It’s an exorcism, not a sexorcism

Here’s a news story out of Virginia, where a woman is suing Rev. Thomas Euteneuer, the Catholic priest she’d gone to for an exorcism. According to the suit brought against the Diocese of Arlington (and the anti-abortion group he’d been president of for some reason), his behaviour made the woman feel she wasn’t being exorcised as much as sexually molested. And not just once. This went on for nearly two years.

The woman, identified in the suit as Jane Doe, said she signed an “agreement for spiritual help” with Euteneuer in February 2008 because “she believed she was in desperate need of the rite of exorcism,” the suit said.

Euteneuer repeatedly hugged, kissed and groped the woman, and said he was “blowing the Holy Spirit into her,” according to the suit, which was filed on June 19.

Euteneuer told the woman to undress on about six occasions, touched and kissed her body, and put his finger in her vagina, court documents said.

The suit alleges that [Bishop] Loverde and the Diocese of Arlington knew Euteneuer would perform an exorcism on the woman.

But, the question needs to be asked, how aware were they of Euteneuer’s style? Did they know that when he said “exorcism” he really meant “get it on with a gullible woman”?

Asked about the suit, the Diocese of Arlington said Euteneuer had never been its employee. He worked for Human Life International, an independent company, subject to his bishop in Palm Beach, it said.

“Rev. Euteneuer was not authorized to perform an exorcism on the plaintiff,” it said in a statement, adding that the diocese had its own exorcist.

And there’s the apparent answer. She didn’t go to a proper exorcist. So really, this is all her fault…

According to the article, she and Euteneuer reached a private settlement on the issue earlier and his status as priest has essentially been revoked by the Diocese of Palm Beach. It makes little sense to include Human Life International in the suit. President he might have been, but this doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the group itself. It sounds like they’ve since distanced themselves from him and want to keep their reputation from being sullied further.

The woman is hoping for a $5.3 million payout. I know you can’t really put a price on human suffering but I really doubt she’ll get anywhere near that amount, if anything at all. Sexual abuse trials are hard to win at the best of times, let alone when it’s a church involved.

I’ll update if I ever see more about it.

Excorcism in Saskatoon? Say it ain’t so!

Exorcism seems like one of those quirky things that should only exist in the realm of fiction. Sadly, since many people insist on believing a god can exert power over a populace, and hold the opposing belief that demons can manifest a similar ability to wreak havoc, it means many people can believe an exorcism will solve that problem. Including people in the somewhat metropolitan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Via CBC, the headline– Exorcist expertise sought after Saskatoon ‘possession’:

According to church officials, a priest was called to a Saskatoon home by a woman who said her uncle showed signs of being possessed by the devil. The woman believed a priest’s blessing could help the distraught man.

At the home, the priest encountered a shirtless middle-aged man, slouched on a couch and holding his head in his hands.

The man had used a sharp instrument to carve the word Hell on his chest.

When the priest entered the room, the man spoke in the third person, saying “He belongs to me. Get out of here,” using a strange voice.

The priest told CBC News that he had never seen anything like this and was concerned enough to call police, for safety reasons.

Why wouldn’t the first assumption be mental illness? There are people who’ll self mutilate and hell, my teacher in grade 3 talked to us in the third person all the time. “Mr. Y. would like you to open your Language Arts books now…” (That is third person, right? Perhaps I need a Language Arts refresher.) I went to a catholic school and nobody went to find a priest in the hopes of ridding him of demons. He was just weird.

He said he then blessed the man, saying he belonged to the good side, to Jesus. With that, the man’s voice returned to normal for a short time.

The unusual voice returned when police arrived, and the priest continued to bless the man until he resumed a more normal composure.

So the possibility that the guy was doing all this just for a bit of attention isn’t worth considering? Over the top, granted. He could have just stripped down and flashed his neighbours or masturbated at the library (as some have been known to do).

CBC News followed up on the incident to learn if an exorcism had been performed, but church officials said a formal exorcism did not happen.

Bishop Don Bolen explained that the ritual of exorcism is a very structured exercise. He said it was not clear if the Saskatoon man was possessed or experiencing a mental breakdown.

Well, that’s something, at least. Good of him to admit there’s difficulty telling the difference. Of course, it requires the belief that possession is actually possible, sadly. The guy should be treated by medical professionals to see if there’s something they can do for him that will rid him of whatever delusions he’s living under. The problem I see with the “very structured exercise” is the need for said exorcist to buy into the delusion, too, and cater to it. It’s like people who truly believe dowsing rods work, or that they have psychic ability.

