Did Pope Francis perform a public exorcism on Sunday? Fr Lombardi (Vatican spokesman) says no; Fr Amorth (Roman exorcist) says yes. Fr Blake and Fr Finigan have blogged on this, and link to the video.
Apart from that, I’d add that Fr Amorth is a bit . . . well, I’m not sure. He is famous for his best-selling book, An Exorcist Tells His Story. Dr Ed Peters, who apart from being a canon lawyer is a clear and precise thinker, doesn’t rate it highly.
But whatever you make of the Holy Father’s actions on Sunday, the enemy has featured prominently in his preaching. In the words of Sandro Magister:
He refers to him continually. He combats him without respite. He does not believe him to be a myth, but a real person, the most insidious enemy of the Church.
Here’s some useful background:
Fr John, Not quite on your post, but… there are so many movies on the topic of the enemy, some farfetched or simply a farce but others are plausible and believable and truly frightening… Do you think that they trivialise the whole thing and we should avoid watching them or do they present a timely reminder of evil’s existence and perhaps could be something helpful?
Santiago, that is an excellent question!
This is a good question! Post to follow.
I am of the opinion that there is a failure in providing the faithful with the knowledge in recognizing the works and modern influence of the devil as well as in developing their ability to discern evil from good, or the various shades of grey in the evil landscape. This is further aggravated when there is also a failure in grounding the faithful in Catechism and Scripture when they can’t fully understand what it means to be a Catholic.
Know your enemy. I think the problem these days why so many people are falling to the wiles of the devil is because they have no idea how the devil works other than seeing those movies about Satanists and vampires. They think that the devil must be ugly and repulsive and anything that is beautiful, pleasing, materially rewarding and even helpful cannot come from the devil. It is time for the Church to start talking about the devil in its parishes, schools and the media.