Supernatural activity is reported so often at the base that it inspired a Facebook group, Yokota Ghost Hunter Club.

Its members post about paranormal phenomena they've experienced at their homes and workplaces. Read more

Francis is asking all Catholics for their help in driving Satan away.

"The Church must be saved from the attacks of the malign one, the great accuser, and at the same time be made ever more aware of its guilt, its mistakes, and abuses committed in the present and the past."

During the past year, one abuse scandal after another has hit world headlines.

To name a few, these include:

• revelations of over 300 clergy being accused of sex abuse in Pennsylvania
• the ongoing McCarrick-Vigano accusations
• the Australian Royal Commission that reported numerous instances of abuse by clergy and religious, and the Chilean abuse scandal involving Bishop Juan Barros
• arrests, trials and convictions of clergy of all ranks, often featuring senior clergy.

Francis also believes the devil is behind the divisions in the Church at present.

Media reports suggest his choice of words in calling the devil "the great accuser" is also a reference to one of his harshest conservative critics, Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, who was the Vatican's former ambassador to Washington.

Last month Viganò accused Francis of knowing about sexual misconduct by a former US cardinal with male adult seminarians but not doing anything about it.

According to the Daily Mail, Viganò has complained Francis compared him "to the great accuser, Satan, who sows scandal and division in the Church, though without ever uttering my name."

Francis is calling on all Catholics to pray the rosary each day this month and to conclude it with the prayer to St Michael the Archangel.

Michael is mentioned several times in the Bible as the leader of the angels who ousted Lucifer, the fallen angel, from paradise.

Source

• Daily Mail
• Express
• Image: syrianfreepress.wordpress.com

In an interview after his first decade as an exorcist, Gallego admitted in the beginning he "had a lot of fear".

"All I had to do was look over my shoulder and I saw demons… the other day I was doing an exorcism, ‘I command you! I order you!'…and the Evil One, with a loud voice fires back at me: ‘Galleeeego, you're over-doooing it.' That shook me." Read more

But there is so much more to learn about the tricks of Satan and his devils than what is shown on the television.

Father Gabriele Amorth's new book, An Exorcist Explains the Demonic explains how Satan actually works, and what his limitations are.

Here are five facts from Father Amorth's book about the reality of demonic activity.

1. Demons cannot read your thoughts
Demons may be spirits but they are incapable of reading minds. Rather, they rely on observing behaviors to gain insight into our thoughts and weaknesses.

This actually hearkens to what C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters: "Oh Wormwood, you fool!"

The Holy Spirit can chase away these evil spirits, but only works within the confines of free will, so we have to be open to letting Him chase away the demons.

2. Exorcism is a sacramental
Sacramentals dispose us to receiving the grace of the sacraments, so it's easy to see how exorcism fits into this- literally getting rid of evil that has taken over a person's life and opening that person again to the grace of God.

Only an exorcist can perform an exorcism, though, and each diocese has one priest exorcist.

Interestingly, the Orthodox Church has many exorcists, as it has been peacefully reintroduced into Holy Orders, which has not been done in the Roman Church.

3. Haunted houses are actually a thing
They are called diabolical infestations and it's demonic disturbances that act on houses, places, objects, or animals, rather than on people.

4. There are different levels of "possession"
Generally, when we think of demonic possession, we think of the full-on, head spinning, cuss word slinging, possibly vomiting possessions we see in the media.

But this is only the most serious form of extraordinary action the devil takes and, to become possessed, a person must completely open himself to Satan and allow the evil one in.

When possessed, Satan can make a person do and say as he wishes and the person has no control.

Of note here, the devil cannot possess someone's soul, only their body- unless the person consents to possession of the soul. Continue reading

Sources

• EpicPew article by Theresa Williams, writer, homemaker, friend and sister, wife, and mother of two children.
• Image: Catholic News Agency

What children read, what they see on the screen, can inspire them toward greater faithfulness.

Conversely, Father Robert warns, it can lead them into the sordid world of the occult, even opening them to demonic possession.

Father Robert is not exaggerating. A priest for more than ten years and an experienced exorcist, he knows firsthand the unintended consequences when children or adults open the door to demonic activity.

"Oftentimes," he says, "[demon possession] begins because kids get curious after reading Harry Potter." He explains that kids want the unusual powers that they see depicted on the screen.

One former Satanist whom Father Robert knew personally, a man who has turned away from his past life and embraced the Catholic faith, had begun his descent into Satanism at the age of nine or ten, when he began playing a game called "Bloody Mary."