“I would think there are perhaps more stories about exorcisms in Hollywood than there are on the ground,” Bolen said. “But the Catholic Church teaches that there is a force of darkness, and that God is stronger than that darkness.”

Church leaders in Saskatoon have been considering whether Saskatoon needs a trained exorcist.

Sorry, but that’s just stupid. Stop encouraging people into believing these dark forces exist. This is the 21st century. Lay that superstition to rest already. Encourage the power of prayer, because you would anyway, but it would do so much more good to push these people toward medical help instead of engaging in spiritual fluffery as a supposed solution. If exorcism does anything, it does it like a placebo would; by tricking the mind into thinking that shit works.

Regina has no expert in this field, the article goes on, but mentions Saskatoon’s retired Rev. Joseph Bisztyo who’d been trained in the “art.”

Anglican priest Colin Clay, who has worked with Bisztyo, told CBC News the topic of exorcism touches on questions that go back centuries.

The issues revolve around the nature of evil and how to respond to people who claim they have the devil in them.

“The churches have to respond,” Clay said. “And they’ll either do it by saying — some churches will say — ‘Well that’s the devil, and the devil is at work in the world and we’ve got to deal with it,’ or the churches will say, ‘Well there’s certainly evil in the world, whether there’s an actual Satan or devil, there’s certainly evil in the world, and it has a terrible effect on people’s lives,’ and so we’ve got to respond to it.”

Clay said he does not dismiss how evil can affect people.

People in general are capable of tremendous good and extraordinary wickedness. Sometimes the same person can achieve both within a half hour, I’m sure. I don’t think wickedness ought to be explained using demonic possession as a possible reason for it, though. If some churches are still pushing that scenario, why aren’t the others speaking out against it more often? Why do ideas like that still persist? What use do they have beyond keeping people tense and scared? Better church attendance records when people think the devil might get them in their sleep? Or their children? Lunacy. Wouldn’t education would protect people better than Armor of God pajamas?

I hope it’s decided that an exorcism expert is unnecessary for the city. Surely there are better uses for their time and money.

Philippine priest “battles” demons

I’m thanking a friend for the link to this one. I’ll pay for her next cup of Tim’s French Vanilla coffee…

A blood-curdling scream echoes through the Roman Catholic chapel in Manila as Father Jose Francisco Syquia says a prayer of exorcism over a Satanic cult member believed to be possessed by the devil.

“It’s very painful,” the woman cries in an unearthly voice, her body contorting in an attempt to break free from the tight grasp of Syquia’s assistants. After a few minutes she falls silent, her limp body exhausted.

The case is among hundreds documented on video and kept by Syquia, who heads the Manila Archdiocese’s Office of Exorcism — the only one that exists in the Catholic nation of 94 million people.

Syquia is adamant that possessions are on the rise and demons are getting more and more of a foothold on this earth, and in the Philippines in particular. Why? Only hell knows, I guess.

While non-believers often joke about the devil,

Of course! he’s a made-up boogyman like all the rest, designed to keep a populous in fear and under the church’s thumb.

and demonic possessions are trivialised by Hollywood,

For good reason, special effects teams love to show off.

Syquia insisted the torment suffered by those he had healed was real.

“I have seen scratches suddenly appearing on their skin, of inverted crosses on the forehead.

Because these people scratch and draw on themselves when nobody’s looking?

These persons would be conscious at the time, and they tell me its like razor cutting from the inside of the skin,” he said.

That’s entirely subjective. Anyone ever been through an exorcism with their brain wired up so the medical community can see what’s going on in there?

Demons could manifest themselves in many ways and could enter the human soul through occult and New Age teachings that were becoming increasingly popular in the general community, Syquia said.

The more advanced and well-rounded a society tries to get, the more people try to pull everyone back to the superstitious dark ages. Even the Pope supports this malarkey.

Pope Benedict XVI had recently issued fresh guidelines encouraging more exorcisms and for the church to be more open about the issue, he said.

There are about 10 Filipino priests authorised to perform exorcisms in the Philippines, but only Syquia has a fully operational office that is backed by a staff of eight, including a lawyer and psychologists.

Have those psychologists ever looked Syquia over? Someone this gung-ho about possession has to have some serious mental issues of his own that should be dealt with by real experts.

