Father Gabriele Amorth, 85, who has been the Vatican's chief exorcist for 25 years and says he has dealt with 70,000 cases of demonic possession, said that the consequences of satanic infiltration included power struggles at the Vatican as well as "cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon".

He added: "When one speaks of 'the smoke of Satan' [a phrase coined by Pope Paul VI in 1972] in the holy rooms, it is all true – including these latest stories of violence and paedophilia."

He claimed that another example of satanic behaviour was the Vatican "cover-up" over the deaths in 1998 of Alois Estermann, the then commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife and Corporal Cedric Tornay, a Swiss Guard, who were all found shot dead. "They covered up everything immediately," he said. "Here one sees the rot".

A remarkably swift Vatican investigation concluded that Corporal Tornay had shot the commander and his wife and then turned his gun on himself after being passed over for a medal. However Tornay's relatives have challenged this. There have been unconfirmed reports of a homosexual background to the tragedy and the involvement of a fourth person who was never identfied.

Father Amorth, who has just published Memoirs of an Exorcist, a series of interviews with the Vatican journalist Marco Tosatti, said that the attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II in 1981 had been the work of the Devil, as had an incident last Christmas when a mentally disturbed woman threw herself at Pope Benedict XVI at the start of Midnight Mass, pulling him to the ground.

Father José Antonio Fortea Cucurull, a Rome-based exorcist, said that Father Amorth had "gone well beyond the evidence" in claiming that Satan had infiltrated the Vatican corridors.

"Cardinals might be better or worse, but all have upright intentions and seek the glory of God," he said. Some Vatican officials were more pious than others, "but from there to affirm that some cardinals are members of satanic sects is an unacceptable distance."

Father Amorth told La Repubblica that the devil was "pure spirit, invisible. But he manifests himself with blasphemies and afflictions in the person he possesses. He can remain hidden, or speak in different languages, transform himself or appear to be agreeable. At times he makes fun of me."

He said it sometimes took six or seven of his assistants to to hold down a possessed person. Those possessed often yelled and screamed and spat out nails or pieces of glass, which he kept in a bag. "Anything can come out of their mouths – finger-length pieces of iron, but also rose petals."

He said that hoped every diocese would eventually have a resident exorcist. Under Church Canon Law any priest can perform exorcisms, but in practice they are carried out by a chosen few trained in the rites.

Father Amorth was ordained in 1954 and became an official exorcist in 1986. In the past he has suggested that Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were possessed by the Devil. He was among Vatican officials who warned that J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter novels made a "false distinction between black and white magic".

He approves, however, of the 1973 film The Exorcist, which although "exaggerated" offered a "substantially exact" picture of possession.

In 2001 he objected to the introduction of a new version of the exorcism rite, complaining that it dropped centuries-old prayers and was "a blunt sword" about which exorcists themselves had not been consulted. The Vatican said later that he and other exorcists could continue to use the old ritual.

He is the president of honour of the Association of Exorcists.

Sign the "No Healthcare Reconciliation" petition.

U.S. Catholic Bishops Conference Contradicts Pelosi's Claim That Senate Health Bill Doesn't Fund Abortion
Monday, March 01, 2010
By Edwin Mora

Vatican official says religious orders are in modern 'crisis'

By John Thavis
Catholic News Service

Modern Nun in the UK

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A top Vatican official said religious orders today are in a "crisis" caused in part by the adoption of a secularist mentality and the abandonment of traditional practices.

Cardinal Franc Rode, prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, said the problems go deeper than the drastic drop in the numbers of religious men and women.

"The crisis experienced by certain religious communities, especially in Western Europe and North America, reflects the more profound crisis of European and American society. All this has dried up the sources that for centuries have nourished consecrated and missionary life in the church," Cardinal Rode said in a talk delivered Feb. 3 in Naples, Italy.

"The secularized culture has penetrated into the minds and hearts of some consecrated persons and some communities, where it is seen as an opening to modernity and a way of approaching the contemporary world," he said.

