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You can’t make this stuff up.
At one time you might have thought what you’re about to read was an extreme looney-toon statement, but given the vortex of evil coming to light — the criminal pedophile priest protection enterprise sitting at Benedict’s door of responsibility, the pimping out of undocumented immigrants, members of the Vatican choir, Papal Gentlemen and seminarians…it’s like a bad novel come to life.
Well, this story is like a novel, The Exorcist. The Vatican’s exorcist-in-chief, who was the basis for the priest in the film, thinks there’s evil inside those walls and he’s not shy about saying it.
In the last few months, the Catholic Church have been rocked by a series of sex scandals in Ireland, Holland and, most recently, Germany.Even the Pope’s brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, has admitted he hit choir boys.
Italian priest Fr Amorth said: “His Holiness fully believes in casting out evil.
“The Devil lives in the Vatican. Naturally it’s difficult to find proof but the true consequences are visible.“We have cardinals who don’t believe in Christ, bishops connected with demons. Then we have these stories of paedophilia. You can see the rot when we speak of Satan’s smoke in the holy rooms of the Vatican.”
I was chatting with Mike Signorile about this hot mess. Can you imagine what is going on in the Vatican’s PR shop right now? From what I can tell, not a lot is going on because people are leaking like a wood-rotted boat, magnifying the scandal. Since the Pope is considered infallible, it’s not like anyone is going to effectively call for his resignation, no? The only one who’s going to make the UnHoly Father step aside is…Benedict himself.
So what’s the answer? I think the public relations staff have such a nightmare on their hands — who knows when a coerced rent boy’s going to emerge to tell tales of priests in all sorts of compromising positions, or more papers implicating Cardinal Ratzinger emerge that show he repeatedly allowed children to be raped and pedophile priests to remain free to victimize more?
I personally don’t think the Pope would step aside; he’s not shown to be even a tad self-aware of his image around the globe. All I can think of is we may see some sort of cloak-and-dagger end to this thing; it’s all that’s left to make the bad novel ready to hit the press.
Does this mean the Devil really does wear Prada!?
UPDATE: This story is traveling like wildfire. It’s in the New York Daily News with a photo of the exorcist that is truly frightening, as in “the power of Christ compels you” creepy.
Amorth, who told the paper, that he knows a thing or two about exorcisms having handled 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said the Holy See was infested with “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the demon.”Amorth’s accusations come at a time when the Vatican is facing scrutiny on a number of fronts:
* One of Pope Benedict’s ceremonial ushers was among those implicated in a gay prostitution ring – after being caught on a police wiretap.
* Catholic authorities in Germany on Wednesday announced a probe into allegations the Regensburger Domspatzen Boys Choir – once led by the Pope’s older brother.
* Major pedophilia cases involving priests have also surfaced in Ireland and the United States.
Related:
* The child-rape scandal has closed in on Pope Benedict XVI
* Papal aide and elite men’s Vatican choir caught in gay prostitution ring
15 Comments
Can you imagine what is going on in the Vatican’s PR shop right now?They’re running around like the ghost monsters when Pac-Man eats a power pellet?
But instead of the ghosts, they’re old men in dresses and disco capes.
On the upside: Only one more pope before “the end”St. Malachy’s “Prophesy of the Popes”
Pope Maladict is the next-to-last. After him…
Perhaps the “final persecution of the Holy Roman Church” will be when the Church’s many sins come home to roost?
“You can’t make this stuff up.”Au contraire. That’s the entire raison d’etre of religion – to make stuff up. And this story is an example of one of the primary motivations of making this shit up – to justify doing whatever they want to do, no matter how evil.
Well..They do have ways of dealing with this as they have shown in the past. The Pope comes up dead from “natural causes” and whispers of “God cleaning house” reverberate through the community. All of a sudden everything is better…
Meanwhile the machine moves on.
The exorcist is right out of central casting
I see no love or compassion in those eyes, just perhaps fatigue. Shouldn’t an exorcist be joyful if they really believe they’re driving out evil? And if they’ve had to perform 70,000 demon exterminations, wouldn’t you think they would conclude that there’s something perhaps systematically evil in their institution?
My suspicionI suspect that look of weariness on the good father’s face is actually anxiety that we might not approve of his fuschia-colored jacket.
Is a cardinal who doesn’t believe in Jeebuslike a California Senator who’s gay that votes for and legislates anti-gay measures? Hypocrites and worse.
He looks like the ghost of Jesse Helms
PicsI spotted one online news source (MSM) using the evil picture of the pope. Not very flattering at all.
70,000?!?!?If this guy had done an exorcism a day, it would take more than 190 years to do that many. Even at two a day, 95+ years. Three a day, more than 60 years.
Do I detect a wee, tiny bit of self-delusion here? Not to say outright lying? He is a priest, so either explanation is plausible–and maybe both.
This is news?The Vatican has always been possessed by el Diablo. It’s called the Pope.
The Vatican has PR staff?Even having grown up Catholic, I don’t know much about the running of the Vatican, except that it consistently runs a deficit, so clearly there’s some management issues, shall we say.
I am sure the Vatican has staff that deal with the press, but my guess is that they are not necessarily experienced or skilled in what we would call PR. Certainly the way this scandal, and the one involving Mr. Ratzinger’s brother in Germany, are evolving, makes it clear that the Vatican does not have control of the messages.
The very fact of Amorth’s speaking to the press is a sign things are not going well there. The whole exorcism operation is rarely discussed publicly, certainly the exorcists are not normally being interviewed.
Oh, and I’m with QScribe on questioning the 70,000 claim. From what I have read, the Church is very reluctant to put the exorcist program into action, and they certainly aren’t deploying these guys on a daily basis.
Yes, how do we knowthat he hasn’t been faking exorcisms, all the while building a secret army of demons? Mwa ha haaaa!!!!!!!
But seriously, I’m wondering where witchcraft ends and catholacism begins. Is there any biblical passage that talks about demons infesting people, or is this just some weird remnant of dark ages extra-chriatian superstition?
There’s Legion
My guessis that their PR office is quite robust, but is more set up more to promote sales and the brand, if you will, rather than major damage control. The first time I became aware of hoe magnificent their PR could be was a few years ago when Sean O’Malley, Cardinal in Boston, began his blog. I think the first posts described his trip to Rome to be made a Cardinal. The photography was so crisp and delightful, and the stories so well choreographed, it was clear that he had a PR team documenting the event for him. All he did then was throw in some saccharine text, and there you had it.
But when it comes to damage control, something tells me they were in denial about ever having to face charges leveled at someone so high as the pope, and so they’re unprepared. They can’t very well use their standard method of dealing with other sexual predators (hide him away in Vatican City) and just pretend that nothing bad has happened.