Syquia was ordained only 11 years ago, after he had already obtained a degree in psychology at one of the Philippines’ leading Catholic universities.

Okay, that’s alarming in and of itself. What if they’re deliberately misdiagnosing people who only have schizophrenia and would be completely okay with a steady round of decent medication? What other mental health issues are getting ignored so Syquia can play The Exorcist every day? Sounds like he’s suffering from an undiagnosed saviour complex, if there’s such a thing.

After he was ordained in 2000, Syquia said he was posted at a Manila church where, outside its premises, occult practitioners — including spirit mediums, oracles and faith healers — also thrived.

His first case came when a man singled him out from a group of priests and asked for deliverance after confessing that he had been deep into occult practices.

His bishop at the time suggested he should give the guy an exorcism, whether he was in need of one or not, apparently. Syquia had been reading an exorcist book at the time, so why not give it a shot, right? What harm could it do…

“I realised God was leading me to this path. I have treated hundreds and hundreds of cases since then,” he said.

Syquia recalled an accomplished female doctor who said she was befriended by demons that had appeared to her as benign dwarves that showered her with good luck in the form of financial rewards.

Recall that he’s a psychologist by training. Why would he automatically believe her ludicrous story was true? Is that acceptable psychologist practice? He claims he cured her, too. Of possession, not whatever mental problem she actually had at the time.

“With God by your side, you can do no wrong,” he said.

Well, there’s a lot I could write to refute that one, but I’ll resist the urge.

After reading through this thing, I’m thinking one large coffee won’t be thanks enough…

Satanism amuses me

I learn of this via Slashdot and a link to a recent Telegraph article about a surge in Satanism. The Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome has been hosting a six day conference on the topic of exorcism. Sounds like a waste of time and money to me.

The conference in Rome has brought together more than 60 Catholic clergy as well as doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers and youth workers to discuss how to combat the dangers of Devil-worship.

Organisers say the rise of Satanism has been dangerously underestimated in recent years.

“There’s been a revival,” said Gabriele Nanni, a former exorcist and another speaker at the course.

In theory, any priest can perform an exorcism – a rite involving prayers to drive the Devil out of the person said to be possessed.

But Vatican officials said three years ago that parish priests should call in professional exorcists if they suspect one of their parishioners needs purging of evil.

I raise my eyebrows at Nick Squires, the article writer, who apparently buys into the idea that there actually have been “genuine cases of possession by the Devil”, albeit few. Unless he was intentionally paraphrasing the former exorcist’s opinion? I suppose that’s possible. He’s also quoted as saying,

“we must be on guard because occult and Satanist practices are spreading a great deal, in part with the help of the internet and new technologies that make it easier to access these rituals,”

This idea would be more laughable if it weren’t for the sad fact that these beliefs are held by those the Church and its followers call authorities.

The Vatican’s chief exorcist claimed last year that the Devil lurked in the Vatican, the very heart of the Catholic Church.

Father Gabriele Amorth said people who are possessed by Satan vomit shards of glass and pieces of iron, scream, dribble and slobber, utter blasphemies and have to be physically restrained.

He claimed that the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries, were proof that the anti-Christ was waging a war against the Holy See. He said Pope Benedict XVI believed “wholeheartedly” in the practice of exorcism.

A biography about Armorth was published last March. Such a zany concept anyway, exorcism. I’ll never really understand why people want to believe this kind of thing is possible.

Insanity plea or real belief in the devil to blame?

Dora Alicia Tejada Pleitez of Nantucket stuffed her fist down the throat of her child and thought the devil was the one that bit her back. In district court, she claimed she thought she had a rose in her hand at the time. She was supposed to jam it down her daughter’s throat as part of the exorcism. God assured her that would work. With or without the rose, the end result is the same here: child abuse, torture, death.

Tejada Pleitez was held without bail pending a competency hearing after pleading not guilty Tuesday.

Police say emergency personnel responded to the family home Monday after getting a 911 call reporting that the little girl had stopped breathing. The child, Nicole Garcia, was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Tejada Pleitez’s lawyer says her mental state will play a “critical role” in the case.

She’s either nuts by chemical imbalance, or nuts by religious upbringing (enhanced with chemical imbalance). I don’t know if a person can come to the conclusion an exorcism is necessary if he or she hasn’t been taught at some point that demons exist. Either way, her daughter is dead and it’s hard to tell by this story if she feels any remorse over that fact. Her daughter was three years old.

