THE DEVIL'S WORKSHOP? EXORCISM & CATHOLIC PRIESTS... THEOCRACY PROPOSED IN CONGRESS...

  <<< "Show me your idle hands, Slick!"

Exorcism — the use of prayer to rid a person or place of the devil or demonic spirits — has its roots in early Christianity. It fell out of favor in the 18th century, after the Enlightenment and advances in science and philosophy. But in the last few decades it has experienced something of a revival, in part because of (nut-fundie) Pope John Paul II's belief that Satan exists as an authentic "cosmic liar and murderer" afflicting victims and intervening in human affairs ...

American Atheists News reports:

"There is now even an International Association of Exorcists composed of Catholic priests who meet secretly and seek out suitable candidates for the new program.  In Italy alone, the number of exorcists performing the Vatican-sanctioned ritual has swelled to over 300 ...

There are also questions about the clerical group (the Legion of Christ) in charge of the curriculum at Regina Apostolorum, and whether fears of Satan are the result of sensationalist media accounts, competition from Protestant groups, and even an effort to obscure the persistent scandal involving clerical pederasty ... Absent from mainstream reporting of the Vatican's renewed interest in diabolic possession and exorcism are charges of priestly child abuse and molestation linked to the Legion, including allegations involving the order's former director, Rev.  Marcial Maciel Degollado ...

The Legion's name has surfaced in Mexico, where a sensational narco-spy scandal has tarnished the administration of President Vicente Fox.  At the center of the inquiry is Nahum Acosta, an official with Fox's travel staff who is also said to be tied to the drug-trafficking cartel of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.  Fox and his National Action Party have been supported by the Catholic Church ...

In the United States, even major figures in the Roman Catholic hierarchy have expressed suspicion about a secret agenda involving the Legion of Christ."

"St.  Paul - Minneapolis Archbishop Harry J.  Flynn
released a public statement in late 2004 informing parishioners that
the Legion was "not active" in his area, and that the group's lay movement known as Regnum Christi was to be 'kept completely separate from all activities of the parishes and the archdiocese...'

A similar policy which banned the Legion and its subsidiary organs from using church resources and property was announced by the Diocese
of Columbus, Ohio in October, 2002 ..."

AANEWS continues:

"Also linked to revelations that the Vatican is re-emphasizing the 'devil busting' business is the 'Beast of Satan' murder trial slated to open in a Milan court on Monday, February 21. 

It is for Italians what the Scott Petersen or O.J.  Simpson trials have been in the United States, a bloody story of brutal deaths, out-of-control cultists, sex and pop-culture Satanism.  It is also
sensational, lurid entertainment in a nation fixated with the religious and supernatural, and where the head of a powerful institution, the papacy, regularly warns of pernicious deviltry and diabolical seduction.  An estimated 17% of the Italian population - 10 million people -- are said to regularly consult faith healers and
divinationists who specialize in spells, potions and mystical advice.
According to the Euripes Institute, there are 22,000 professional practitioners who earn nearly $6 billion a year for their dubious services.

The case broke when a 27-year-old man, Andrea Volpe, led investigators to a remote site where he and members of a heavy-metal cult band, the "Beasts of Satan" allegedly beat and stabbed two victims to death. Police say that ritualistic human sacrifice was involved, although investigative reports also point to heavy drug and alcohol abuse ..."  (Ya think?)

"Blood and death, blood raining down, blood bathing all my body, blood thirsty for blood ... We are nasty individuals, we plague people and we play with their lives ...  crush
them then laugh!" [Lyrics from band, "Beasts of Satan"]

In a similar LA Times Account - a Catholic priest, Father Christopher Barak, (said he) traveled from his headquarters in Lincoln, Neb., to Rome to attend the course.

" 'There are a lot more behaviors and lifestyles that are not of God,' he said. 'There's a lot of relativism. Whatever goes, goes. There's a big surge in New Age, pantheism, young people playing with Satanism, a lot of drug use, black magic, psychics are so big, pornography, MTV ... People are not searching for holiness.' "

Well, yeah - it would seem they're NOT receiving instruction in critical thinking skills or bologna detection . . .

THEOCRACY UPDATE

"Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI would be so proud."

Paul Carpenter - ranting for The Morning Call in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania,  reports:

On Thursday, we learned that state Sen. James Rhoades, R-Schuylkill, wants to impose monotheism on people who do not believe in one God, such as Buddhists, aboriginal Americans and followers of other respected religions.

Rhoades is sick and tired of public school students not being indoctrinated with the Judeo-Christian concept reflected by the ''under God'' passage in the Pledge of Allegiance. He wants to force Buddhists, etc., to submit to the one true religion (his).

Legislation sponsored by Rhoades would force public schools to start each day with the pledge or the national anthem in every classroom ... The Rhoades bill says students who have heterodoxical beliefs ''may decline to recite the Pledge,'' but must do so, every day, in front of classmates who embrace orthodox doctrine ...

Carpenter sounds fed up with forced reestablishment of religion, commenting:

I once thought that when the Reign of Terror used the guillotine on Marie Antoinette and all those priests, it was barbaric. Now, I'm not so sure.

Authorities can get away with this kind of treason only when they have the support of the nation's top government official, who wants to abrogate the First Amendment with his phony ''faith-based initiatives'' approach to government-sanctioned religion ...

The last thing ... any part of America needs is a pack of tyrants trying to re-establish evil.

Amen, Brother Carpenter.