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What is it with these exorcists?! I hope that you remember when Fr. Gabriel Amorth condemned the Harry Potter series as tending to enable the designs of the Evil One. Now, we have Fr. Jeremy Davies of the Archdiocese of Westminster doing everything he can to damn (perhaps I shouldn’t use that word in these circumstances) most anything and everything that’s dear to Lefties (and a whole lot of other people). Acupuncture? Satanic. Yoga? Satanic. Eastern religion? Satanic. Get this:
Fr. Davies also warns in his book against so-called New Age and occult practices, as well as trendy exercise and “spiritual healing” regimens derived from eastern religions.
“The thin end of the wedge (soft drugs, yoga for relaxation, horoscopes just for fun and so on) is more dangerous than the thick end because it is more deceptive - an evil spirit tries to make his entry as unobtrusively as possible.”
“Beware of any claim to mediate beneficial energies (e.g. reiki), any courses that promise the peace that Christ promises (e.g. enneagrams), any alternative therapy with its roots in eastern religion (e.g. acupuncture).” Needless to say, overtly occult activities such as séances and witchcraft are “direct invitations to the Devil which he readily accepts.”
Wow, I really like this guy. But really, where do they find these priests? How do these priests, who seem more than happy to violate every PC piety on the books, manage to get appointed to any diocesan level post? Or do folks like Cormac Murphy-O’Connor realize just how badly they need priests like Fr. Davies - no one else can do what they do, and it’s more necessary now than ever?
Perhaps I’m going to extremes (as is my wont), but it seems to me that men like Fr. Amorth and Davies are nearly evidences for the truth of the Faith: no matter how badly the Church has been ravaged in the wake of Vatican II, even liberal prelates can’t dispense with exorcists. Shouldn’t we be surprised that these guys are around at all? Shouldn’t the office of diocesan Exorcist have been one of the first to go (permanently)? These priests confirm two things: (1) not only is there evil in the world, but some of that evil is the direct result of fallen pure intellects; (2) priests of the one, holy, Roman, Catholic and apostolic Church are uniquely equipped to rebuke these evil spirits.
St. Louis-Marie de Montfort,
Pope St. Pius X,
St. Joseph,
St. Ambrose of Milan,
St. Thomas Aquinas,
St. Francis (and St. Clare),
St. Catherine of Siena,
St. Alphonsus Ligouri,
St. John Chrysostom,
Well I can’t imagine that your average liberal priest is very interested in this kind of thing to begin with, so they probably don’t want the job.
Indeed. But my thought was that, given the way everything else has gone, this post should have been eliminated altogether.
I had heard that after the Vatican revised the ritual for exorcism, a group of exorcists went to Rome to protest the changes, saying that the punch was taken out, leaving them vulnerable when attacking the Devil. Another example of the need to suspect all things Novus.
Yes, there does seem to have been some revival in this area, inspired by the attempt to revise the rite of exorcism.
I’ve heard priests write that yoga is incompatible to Catholicism because you can’t separate true yoga from it’s underlying Eastern spiritual foundation. I don’t know enough about yoga to agree or disagree, but honestly, it just seems like stretching and meditating. Why can’t you stretch and meditate while thinking about Jesus, if it helps? Personally, I’m not going to do it, but it’s more to the fact that it looks incredibly ridiculous compared to lifting weights or running.
Why acupuncture? Isn’t that just a form of physical therapy (not mental or spiritual) that supposedly generates energy/blood flow? How is that Satanic?
This and the article about Father Davies linked on the sidebar sheds a little light on how the Devil can take possession of someone. A while ago, on the advice of Fr. Brian Harrison http://www.catholicintl.com/catholicissues/erose.htm I watched the movie “The exorcism of Emily Rose,” which is based on a true story. Emily was brought up in a traditional Catholic Family and was homeschooled. Going to college on a scholarship, she soon became possessed. That did not seem surprising until I read the book “The exorcism of Annelise Michel,” on which the story was based. Annelise remained pious at school and there seems to be no reason why the Devil should have gotten hold of her. At the end of the movie she is portrayed as a victim soul and many people visit her grave today out of devotion. The theology involved here remains a mystery to me. How can the temple of the Holy Ghost be also that of Satan from which curses and blasphemies issue forth? Doctors were convinced that she was mentally ill while two priests and the bishop were convinced that she was possessed. Over a ten month period, the priests attempted 67 exorcisms on her, some of which lasted 4 hours at a time. They believed she was delivered shortly before her death at the age of 24. Perhaps Father Davies’ book will have some answers. Watching the movie will increase your belief in the reality of the demonic. The priest comes off quite heroically.
