Exorcism

The catholic church has revealed how growing interest in satanism and the occult has led to a rise in exorcisms across Queensland. One priest, who asked not to be named for fear of "reprisals", said he was carrying out at least one exorcism a fortnight. More requests for exorcisms came from the Gold Coast than anywhere else. An exorcism involves holy water, sacrament and Bible reading and can go on for many hours, the priest said. Linda Blair made the subject famous in the 1973 film, The Exorcist. "Being possessed by a demon is terrifying in one"s mental and emotional life," he said. "Some of these manifestations are extremely powerful, causing people to be plagued bydisturbances.

They hear voices and see hideous creatures in their sleep. "There has been a recruitment of pagan practices, and it"s sheer poison. "The Gold Coast is not good at all. I do far more exorcisms there than Brisbane." The Catholic Church has vowed to "fight the devil head-on" by training hundreds of priests as exorcists. Bishop Brian Finnigan, acting head of the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, said it was important for the church to carry out exorcisms. "People need to be freed of that burden," he said. Father Gabriele Amorth, 82, the Pope"s Exorcist-in-Chief, announced the initiative recently amid church concerns about an increase in people dabbling in the occult. Under plans being considered, each bishop would have a group of priests in his diocese who werespecially trained in exorcism. Father Amorth 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 proper, trained exorcist." Queensland Catholic priests can carry out exorcisms only if they have been authorised by an archbishop. The priest source, who is based in Brisbane, is the only one permitted to do exorcisms in the state. He said he had travelled to Rockhampton, Cairns, Townsville and Toowoomba to save people.

View: Full Article | Source: News.com.au

The new phone service has been set up in Milan in an effort to help deal with increasingly high demand.According to the diocese"s chief exorcist Monsignor Angelo Mascheroni, double the number of exorcists have been appointed to deal with requests for help over the last 15 years. "We get many requests for names, addresses and phone numbers; that’s why we’ve set up a switchboard in the curia from Monday to Friday from 2.30pm to 5pm," he said. Mascheroni did emphasize however that most of the cases dealtwith were not the result of demonic possessions and feels that the increase could be partly down to a rise in the number of parents unable to handle disobedient teenagers.By contrast, former chief exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth claims that he has dealt with more than 70,000 cases of demonic possession over 25 years.

Father Amorth also believes that sex abuse scandals within the church represent further evidence that "the Devil is at work inside the Vatican." “People in need can call and will be able to find a priest in the same area who doesn’thave to travel too far. ” And to that end, the number of demon-busting priests on call has increased from six to 12.  

View: Full article |  Source: Independent  

Exorcisms have become so common in Poland that Catholic priests have launched their own magazine.Believed to be the first exorcism magazine in history, the publication entitled "Egzorcysta monthly" is a reflection on the rising number of practicing exorcists in Poland over the last 15 years. There are now over 120 exorcists in the country, many with waiting lists of several months. A number of occult practices including fortune telling are now considered "work" in Poland forthe purposes of taxation with many jumping at the opportunity to earn a living by offering such services.Father Aleksander Posacki has attributed an alleged rise in demonic possessions to people committing evil acts such as killing or stealing but admits that not every case is paranormal.

"I"ve invited psychiatrists to meetings when I"ve had doubts about a case and often we"ve both concluded the issue is mental illness, hysteria, not possession," he said. With exorcism booming in Poland, Roman Catholic priests here havejoined forces with a publisher to launch what they claim is the world"s first monthly magazine focused exclusively on chasing out the devil.  

View: Full article |  Source: The Star  

A 13-year-old girl died while having an exorcism performed at a Buddhist church in southern Japan.The ritual involved what is known as a "waterfall service", the girl was bound to a chair facing upwards underneath a water pump for five minutes. Her father held her down under the water while a monk performed the service. According topolice the girl has allegedly undergone the same ritual hundreds of times before.

Tomomi Maishigi’s father and a monk performed a ‘waterfall service’ on the 13-year-old where she was allegedly bound to a chair by a belt and placed face-up underneath a water pump for five minutes at a Buddhist church in Kumamoto, south Japan.  

View: Full article |  Source: Yahoo! News