am not the "Jonathan" of the above post who writes, "and then I turned seven."
I've seen enough, heard enough, and been around enough to know that I don't know everything, and that there are definitely unexplainable things around.
Sleep tight, everybody!
Rod,
One reason the bishops want nothing to do with excorcism, imo, is that they are often associated with unbalanced behavior - eg, pouring the Precious Blood on the ground, or claiming that "Behind Harry Potter hides the signature of the king of the darkness, the devil," as Father Amorth has done.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2002...n/
02010202.html
And let's not forget the behavior of arguably the most famous exorcist alive today - Archbishop Milingo, who also argued that the hierarchy was opposing his work because it had become infected with rationalism.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/
2...ain325958.shtml
I hear you, Rick, but it makes sense to me that if the bishops held a traditional, sensible attitude toward the office of exorcist, we wouldn't see these irregularities. Somebody like Milingo arises because there is a need for that kind of ministry. It is sad, but unsurprising, that it went to his head, and he went coo-coo. That does not invalidate the office and ministry of exorcists. These incidents only signal that bishops should be more involved in the exorcism ministries of their priests, and provide accountability for them. I can tell you from knowing Fr. Termini for a decade that he was treated pretty harshly by the chancery.
Now, I want to make clear that I don't know all the facts, and I'm in no position to judge whether or not the chancery was right or wrong in the moves it made against Fr. Termini. If anyone with more knowledge of this situation is reading this, and wishes to weigh in, I'd be grateful. I do feel confident in saying, however, that while obedient, he had a rather strongly negative view of the diocesan leadership. He felt that they simply didn't understand the actual spiritual needs of the people under their care. If memory serves, it wasn't that they were restricting Termini and providing alternative pastoral care in this area; it was that they just didn't care to mess with it at all. And Fr. Termini, who saw every week how desperately needy people in that part of the country were, found what he regarded as the functional indifference of the diocese in this area to be hard to take.
I respect the concerns about the way that the Precious Blood was treated during the exorcism.
But, as an Euchartistic minister, I have always been taught that one acceptable way to handle unconsumed Blood is to pour it down the special sink which goes to the ground.
What is the significant difference between sprinkling it on the ground and just pouring it out so that it goes into the ground?
So now, they've voted the devil out,
And, of course, the devil is gone.
But simple people would like to know
Who carries his business on.
This story has a number of disturbing features. This "exorcism" is based upon someone's private feelings and dreams. Where is the instense pyschological/medical insvestigation that is supposed to occur before the Church would ever go this far? A priest who pours the Most Sacred Blood on the ground?!
It wasn't a formal church exorcism. It was what they call a "deliverance," which to me sounds like a minor exorcism. It didn't involve a person, but a place. This was basically a turbocharged version of a house blessing.
Anyway, I saw Shelby struck by something unseen -- saw the indentation form in her dress -- and saw her thrown backwards in a way that wouldn't have been possible under her own power. And I saw a candle rise out of the candlestick, and fly across a table and fall into a chair, with no one anywhere near the table. For what that's worth.
Jonathan ('jonhollas@yahoo.com' Jonathan) -
There is indeed "anti-grace"; its called temptation, and it is from Satan just as grace is from God. There's a spirit of Christ, of grace, active in the world; there is likewise a spirit of antichrist and of temptation. Read 1st John.
Whatever you think the nature of the Fall to be, there was definitely a tempter there; an actual, perceptible (if not physical), being. Evil, at a minimum, is a privation - but what did Adam and Eve lack for? How could they have thought to sin on their own?
There was a tempter in the desert with Christ (unless you believe Christ to be a schizophrenic?). There are demons mentioned throughout the Gospels, Paul mentions being tormented by one, and then there's the Book of Revelation...
...but that can all be explained away as childish fantasy. Ah, modernity.
Anna,
Where did you learn that the Precious Blood should ever be poured down the sacrarium?
According to the norms issued by the Holy See for the US, "Norms for the Distribution and Reception of Holy Communion Under Both Kinds in the Dioceses of the United States of America," June 2001, no. 55: "The reverence due to the Precious Blood of the Lord demands that it be fully consumed after Communion is completed and never be poured into the ground or the sacrarium."
Don't know who taught you, but they were clearly NOT correct.
BTW, the entire document I referred to in the last post can be viewed at the USCCB website at:
http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/cur...rrent/
norms.htm
Anna, you may be confusing the treatment of holy water with the Precious Blood. Last I knew, & anyone may please correct me if I'm incorrect, the proper way to dispose of holy water is through a recepticle that goes directly into the ground. As Sam points out, the Precious Blood is to be consumed during Mass & not retained as is allowed for the consecretated hosts.
And Mary made the same point I was going to make about Johnathan's comments. If evil cannot have a spiritual form then who was Satan? He was a fallen angel, right? Was/is he not spritual? Relying only on one's own experience & understanding can lead to such error. Mr Dreher knows what he saw & I've gotta believe him. As creepy as it is. "There are more things in heaven & earth, Horatio . . ."
I dated a girl who had been possessed and went through an exorcism. She lived in a Sorority house in Alfred, NY that was haunted. I've experienced the ghosts there. Creepy doesn't begin to describe it. What I came away from all that was: don't let your kids play with a Ojoui (sp?) board or "dabble" in occult.
There was a kid in the class below me at my high school who got heavily into the Ouija board. He and other guys from our dorm (it was a residential high school) thought it was fun to take the board to a local graveyard, and communicate with spirits. It got pretty spooky, though, and one night in the dorm after curfew, the crowd that messed with that thing somehow went too far. S., the main kid messing with it, became temporarily possessed. He thrashed uncontrollably on the floor of a dorm room, while the board itself flew around the room. It took several of those boys to hold the kid down, and the situation only got under control when the biggest boy there knocked the thrashing kid out. This sounds absurd, but I tell you, I was in a friend's room when a couple of the guys who had been present when this happened came running over, banging on the door, crying and asking my friend (who was known as a devout Christian) to pray with them and read the Bible. Whatever those 17 year olds had just seen scared them senseless.
Anyway, the kid who had been possessed, or whatever happened to him, was never the same. Within two years, he had put a shotgun barrel into his mouth and blown his head off. True story.
Anna,
The sacrarium is normally used to dispose of the water in which stained altar cloths are soaked. According to the USCCB though, "It is strictly forbidden to pour the Precious Blood into the ground or into the sacrarium." http://www.usccb.org/liturgy/gir...y/girm/
lit4.htm. OK, dead horse beaten.
This was linked to over on HMS blog - thought it was interesting. http://www.zenit.org/english/vis...phtml?
sid=43911
www.angdatingdaan.org
It's scary to think how real Satan is... The topic of spiritual warfare has come up a lot in the last three days. Yesterday's holimy addressed the issue, plus a chapter I'm reading in a book and then this entry, which I stumbled across looking for something else.
Perhaps God is trying to prepare me. I am getting ready to begin RCIA and even my children are under attack in subtle ways.
Thanks for posting this reminder about how REAL Satan is...
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