Diagnosing the devil
A psychiatrist, Dr Richard Gallagher, wrote in the Washington Post about demonic possession. After being approached by an exorcist in the 1980s to help him assess the mental health of a “priestess” who worshipped Satan, Dr Gallagher said his scepticism faded.
“My subject’s behaviour exceeded what I could explain with my training. She could tell some people their secret weaknesses, such as undue pride. She knew how individuals she’d never known had died, including my mother and her fatal case of ovarian cancer. Six people later vouched to me that, during her exorcisms, they heard her speaking multiple languages, including Latin, completely unfamiliar to her outside of her trances,” he said.
“This was not psychosis; it was what I can only describe as paranormal ability. I concluded that she was possessed.”
Dr Gallagher said that since then he had held hundreds of consultations seeking to help priests filter cases of mental illness from “the Devil’s work”. He concluded that “for any person of science or faith” we shouldn’t turn our backs on “tormented” souls. Dr Gallagher is Catholic, but said many of his colleagues agree that demonic possession really happens.
Reformation clarity
We need both clarity and charity in our approach to the Reformation, Fr Dwight Longenecker said at cruxnow.com. He was reflecting on the Pope’s “warm and fuzzy” remarks about the forthcoming 500th anniversary of the Reformation. His comment that Martin Luther’s intentions were “not mistaken” had, Fr Longenecker suggested, caused confusion. He said that during the Pope’s anniversary visit to Lund in October, “both sides should be clear about the significant obstacles to unity that still exist and make future progress based not only on charity, but also on clarity”.
The elite vs the masses
“What has gone wrong? It can be summed up in a word: liberalism.” That was the arresting headline on Fr Ray Blake’s blog. He was responding to a Catholic Herald blog post by Michael Merrick, who argued that Labour’s embrace of liberalism had led to its loss of the working class.
Fr Blake noted that the Church and society had been struggling with liberalism for the past couple of hundred years or more. Indeed, the problem the Labour leadership faced was shared by the Church. “Within the Church we have perhaps lost sight of the fact that Catholicism is a grassroots movement.”
He explained: “It was the Church’s leadership, the elite, which embraced the heresy whilst the masses held on to orthodoxy – even if it was with a degree of uncertainty. The referendum has revealed a gulf between the liberal elite and the masses; has not the same thing happened (and is happening) in the Church?”
✣ A row is brewing in Florence after it emerged that McDonald’s is hoping to open a new fast food restaurant in Piazza del Duomo, where the city’s famous cathedral is situated.
The square and cathedral are famous for hosting the vast cupola constructed by Filippo Brunelleschi in the 15th century, making the site one of the most visited locations in the world.
But Florentines are protesting against the plans and have launched a petition to protect the site from McFlurries and Big Macs.
✣ It’s been a tough couple of years for Brazilian Cardinal Orani João Tempesta – he has been carjacked twice and caught in a gun battle while being driven through Rio de Janeiro. But rather than relaxing on his birthday last month he chose to spend it with the homeless of Rio de Janeiro, offering them clothes, blankets, milk and coffee.
✣ Terrence Malick’s next film is rumoured to be about Blessed Franz Jägerstätter, a conscientious objector who defied the Nazis. Jägerstätter, an Austrian farmer, refused to fight after being conscripted into the Wehrmacht in 1943.
He was arrested and executed by guillotine at the age of 36. A devout Catholic, Jägerstätter was born and is buried in the Austrian village of St Radegund, named after the 6th-century German princess and saint.
We’re effectively building a city of two million here, so there must be an appropriate infrastructure
Wieliczka mayor Artur Koziol on the preparations for World Youth Day
Catholic News Service
I don’t know how Lebanon is surviving. It’s a miracle it’s still functioning
Maronite Patriarch Cardinal Bechara Rai on the refugee crisis
Meeting of the Catholic Near East Welfare Association in New York
We have tried to construct a world without identity and morality
Lord Sacks on the West’s political turmoil
Daily Telegraph article
20,000
Number of priests in attendance at World Youth Day
Source: WYD organisers
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