What is it like to see demons everywhere?

A book was recently published about a professional exorcist. Fr. Gabriele Amorth works in Rome and claims awareness of satanic sects working in the Vatican.

The book, “Father Amorth. Memoirs of an Exorcist. My life fighting against Satan.” was written by Marco Tosatti, who compiled it from interviews with the priest.

Fr. Amorth was asked by Tosatti how he knows Vatican clergy are involved. He answered, “I know from those who have been able to relate it to me because they had a way of knowing directly. And it’s something ‘confessed’ most times by the very demon under obedience during the exorcisms.”

According to Amorth, even the Pope buys into this.

Benedict XVI, being German, comes from a place “decidedly averse to these things,” argued Fr. Amorth, saying that in Germany “there practically aren’t any exorcists.” However, he clarified, “the Pope believes (in them).”

The Italian priest also warned of the existence of bishops and priests who do not believe in Satan in the interview. “And yet, in the Gospel, Jesus speaks extensively about it, so it should be said, either they’ve never read the Gospel or they just don’t believe it!”

That last line gives me the giggles. Inconceivable! They shill this shit like it’s God’s word but don’t take it seriously themselves? Hilarious! It’s also sad and despicable and if they willingly spread information they know is false, shouldn’t that fall under some criminal category? It’s a deceitful con job at the very least.

Of course, none of it is false for Amorth, or Fr. Jose Antonio Fortea Cucurul, a theologian who focuses primarily on demonology (bizarro!), who tut-tuts the exorcist’s conclusions. But not because he’s deluded:

After reading reports of Fr. Amorth’s accusations pointing a finger at members of the clergy, including cardinals, Fr. Fortea declared that it is a “duty of justice” to speak out in their defense.

Noting that some prelates “are more spiritual and others more earthly, some more virtuous and others more human,” he wrote on his blog, “from there to affirm that some cardinals are members of Satanic sects is an unacceptable distance.”

The Spanish priest then explained the sources of information used by Fr. Amorth to say that Satanic sects are operating in the Vatican.

Doomsayers and apocalypse whores who think they’ve gotten a message from God through radio waves or white noise or cheese-induced dreams descend on the Vatican with alarming regularity. Some think they’re possessed, some take Dan Brown too damn seriously, and others are plain old whack jobs.

Fr. Fortea added that the only acceptable stance is to suspend judgment of the messages while they are subjected to time-intensive discernment, “sometimes months for each one of the cases.”

The other source Fr. Amorth refers to, according to Fr. Fortea, is the demons who are being exorcised. Of this, the Spanish priest wrote that knowing whether or not the demon is telling the truth “is in many cases impossible.”

What’s really sad is that he can’t come out and just say this is all a bunch of hooey and demons don’t exist. No, he has to say, “Demons lie sometimes.”

Sheesh.

Fr. Fortea also defended those implicated in Fr. Amorth’s statements, stating, “Our College of Cardinals, if we compare it with past centuries is the most edifying and virtuous that history has ever known. One would have to go back to the epoch of the Roman Empire to find a body of electors so distanced from all earthly pretension as the current one is.

I don’t think he means the lot of them are too senile to know what planet they’re on so, I will have to take his word on that. I’m not going to fart around trying to prove him wrong. I suppose one Cardinal making homophobic comments doesn’t mean they all molested young boys in Ireland when they were bishops and priests. And anyway, it doesn’t matter; they’re all edifying and virtuous Cardinals now, dammit!

He concluded by emphasizing, “Statements must be proven, especially when they are about such grave accusations that affect the honorability of those who form part of the Head of the Church as far as they help the Supreme Pastor.”

Slander and defamation are concerns, of course. It’s bad form to go around insisting people did things they haven’t done and publish books where the only reality in them is the paper, glue and ink. It’s one thing to theorize and suspect and another thing to actually stand up and hollar, “J’accuse!” or whatever.

I guess what really gets me with this story is how pointless it is. Of all the things they should be concerned about in this world, and they’re wasting time with demonology and exorcism? Their priorities are so skewed, they have to be mocked. This is not the dark ages. This is not the middle ages. I don’t even know what age this is, but I certainly hope it’s not the age of idiocy. If it is, it’s a brand new low.

—
edit 7:39am: just found Paliban Daily’s post about this, including quotes from interviews with the exorcist. Fun reading!