{"id":6568,"date":"2011-11-25T19:48:05","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T19:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=6568"},"modified":"2011-11-26T16:28:41","modified_gmt":"2011-11-26T16:28:41","slug":"just-another-carnival-barker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/just-another-carnival-barker\/","title":{"rendered":"Just Another Carnival Barker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s Roman Catholic hierarchy knows that the old hoodoo is a good way to bring in the crowds, so here\u2019s one veteran doing his<\/a> bit:<\/p>\n

Father Gabriele Amorth, who for years was the Vatican\u2019s chief exorcist and claims to have cleansed hundreds of people of evil spirits, said yoga is Satanic because it leads to a worship of Hinduism and \u201call eastern religions are based on a false belief in reincarnation\u201d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, I give him credit for rejecting the intellectually absurd temptations of ecumenicism, but I interrupt:<\/p>\n

Reading JK Rowling\u2019s Harry Potter books is no less dangerous, said the 86-year-old priest, who is the honorary president for life of the International Association of Exorcists, which he founded in 1990, and whose favourite film is the 1973 horror classic, The Exorcist. The Harry Potter books, which have sold millions of copies worldwide, \u201cseem innocuous\u201d but in fact encourage children to believe in black magic and wizardry, Father Amorth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPractising yoga is Satanic, it leads to evil just like reading Harry Potter,\u201d he told a film festival in Umbria this week, where he was invited to introduce The Rite, a film about exorcism starring Sir Anthony Hopkins as a Jesuit priest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Harry Potter the Devil acts in a crafty and covert manner, under the guise of extraordinary powers, magic spells and curses,\u201d said the priest, who in 1986 was appointed the chief exorcist for the Diocese of Rome.<\/p>\n

\u201cSatan is always hidden and what he most wants is for us not to believe in his existence. He studies every one of us and our tendencies towards good and evil, and then he offers temptations.\u201d Science was incapable of explaining evil, said Father Amorth, who has written two books on his experiences as an exorcist. \u201cIt\u2019s not worth a jot. The scientist simply explores what God has already created.\u201d His views may seem extreme, but in fact reflect previous warnings by Pope Benedict XVI, when as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he was the head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican\u2019s enforcer of doctrinal orthodoxy. In 1999, six years before he succeeded John Paul II as Pope, he issued a document which warned Roman Catholics of the dangers of yoga, Zen, transcendental meditation and other ‘eastern\u2019 practises. They could \u201cdegenerate into a cult of the body\u201d that debases Christian prayer, the document said. Yoga poses could create a feeling of well-being in the body but it was erroneous to confuse that with \u201cthe authentic consolations of the Holy Spirit,\u201d the document said…<\/p>\n

Father Amorth has previously said that people who are possessed by Satan vomit shards of glass and pieces of iron and have such superhuman strength that even children have to be held down by up to four people. He has also claimed that the sex abuse scandals which have engulfed the Catholic Church in the US, Ireland, Germany and other countries was proof that the Anti-Christ is waging a war against the Holy See.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Satan's Little Helpers<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s Roman Catholic hierarchy knows that the old hoodoo is a good way to bring in the crowds, so here\u2019s one veteran doing his bit: Father Gabriele Amorth, who for years was the Vatican\u2019s chief exorcist and claims to have … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9,711],"tags":[490,868,16,489,867],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6568"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6568"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6568\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6607,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6568\/revisions\/6607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}