Excerpted From: Pope Francis praises exorcists for combating ‘the Devil’s works’
Catholic Church warns of a rise in Satanism and the occult as Pope Francis sends message to Rome convention of international exorcists.
The Telegraph, By Nick Squires, Rome 5:55PM GMT 28 Oct 2014Pope Francis has told a convention of exorcists from around the world that they are doing sterling service in combating “the Devil’s works”, as the Catholic Church warned of a rise in Satanism and the occult. The Pope, who frequently cites the fight against Satan in his sermons, said that exorcists needed to show “the love and welcome of the Church for those possessed by evil”. By treating people who were possessed, priests could demonstrate that “the Church welcomes those suffering from the Devil’s works,” he said in a message to a conference organised in Rome by the International Association of Exorcists. The organisation, which brings together Catholic clergy and psychiatrists, was founded in 1990 by two Catholic priests and was given formal recognition by the Vatican in June. At the conference, 300 priests and experts from around 30 countries discussed the perils of the occult and Satanism, which many in the Catholic Church believe is on the increase. “The struggle against evil and the Devil is becoming more and more of an emergency,” Walter Cascioli, a psychiatrist and the spokesman for the association, told Vatican Radio.
So, what we have here is the Catholic Church of Rome stirring up the pot of fear and paranoia, over what it perceives as a “Rise in Satanism and the Occult”. This, even to the point of overseeing the creation of an international organization whose responsibility is to oversee and conduct mass exorcisms (removal of “evil spirits and possessions”). And to top it all off, we even have PSYCHOLOGISTS involved in their efforts!!! – So, being interested in the “occult”, is a problem and THEY feel the need to do something about it? – Look out, fellow pagans and alternative spiritualists, they are coming our way!
Dabbling in the occult “opens the way to extraordinary demonic activity,” said Dr Cascioli. He blamed books, television series and horror films for tempting people towards the dark side. “Certainly, the number of people who are turning to these practices, which are damaging psychologically, spiritually and morally, is constantly growing. This worries us a great deal because we have seen an increase in extraordinary demonic activity, in particular diabolical possessions.”Well now,
Many of us into the occult do not “dabble”! We take our studies, research, and practices seriously! There is much to be learned from the ancient occult mysteries, rather than from the dribble that originates from their church doctrines. Freedom to think, freedom to learn whatever we wish to explore, and the freedom to come to our own conclusions about life based on our personal experiences. Much of the ancient occult holds many of the hidden answers that mankind knew for many thousands of years. And to have “Doctor” Walter Cascioli, an obviously self-described “expert” in such matters of the occult, wagging the proverbial finger at all of us, should we dare to entertain any curiosity into the occult.
Whereas belief in Satan was common among Christians centuries ago, fewer people now believe in the concept of outright evil. That was the Devil’s sly intention – to fool people into believing that he does not really exist, said Dr Cascioli. “His trickery is to make us believe that he does not exist. But the point is the same – to deaden people’s faith.”Methinks it was the CHURCH who was filled with the biggest fools! The church has done nothing more than keep its followers held hostage to the fear and loathing that its original doctrines (???) forbade. The church has overseen some of the worst events of mass-genocide among the peaceful Pagans of those times. The “Christianized” Roman Empire became even more aggressive and more oppressive towards others to include the Celts, other Germanic Peoples, and most of Europe – all for “The Glory of God”! Please, oh please – NOT AGAIN! The people are losing faith in the church BECAUSE OF – “the church”.
The risks of dabbling with the dark arts were often underestimated, he said. “People whose faith is lukewarm don’t pay enough attention to demonic activity, and the temptation to engage in it.”There are “risks” in everything. There are risks in drinking a glass of water. Should water be banned on the face of that risk? There are constant risks of walking downtown or elsewhere. Should we be forbidden to be pedestrians because it is too risky outdoors? There are risks in meeting other people. Should we all become hermits and have no social life, because there surely are very bad people out there who may hurt us? These “dark arts” always seem to get the bad rap based on the onus of the bad actors! So again, we are blaming the tools and the knowledge, rather than the miscreants themselves.
The association urged “much greater vigilance” against evil.Uh oh!!! By WHAT constitutes “evil”? EVERYTHING NOT TAUGHT IN THE GOOD OL’ BOOK OF THEIRS! So, it is all considered evil. We are all considered pathetically evil creatures to them, and they are worried sick.
Religious belief was being diminished, and a belief in the occult aided, by individualism in society as well as growing secularisation.There you have, folks! The church supports totalitarian control of societies! “Individualism” in society is a big problem to them, because it means a society that upholds individual self-worth and pride is a society at odds with the Catholic Doctrines and their blind “faith”. The main reason for “secularization” of society is that the church has proven itself, by its own actions AND admissions (some of them, anyway) that it is a corrupt, heartless, and destructive organism that needs to be disengaged from the gears controlling society. A society held in control of the centralized church, as NOT a free society!