Cardinal Rode said the decline in the numbers of men and women religious became precipitous after the Second Vatican Council, which he described as a period "rich in experimentation but poor in robust and convincing mission."

Traditional Order Nun

Faced with an aging membership and fewer vocations, many religious orders have turned to "foreign vocations" in places like Africa, India and the Philippines, the cardinal said. He said the orders need to remember that quality of vocations is more important than quantity.

"It is easy, in situations of crisis, to turn to deceptive and damaging shortcuts, or attempt to lower the criteria and parameters for admission to consecrated life and the course of initial and permanent formation," he said.

In any case, he said, "big numbers are not indispensable" for religious orders to prove their validity. It's more important today, he said, that religious orders "overcome the egocentrism in which institutes are often closed, and open themselves to joint projects with other institutes, local churches and lay faithful."

Cardinal Rode, a 75-year-old Slovenian, is overseeing a Vatican-ordered apostolic visitation of institutes for women religious in the United States to find out why the numbers of their members have decreased during the past 40 years and to look at the quality of life in the communities.

He spoke Feb. 3 to a conference on religious life sponsored by the Archdiocese of Naples. The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published the main portions of his text.

Cardinal Rode said it was undoubtedly more difficult today for all religious orders to find young people who are willing to break away from the superficial contemporary culture and show a capacity for commitment and sacrifice. Unless this is dealt with in formation programs, he said, religious orders will produce members who lack dedication and are likely to drift away.

The challenge, however, should not be seen strictly in negative terms, he said. The present moment, he said, can help religious orders better define themselves as "alternatives to the dominant culture, which is a culture of death, of violence and of abuse," and make it clear that their mission is to joyfully witness life and hope, in the example of Christ.

Washington, DC, February 2, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A national group that promotes abortion and homosexual rights has deep ties with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' (USCCB) Department of Justice, Peace and Human Development, according to a report released Monday.

Top USCCB executive John Carr (pictured left, center) held simultaneous leadership roles, creating a conflict of interest, with the USCCB and the radical Center for Community Change.

"The closer we look at the Bishops Conference [staff and programs], the more we find a systemic pattern of cooperation with evil," said Michael Hichborn, American Life League's lead researcher into the USCCB scandal. "The CCC has lodged itself into the highest places of power in the USCCB while working to promote abortion and homosexuality."

John Carr is the USCCB executive director of the Department of Justice Peace and Human Development which oversees the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). He has been employed by the USCCB since 1987.

John Carr's relationship with the Center for Community Change goes back at least to 1983, serving in leadership roles from 1999 to 2006 - including as chairman of the board.  The Reform CCHD Now report details the organization's promotion of abortion, "reproductive rights" and homosexuality as among the CCC's core advocacy focuses.

In 2001, while Carr served as both a USCCB exec and CCC leader, the Catholic Bishops Conference funneled $150,000 to the pro-abortion group. The USCCB web site currently promotes the group and officials have spoken at CCC events.

"Strangely, Carr's leadership on the CCC's board shows up on several bios he's submitted for speaking engagements, but the word for word bio on the USCCB web site mysteriously omits that one detail," Hichborn said. "Why?"

Revelations of John Carr's involvement in the Center for Community Change come only months after members of the Reform CCHD Now coalition, including American Life League, uncovered 31 CCHD grantees partnered with the CCC.

"The CCHD claims it will immediately investigate accusations against organizations it funds yet it is silent on the CCC," said Hichborn.  "How can Carr and the USCCB possibly justify this intimate relationship with such an obvious enemy of the Church?"

The Reform CCHD Now coalition is a lay Catholic watchdog group comprised of some of the top Catholic pro-life organizations in the country including American Life League, Human Life International and Bellarmine Veritas Ministry. For a full list of all 15 coalition members see www.reformcchdnow.com.