From that simple beginning, he gradually became involved with others who were Satanists.

Respecting Confidentiality

An important part of Father Robert's ministry is training other priests at the Vatican's official Exorcism Institute in America.

From across the country and around the world, Catholic priests come to the Institute to learn the secrets of this ancient rite, so that they too can exorcize demons and evil spirits.

The nature of the work that Father Robert and the Institute are involved in is so hazardous that he has requested that the Register not publish his full name or reveal his location.

A Decidedly "Catholic" Horror Film

I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Father Robert at a recent media preview of New Line Cinema's latest horror production, "Annabelle: Creation", which opens nationwide on August 11.

Directed by David F. Sandberg (director of the short film "Lights Out"), "Annabelle: Creation" is actually a prequel to the highly successful 2014 release of "Annabelle" - which is itself a prequel to the 2013 cult favorite "The Conjuring" and the more recent "Conjuring 2"(2016).

Father Robert had seen them all, and he agreed that "Annabelle: Creation" was largely faithful to the Catholic Church's teachings with regard to possession and exorcism. Continue reading

Sources

• National Catholic Register article by Kathy Schiffer, a Catholic blogger
• Image: IGN

There is a medieval Christian saying, "no devil, no Redeemer," he says.

"The modern world makes it hard to believe in the devil. But it treats Jesus Christ the same way. And that's the point." Read more

The exorcisms of Jesus dominate the account, and the teaching seems almost a minor theme. It is not what Jesus says that counts so much as what Jesus does. The cures, and in particular the casting out of evil spirits, inaugurate the Messianic age, and the restoration of friendship between God and the human race.

There are several possible historical reflections on Jesus's casting out of devils. One is that there were more cases of demonic possession at that time than before or since; or else the evangelist chose these cases rather than others, and that this gives us the impression that demonic possession was almost commonplace; or else many of the things that we would ascribe to disease were ascribed to diabolic influence in a non-scientific age.

This last explanation is a popular one: what they called demonic possession then is what we would now call epilepsy, or some form of psychosis.

This last is a tempting theory, though it would suggest diseases like epilepsy to have been more common than they are at present. The late Fr Gabriele Amorth, who knew more about the devil than anyone else, estimated that very few of the troubled people who came to see him were actually possessed by the devil.

At the same time he was absolutely convinced that diabolical possession was real. To deny the reality of diabolical possession would be to make certain aspects of the Gospel teaching very hard to grasp. The ministry of Jesus would lose some of its import if we were to dismiss diabolical possession as illusory.

It is 45 years since he made The Exorcist, one of the greatest movies of all time, but the film's director, William Friedkin, has made several pertinent observations on this very question, and he comes down, essentially, in favour of the Amorth position. Diabolical possession is real. One can read a report of his remarks here. Continue reading

Sources

• Catholic Herald article by Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith
• Image: BlumHouse.com

My mother explained that Satan sneaked into the garden without God knowing. That answer didn't satisfy. I told Mum I thought God was supposed to know everything.

A sharp slap finished the dialogue but questions remained. In the Garden of Eden story the snake was Satan, a downright villain. It brought sin into the world and got Adam and Eve kicked out. God put a curse on the snake: "On your belly you shall go and dust shall you eat all the days of your life."

So the snake was a baddie, but then in Exodus the snake became a symbol of healing for the Israelites; and in the gospels, Jesus compared himself with a snake. "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up." What was that all about?

In my teens I grew out of the notion that every word in the Bible had been dictated by God, but I was still puzzled about the negative Garden of Eden story.

Decades later, a kindly rabbi solved the mystery. Genesis was not the first book written. Really? Yes, really. The creation story plus Adam and Eve were a collection of oral traditions from various sources, written down at the time of the Babylonian exile.

The Babylonian exile! That explained a lot.

I looked at the subtext of what we call "The Fall." The Jews had lost their promised land. The Babylonians had destroyed their temple, and all the educated people from Jerusalem had been taken into captivity. They had literally been expelled from their "Garden of Eden." And because in Judaism, every bit of misfortune was thought to come from sin, those poor people believed they had done something terrible to displease God.

So where does the serpent fit in? The serpent was venerated in Babylon as the symbol of wisdom and healing, and there were two large gold serpents on the doors of the Babylonian temple. To displaced Jews, those gold serpents must have appeared as loathsome as the swastika in World War Two.

Can you imagine this situation as background to the writing of the Adam and Eve story?

