During the medieval witch burnings, exorcists were in demand. In later periods, exorcism fell out of favor, but it was always available to those who knew how to make the right connections. Pope Benedict is now helping to give new sanction to the Catholic exorcism ritual, that in its classic form hasn't changed much over the centuries.
In 1998, the Vatican published De Exorcismus et Supplicationibus Quibusdam (Concerning Exorcisms and Certain Supplications). This reflected the traditional Catholic conviction that Satan is alive and well, always looking for a way to snare new victims - a conviction shared by the present Pope.
There are estimated to be as many as 300 Roman Catholic exorcists operating in Italy. Chief among them is an 82 year old cleric named Gabriele Amorth. He is reputed to have conducted some 30,000 exorcisms. Amorth is a man with no discernible personal power or even charisma, who believes that waving a cross around and muttering from the script adds up to an exorcism. Nonetheless, with the weight of the Vatican behind him, he succeeds in fooling the impressionable.
Amorth got upset about the Harry Potter series. He described the Harry character as "king of darkness, the devil" and likened Lord Voldemort to Stalin and Hitler. This type of silly thinking passes muster in Vatican circles.
The odd thing about Catholic exorcism, is that many of the people requiring the service in the past were members of the Catholic Church. In the 17th century an entire convent of nuns in Loudon fell prey to a sort of possession pandemic. The outbreak was more related to the evils of celibacy and sexual repression than anything remotely Satanic in nature.
There is no guarantee that exorcism will produce the desired results. The behavior of the exorcists themselves can be even more bizarre than the behavior of the people who are supposedly 'possessed'. In Germany in 1976, a Bavarian woman died of starvation after two priests subjected her to some 60 exorcisms. In another German case in 2002, a Bishop was forced to resign after a woman accused him of sexually abusing her during an exorcism.
According to Rev. Wieslaw Jankowski, who works at the Institute for Studies on the Family in Warsaw, there has been an increase in the number of people requiring exorcism. He views those drawn to the occult and new age religions as most susceptible to the wiles of Satan ... but added that internet users and yoga practitioners are also at risk.
Despite the obvious absurdity behind this type of thinking, it shouldn't simply be laughed off. The training of exorcists is entirely in keeping with the anachronistic world view of a Pope who seems determined to resurrect the Church's questionable former 'glories'.
Ratzinger has close ties with ultra-conservative elements in the Church, for example Opus Dei, an organization with marked theocratic tendencies. He has a belief in the direct apostolic succession of the Catholic Church, which is not unlike imperialist thinking in religious guise. Ratzinger's version of apostolic succession is a self-serving concept. The fact is, the apostles at no point thought of their activities as paving the way for an ecclesiastical empire along the lines of the Church of Rome. They didn't even break in any complete sense from their links to Judaism.
Josef Ratzinger is a dangerous man. He is an enemy of secularism who wants to roll back hard won rights in civil society. As Pope he is attempting to resurrect the elitist credo of the "one true Church" and is prepared to do it by fiat if necessary. This is reactionary thinking in overdrive, and the nod given to exorcists is simply part of the larger picture.
In 1998, the Vatican published De Exorcismus et Supplicationibus Quibusdam (Concerning Exorcisms and Certain Supplications). This reflected the traditional Catholic conviction that Satan is alive and well, always looking for a way to snare new victims - a conviction shared by the present Pope.
There are estimated to be as many as 300 Roman Catholic exorcists operating in Italy. Chief among them is an 82 year old cleric named Gabriele Amorth. He is reputed to have conducted some 30,000 exorcisms. Amorth is a man with no discernible personal power or even charisma, who believes that waving a cross around and muttering from the script adds up to an exorcism. Nonetheless, with the weight of the Vatican behind him, he succeeds in fooling the impressionable.
Amorth got upset about the Harry Potter series. He described the Harry character as "king of darkness, the devil" and likened Lord Voldemort to Stalin and Hitler. This type of silly thinking passes muster in Vatican circles.
The odd thing about Catholic exorcism, is that many of the people requiring the service in the past were members of the Catholic Church. In the 17th century an entire convent of nuns in Loudon fell prey to a sort of possession pandemic. The outbreak was more related to the evils of celibacy and sexual repression than anything remotely Satanic in nature.
There is no guarantee that exorcism will produce the desired results. The behavior of the exorcists themselves can be even more bizarre than the behavior of the people who are supposedly 'possessed'. In Germany in 1976, a Bavarian woman died of starvation after two priests subjected her to some 60 exorcisms. In another German case in 2002, a Bishop was forced to resign after a woman accused him of sexually abusing her during an exorcism.
According to Rev. Wieslaw Jankowski, who works at the Institute for Studies on the Family in Warsaw, there has been an increase in the number of people requiring exorcism. He views those drawn to the occult and new age religions as most susceptible to the wiles of Satan ... but added that internet users and yoga practitioners are also at risk.
Despite the obvious absurdity behind this type of thinking, it shouldn't simply be laughed off. The training of exorcists is entirely in keeping with the anachronistic world view of a Pope who seems determined to resurrect the Church's questionable former 'glories'.
Ratzinger has close ties with ultra-conservative elements in the Church, for example Opus Dei, an organization with marked theocratic tendencies. He has a belief in the direct apostolic succession of the Catholic Church, which is not unlike imperialist thinking in religious guise. Ratzinger's version of apostolic succession is a self-serving concept. The fact is, the apostles at no point thought of their activities as paving the way for an ecclesiastical empire along the lines of the Church of Rome. They didn't even break in any complete sense from their links to Judaism.
Josef Ratzinger is a dangerous man. He is an enemy of secularism who wants to roll back hard won rights in civil society. As Pope he is attempting to resurrect the elitist credo of the "one true Church" and is prepared to do it by fiat if necessary. This is reactionary thinking in overdrive, and the nod given to exorcists is simply part of the larger picture.
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