Summorum Pontificum: Is It An Expression Of Catholic Tradition?
By Fr. Kevin Vaillancourt

  On September 14, 2007, the recent motu proprio of Benedict XVI will go into effect. Summorum Pontificum  is the long-awaited declaration on what I have referred to as the “universal indult,” giving any priest in the world the permission to say the Latin Mass according to the 1962 Missal without special permission from the local bishop. Up until this July 7, 2007 document was promulgated, the requirements of Quattuor Abhinc Annos of 1984 and the Ecclesia Dei decree of 1988 (both by John Paul II), left the decision to allow the celebration of the Latin Mass (at the request of the people) up to the local bishop (if he chose to allow it). After July 7, things have changed. As Cardinal Barbarin, the Archbishop of Lyon, states: “The only new element in Summorum Pontificum is the decision to comply with the wishes of the faithful, depending henceforth on the priests’ authority.”  While this is not completely true, as we will see later, it is an expression of the common thought of all who are anxious for new rules for the Latin Mass. They see that Summorum Pontificum takes Ecclesia Dei to a new level: that is, that any priest can say the Latin Mass at any time without asking special permission, and that the faithful can attend these Masses without need of a petition. If only things were as simple as this, for there is much more to this decree than simply the granting of a universal permission to say the Latin Mass. What follows is an explanation of some of the major points in the motu proprio absent all the subjective euphoria, demonstrating that Summorum Pontificum is truly the smokescreen that I have warning people about for quite some time.
In the days and weeks following the motu proprio, people all over the world were anxious to weigh in on the effects of this document.
  Most hailed it as a “victory for the Latin Mass,” and even the “liberation of the Latin Mass” from the chains that oppressed its public celebration after the introduction of the Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI. Cardinal Karl Lehman, president of the German episcopal conference, had this interesting comment: “I hope that people on all sides will be able to guide the ‘hot heads’ toward a more moderate position.” The “hot heads” are those who prefer the use of the Latin Mass exclusively even though, as the Cardinal also remarked, that “the number of Christians, of Catholics, who like the traditional form is not that high.” There were some who expressed words of caution regarding the motu proprio. Among them was Bishop Luca Brandolini, Bishop of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo: “This day is for me a day of grief. I have a lump in my throat and I do not manage to hold back my tears. But, I will obey . . . However, I cannot hide my sadness for the putting aside of one of the most important reforms of the Second Vatican Council . . . I am living the saddest day of my life as a priest,
as a bishop and as a man.” Abe Foxman of the Jewish Anti-Defamation League expressed his “extreme disappointment and deep offense” at the news of the promulgation of the motu proprio, calling it a “theological setback in the religious life of Catholics and a body-blow to Catholic-Jewish relations.” “It appears,” wrote Foxman, “the Vatican has chosen to satisfy a right-wing faction in the Church that rejects change and reconciliation.” However, on the eve of the promulgation (July 6), the Vatican Press Office made it a point to correct this observation by noting that the Oration offensive to the Jews in the Good Friday liturgy (calling for prayer for the “perfidious Jews) was eliminated by John XXIII in 1959, a full three years before the 1962 Missal was put into effect. The Press Office was quick to add this remark: “Also eliminated were similar formulas for those converting from idolatry, Islam or a heretical sect.”

In 1675, Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary Alocoque in Paray le Monial,   France in a convent.  He said, "Behold this heart which has so loved men.   Establish in the world a devotion to My Sacred Heart."  To those who receive   Holy Communion on 9 consecutive first Fridays, Jesus promises the following: I will give them all the graces necessary for their state in life. I will establish peace in their families. I will console them in all their pains and trials. I will be their assured refuge in life and especially in death.. I will shed abundant blessings on all their undertakings. Lukewarm souls will become fervent. Fervent souls shall rise to greater perfection. I will bless those homes where an image of My Heart shall be exposed and honored. I will give to priests the gift of moving the hardest of hearts. Persons, who propagate this devotion, shall have their names inscribed on My Heart, never to be effaced from it.     More information ...