Fresh understanding cleared a childhood view of a vengeful and punishing God. I was convinced we were not a "fallen" people at all but a cherished people on the way up, our growth nurtured by a God of unconditional love. I still believe that.

The final touch came from another rabbi at the Batmitzvah of a young girl. He talked about every soul being pure, a spark of God that came into incarnation to grow. The expulsion from " the Garden of Eden" he said, was our human birth.

Then he added, "But when we leave the garden, God comes with us."

Yes! Yes! Isn't that also our truth?

• Joy Cowley is a wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother and retreat facilitator.

He has bushy white eyebrows, a severe side part and eyes the colour of a cloudy day. He offers me a biscuit with my tea.

We are seated in a small, chilly room next to his Sydney suburban church, by a table covered in books on yoga and t'ai chi, and prayers sledging Satan as the bringer of death, root of all evil, accursed dragon, seducer of man and father of lies.

"We have a little chapel a few suburbs away we can use for exorcisms," the exorcist says, touching the tips of his fingers together as if in prayer.

"I have holy water. I have a crucifix. I have a Bible.

"And I go through a variety of prayers, some to the Almighty himself, some to Satan or the satanic entity, demanding the demons leave.

"By the time you do all that, the best part of an hour has gone by."

So you have talked to the Devil, I say.

"Yes," he says. "But I have never heard a reply."

The exorcist is my entry point into the dark world of demon- chasing.

It's where I'll meet an office assistant who was delivered of 43 devils and a young man who screams and spews into a bin while being freed of foul spirits.

Some exorcists say they've never been busier combating modern-day evils; one recently met a 20-something who claimed to have sold his soul to Satan for fame.

Pope Francis's fixation with expunging the Devil - whom he believes is a real person - has helped raise the prominence of the practice.

Last June, the Vatican formally recognised the International Association of Exorcists, a group of 250 priests in 30 countries co-founded by Italian priest Gabriele Amorth, who claims to have personally rid the world of 160,000 demons. Continue reading

Sources

• The Sydney Morning Herald
• Image: wikiHow

On September 27, the Pope celebrated Mass for the Vatican's security personnel.

In addition to the more colourful Swiss Guard, the Vatican's other security body is its own police force, the gendarme corps.

The corps of about 130 men is responsible for papal security, crowd control in St Peter's Square and safety, law and order within the Vatican.

In his homily, the Pope said a good guardian, like the archangel, "has the courage to get rid of demons" and has the intelligence to be able to pick them out from the crowd.

He said he knows their job is to be like sentinels, keeping watch and guarding entrances, "doors and windows so no bombs get in".

But, "I want to tell you something a bit sad; there are bombs in here" and it doesn't matter if it's "a homemade bomb or an atomic bomb", every single one is "dangerous" and "there are many".

"The worst bomb inside the Vatican is gossip", which "threatens the life of the Church and the life of [the Vatican] every day", he said, because it "sows destruction" and "destroys the lives of others".

While there are many religious and laypeople in the Vatican who are "sowing good seed", the devil is still getting his way by using others "to sow weeds".

Even the Pope is not immune to this temptation, Francis said; it's a danger "for me, too", because "the devil gives you that yearning".

So in addition to looking for the usual security threats, the Pope told the security force to also crack down on backstabbing and courageously call people out.

Stop them in their tracks and say, "Please sir, please ma'am, please father, please sister, please your Excellency, please your Eminence, please Holy Father, don't gossip; that's not allowed here", the Pope said.

Whatever gripes or problems people have, they should take them directly to the people involved without also complaining to the world, he said.

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: CBC

New wording approved by the church's General Synod asks whether parents and godparents will "turn away from sin" and "reject evil".

In the traditional service, the request was to "reject the devil and all rebellion against God", "renounce the deceit and corruption of evil" and "repent of the sins that separate us from God and neighbour".

A draft service featuring the new wording has won approval where it has been tried in the United Kingdom, members of the General Synod were told.

The wording change is an attempt to appeal to people at services who have no religious background.

Bishop Robert Paterson of Sodor and Man, who proposed the new text, defended it against claims that it represents a "baptism-lite".

"We all know that for many people, the devil has been turned into a cartoon-like character of no particular malevolence," he said.

"We have no quarrel with standing up to the devil, the problem is helping people with little doctrinal appreciation to understand what we mean by affirming that the devil is a defeated power."

But Alison Ruoff from London diocese appealed to members of the General Synod to restore reference to the devil.