“From the very beginning, the Bible speaks to us of … Satan’s [use of] seduction to destroy – maybe out of envy,” he said during a Mass marking the Feast of the Holy Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.Yet, it was the church, and still is the church, today, who has destroyed entire nations, peoples, and EVEN archeologically-significant sites and artefacts. We, the Peoples of the world have very little clue or idea as to how advanced in the arts, knowledge, and other “mysteries” our ancestors may have been. – This because of the wanton destruction of much of their work, writings, artwork, architectures, etc. – BY THE ESTABLISHMENT CHURCH! The church has taken upon itself, its own self-possessed “authority”, to rid the world of what it sees as contradictions to “Godly-living”, under its own definition. Because of this, the peoples of the world have been denied their rights to learn what their ancestors once knew. Ignorance is bliss for the church. Ignorance is a great tool used by tyrants the world over.
* * * “Many Perish from the Want of Knowledge!” * * *
Last year there was speculation that the Pope had performed what appeared to be an exorcism in St Peter’s Square when he laid his hands on a young man’s head and recited a prayer. Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican’s main spokesman, denied the Pope “intended to perform an exorcism”. “Rather, as he frequently does with the sick and the suffering who come his way, he intended simply to pray for a suffering person who had been brought before him.”Really ?!?!? – What about the current pope’s predecessor and all of those young victims of sexual exploitation at the hands of ordained, Catholic priests and other clergy??? – That, and the fact that the Catholic Church of Rome protected, condoned, and even silenced the critics for over SIXTY YEARS while young children were being sexually exploited within the confines of the church! ! ! – Yet, they BLAME Pagans and other Occultists for the same kinds of horrible behavior they themselves HAVE been caught doing! Don’t you think, even for a moment, that the people would notice? Don’t you think that the people would grow weary of the church’s lies and obfuscations? Don’t you think that many parents, Catholic and former, no longer feel safe for their children to even attend church services, let alone become involved in any church-related activity that would be out of their sight? Don’t you think that the people are getting worn out on the constant fear and paranoia that is perhaps over ninety percent of the sermons and liturgy? The church needs to begin by seriously HEALING ITSELF, before it can begin healing the world! And, that healing must be done out of genuine Love and mutual respect, before it can become effective, something the church has sorely forgotten.
Catholic Church law requires that every diocese has at least one specially-trained priest who can perform exorcisms, although the Vatican says that demonic possession is very rare and that the majority of cases that are investigated turn out to be people suffering from mental illnesses. In past centuries, epilepsy, schizophrenia, Tourette’s syndrome and similar conditions were mistaken for demonic possession.Well, we all make mistakes at some point. The church should not be considered any different when it is an organization made up of human beings, like us, who are prone to errors in judgment. However, this goes to further proof that such mistakes have often been deadly outcomes! A look back to about three centuries or so ago: The “Witch Hunts” took many innocent victims to their early graves, all over misunderstandings, neighbor-quarrels, jealousy, and the various other assorted human “ails”. The church has a big responsibility in “owning up” to its long, bloody history filled with human tragedies. The church needs to redefine itself and begin the process of healing itself, so that it can become the more-Godly organization that it touts itself to be. It needs to stop trying to scare people away from actively learning and/or exploring other spiritualities and other religions. If the church is to survive, it must evolve! In Nature, all things that are too rigid and static, eventually decay and die. Nature is all about change as everything is in a constant state of flux and movement. The church must recognize this and evolve or perish.
A large portion of the church’s own liturgy, ritual and ceremony, and general culture came from the Pagans it conquered. Most of its “pantheon” of Saints, were once regarded as deities, heroes, and great teachers by their early Pagan worshippers.
The church needs to recognize that “God” instilled “free-will” in all of us for a reason: “Power under Will” is that which allows is to express the divinity within ourselves, as gifted to us by our Gods/Goddesses. We are all children of the same original God, and from the same Primal Seas were we created from. We were all to be given the ability to learn all arts, skills, and crafts that we choose to learn. We were all given the ability to understand and gain Wisdom from that understanding through experience. Experience can only be gained by doing, and learning from what we have done. Experience is key to gain Wisdom. The church’s outdated doctrines and constant fear-mongering have simply become less important to people who are still starving for spiritual expression and spiritual gnosis. The church only represents a bygone fad of the tyrants to which the people are steadily outgrowing its limited confines. If the church is so worried about its survival, then it needs to embrace the fact that human beings are all children of God, and are endowed with those certain Unalienable Rights, to include the right to one’s own conscience, and one’s own spiritual conviction of truth.
Just because we have different ways of seeing our Gods, does not make us less honorable and less worthy of God’s(s’) Love. It just makes things more interesting for conversation at the “supper table”! 😉
– Rev. Dragon’s Eye,
Founder and Chief-Elder Dragon of the Temple,
TEMPLE OF THE ANCIENT DRAGONS
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