Vatican gives official backing to exorcists

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Vatican gives official backing to exorcists

Associated Press in Vatican City
The Guardian , Wednesday 2 July 2014 18.38 BST

Exorcists now have an extra weapon in their fight against evil – the official backing of the Catholic church. The Vatican has formally recognised the International Association of Exorcists, a group of 250 priests in 30 countries who liberate the faithful from demons.

The Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano reported this week that the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy had approved the organisation's statutes and recognised the group under canon law.

More than his predecessors, Pope Francis speaks frequently about the devil, and last year was seen placing his hands on the head of a man supposedly possessed by four demons in what exorcists said was a prayer of liberation from Satan.

The head of the association, the Rev Francesco Bamonte, said the Vatican approval was cause for joy. "Exorcism is a form of charity that benefits those who suffer," he told L'Osservatore.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/02/vatican-recognises-exorcists

[trotsky]

1. Well there you go.

The world's largest Christian organization says evil spirits are real, and can possess people.

[skepticscott]

4. Well, hey..there are religionistas in this group

Who thinks that some claims of demonic possession are valid, and that some patients in hospital psych wards are possessed by actual demons.

No telling how far the crazy has spread.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. isn't one of them an alleged atheist?

[skepticscott]

10. Atheists can be religionistas too

If they are regular apologists for religion and argue for its legitimacy as part of their regular agenda here.

Tacky behavior, but a fact.

[Anansi1171]

2. They need to exorcize the the demons at work within their church and if they want to do the Southern

...Baptist Convention a favor while they are at it.

Cannot worship God and Mammon.

A returned Christ would be disgusted at whats been done in HIS name.

[Politicalboi]

3. And the 3 ring circus continues

These people are taken seriously.

[skepticscott]

5. And of course, the next time parents kill their child

trying to exorcise demons, the usual gang of apologists will be ranting that this sort of endorsement of medieval superstition and ignorance couldn't possibly have had anything to do with it, and that anyone who even implies otherwise is a Very Bad Person.

[Warren Stupidity]

6. delusional behavior by the pope.

And now a license to inflict this nonsense on the gullible. Fantastic. Yay religion! Go God Go!

[Dawson Leery]

8. The dark age cult will never change.

[hrmjustin]

9. I want to see some levitate or spit up split pea soup.

Just once.

[Marrah_G]

12. That is the one movie I have never seen all the way through

Scared the heck out of me. Have watched all the other possession horror movie...just not that one.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. Well, if you're gonna have an imaginary friend, you might as well have a bunch of imaginary enemies

too, for your imaginary friend to save you from.

[Iggo]

13. Demonic possession?

Okay, I guess.

I totally respect the right to believe in complete bullshit.

[Warren Stupidity]

14. This isn't an issue of personal belief.

The RCC engages in performing exorcisms on vulnerable individuals, and teaches that demonic possession is a real thing. This goes way beyond personal belief in ridiculous bullshit. For example, people in Africa are appalled by this, as it undermines efforts to end witchhunts, which are a real problem, which cause real physical harm to people, unlike for example Beelzebub.

[rug]

15. If you're referring to that fishwrap from Leo Igwe that you posted, this isn't about witchcraft.