"I would suggest we must not patronise people, they are not stupid, people can look at the television and the radio and the news and they see evil well and truly," she said.

"We have to tell them, if they don't know, that it emanates from the devil," she added.

Peter Stanford, author of "The Devil: A Biography," told the BBC he wondered what would happen to the dozens of trained exorcists attached to each diocese in England.

If the Devil is just a symbol, where does that leave God, he asked.

A report for the Church's Liturgical Commission said clergy were often finding themselves conducting Baptisms for "un-churched" families.

"On these occasions there may be a few people present who have a developed understanding of the Church's language and symbolism," it said.

"For the majority of those attending, the existing provision can seem complex and inaccessible."

Sources

• Religion News Service
• Daily Mail
• Image: Prayer Book Guide

Exorcisms in New Zealand are rare, but they do happen - and Catholic Education Office chief executive Pat Lynch said canon law made it obligatory for a bishop to have someone able to perform an exorcism.

"These things, they are not in the realm of fantasy," he said.

He remembered a house, near where he lived in Auckland in the 1970s, where "some sort of black magic was taking place".

"People were getting in touch with the Underworld".

The story was that a one-metre hole would open up in the side of a wall, leaving scorch marks around it.

While parts of the story may have been embellished, a priest with exorcism credentials was brought in to perform the ritual as described in the canon for exorcising spirits.

The ritual apparently worked, he said.

"I have no reason to disbelieve it".

Source

• Stuff.co.nz
• Image: i152.photobucket.com

However, in recent weeks there has been a sort of revival of this ancient ritual among some villagers in Tongatapu, and even church people have been involved.

It is so serious that last week the police were called on to investigate.

The practice, which is a form of witchcraft, has been used to defame relatives and "enemies" of the practitioners.

Wizard boards, cards, palm reading, etc. have been forms used to communicate voices from the nether world.

Source

"At the moment of consecration of the precious blood I asked the Lord to shower his blood upon the youth and to help any young men who may have a vocation to the priesthood."

The instant reaction of one 13-year old boy shocked the young priest, "he fell backwards and started growling. And I thought, ‘I wasn't expecting this!'"

Several years later, and he is one of a new generation of exorcists-in-training following a decision by the U.S. bishops in November 2010 to vastly increase the number of exorcists, which might number as low as 50 in America.

The priest, who is from the U.S. Midwest, spoke to CNA on the basis of anonymity so that he will not be deluged with inquiries. As he explained, "we have set structures to make sure those who most need help get it."

He now finds himself in Rome, sent by his bishop to shadow the work of the six official exorcists of the Rome diocese. In practical terms that means he is "involved in about three exorcisms a day."

And the learning curve has been steep. "No two cases are alike. That's been a real education for me. The rite of exorcism is not a magic formula," he said.

"It is not the devil or the exorcist who is at the center of this but a person is suffering a lot and who is in need of certain liberation through Christ."

As for correct terminology, is it a demon or a devil? "Demon comes from Greek, devil comes from Latin, either is okay," he explained. What you are dealing with "are fallen angels who were created good."

The early Church Fathers, including St. Jerome and St. Augustine, speculated that these angels rebelled "because of the revelation to them of God's plan of incarnation" and their "repulsion at the notion that God, who is pure spirit and infinite, should become a man." Read more

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Word on Fire

Pope Benedict was recently rebuked in the liberal American newspaper, the National Catholic Reporter, for his apparent belief in the power of Satan. Richard W. Kropf was incredulous that "someone as theologically sophisticated as Pope Benedict would resort to blaming the Devil for the Church's present problems". He was "puzzled to say the least" because of the Pope's allusion to the "enemy" in his speech that concluded the Year for Priests.

Pope Benedict had said that the "new radiance of the priesthood", which he saw emerging from the Year for Priests, would not be pleasing to the "enemy" who "would rather have preferred to see it disappear, so that God would ultimately be driven out of the world. And so it happened that, in this very year of joy for the priesthood, the sins of priests came to light - particularly the abuse of the little ones …"

Actually, Mr Kropf was not puzzled at all. He had a ready explanation of the Pope's lapse into theological unsophistication. In blaming the Devil for the disclosure of the apparent epidemic of child sexual abuse by priests, Benedict XVI was displaying much the same refusal to accept responsibility that Mr Kropf finds among his male (but not female, apparently) clients in an Alcoholics Anonymous rehab centre.

Read the complete article in The Tablet