We need more priests to speak out against labyrinths as well; after all, this is a practice many Catholic prelates are promoting and not merely tolerating. The “Catholic” hospital my mother works at has a labyrinth, much to my dismay.
I would appreciate it if someone would be able to point me to where I can find information supporting the theses that labyrinths and acupuncture, specifically, are not wholesome exercises. I find myself a bit confused…
Iosephus,
When I started reading this article I was a little worried that perhaps you’d taken to defending such practices, because the start of the article was quite ambiguous as to what you thought of Fr. Davies. Luckily, all of my fears were assuaged by the time I continued my reading. That’s some pretty tremendous stuff coming from under Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor. God bless, and keep up the good work on this site.
Pax Christi,
Joseph
Eva,
The key is not to look for resources condemning those practices so much, as to look at the origins of and influences on those practices. When it comes to matters of the spirit, we cannot trust any source other than the deposit of Faith; hence, spiritualities of other lands and peoples, while perhaps interesting to study sociologically, cannot be adopted without danger.
In the case of the Labyrinth, the sneaky thing done is to claim it’s a manifestation of Christian prayer because the pattern is found at Chartres. Hence the problem in this case is the associated prayers: usually the motivations are called “centering” prayer, which is not from the Christian tradition. It’s a case of sneaking Eastern spiritual ideas in under a (false) claim of Christian origin. See here for a useful review.
In the case of Acupuncture, it’s easier to see the problem. The idea that our “spirit” needs to be balanced by puncturing the flesh in various points is so at odds with the Christian understanding of the soul as to be obviously false. This is where the danger lies: buying into false ideas about what the soul is and what its role is. The question then becomes: does acupuncture do something else, something actually medical — in the western sense of the world — that is actually efficacious, despite the fact that the practitioners have some crazy theory to support it. This, I don’t know for sure, but I have seen no research that supports acupuncture as efficacious. The fact that placebo treatments are very effective, too, could account for any effects from acupuncture that are anecdotally reported.
Wouldn’t certain chiropractors also fall under the “alternative therapies” umbrella?
I saw this weird poster in a chiropractor’s office that referred to the “truth” and “releasing life-force-energy” or whatnot. Very suspicious.
It is a good service, as many of the comments here have already indicated, that this priest is calling attention to the eastern (or at least non-Catholic) spirituality behind many of these practices. In this era of ecumenical warmth and fuzziness, we (even we traditionalists) may forget that these religions, while “containing elements of truth”, are, despite that wimpy caveat, fundamentally false. All false religion and heresy is the delight of the devil, and so it’s not surprising that malign angelic spirits should, from time to time, provide them with pseudo-miracles and other things tending to confirm their reputations and lofty character in the eyes of men.
I went to hear Fr. Davies talk about his ministry many years ago at Oxford. He was interesting and his audience was rather amusing in a way - what they really wanted to discuss was the evils of the new baptismal liturgy and of Charismatics, which they managed to connect to his ministry; quite right in their way but not the main focus of his work.
An important thing to remember is that non-Christian spiritual practices reveal themselves as evil in that they are man centered, not God centered, or even God-less. They are focused on the “betterment” of man without the help of God and almost always with the help of some other “power”. When it comes down to it, one might as well invite the devil in, for that “power” can be no other.
Two pervasive example are feng shui and oriental martial arts. Both are so subtly deceptive that many readers will scoff at my assertion. But both give over control to a power other than God which is an invitation for evil to take control.
Labyrinths and centering prayer are both extremely dangerous practices. They are man centered: both focus on going to one’s “center” which it is claimed one finds God. Rather, what one finds is the self which is identifed as God. They are exercises that lead to self-worship which is idolatry. Remember the words satan spoke to Eve in the garden: “you shall be as gods” (Gen. 3:5).
Therefore, heed the words of the Prince of the Apostles which the Church puts before us every night: “Be sober and watch: because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist ye, strong in faith.”
I just watched “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and I have to say, that movie is so entirely creepy.
I will second what Discipulus said: “Watching the movie will increase your belief in the reality of the demonic.”
Archangel Michael, fight for me.