Recession is the devil's work

[Image from Quizilla]

Last month, Ruth Gledhill at Times Online, reported on our old friend, Gabriel Amorth, the Vatican's favorite devil chaser and exorcist. Gabriel lives and breathes the devil. He finds the devil everywhere. Even in the Harry Potter books.

But Gabriel has to keep reminding folks about the devil and the work of the devil because if the devil should be forgotten Gabriel's out of a job!

So Gabriel tends to see the devil in places the rest of us would not think to link with Satan; like the world-wide recession. Here's what he says, in part:

"The Devil also waits on economic experts and investors. He give [sic] the wrong decisions, and thus create [sic] confusion and crisis. It was also the biggest victory of the devil, if his existence is denied."

Most important is to admit the existence of the devil. Then Gabriel can go on exorcising the devil from people bedeviled by the devil. At least for awhile. I think he's 82 or 83 years old.


What I don't understand is why god doesn't do something. Who is the devil? Where did the devil come from? I don't read of the devil in the Torah. I know there are many beliefs about all of this, but one of them must be the correct belief, right?

Is the devil more powerful than god, that he can run loose and demonize people so old Roman exorcists like Amorth have a job?

Has anyone seen the devil?

Why doesn't god just slap down the devil once and for all?

None of this makes much sense.

Italy, the Vatican and the Devil

[Photo of Fr. Gabriele Amorth]

I almost laughed out loud. The question was: "Is the Devil Gaining a Foothold in Rome?" That's the title of a CBN article. One wonders if the author has a clue as to the history of the Catholic Church over the past 2,000 plus years.

But it's a serious article, and yes, the Devil is gaining a foothold in the Holy City. We've written about the Vatican's chief magician (exorcist) previously, but Father Gabriele Amorth, pontificates that "There is a greater openness towards the devil."

Would you believe that Rome is "the most satanized city in Italy"? Hell, what a disappointment. I had always been told and believed it was the most "sanitized" city in Italy, although when I visited there a number of years ago, it seemed kinda old and dirty.

Father Pedro Barrajon, a Roman priest, claims "Satanism and the occult are in fashion."

How could this happen in the seat of Catholicism? Doth not the Vatican and the Pope and the Papal Poohbahs have any power whatsoever?


Then there's an "evangelical" clergyman, Silvano Lilli, also an inhabitant of Rome, who says there are "an estimated 800 satanic cults operating in the country, with more than 600,000 followers."

And, says Lilli, the situation is getting worse by the day. "The devil's diabolical influence is growing is so many areas of our society. He needs to be driven out."


I don't have a clue where Lilli gets his statistics, and he doesn't say, but they sound good (or bad). And I'm not sure what he thinks about Father Amorth (Amorth being of the Roman priestly caste) who has his little exorcist room not far from the Vatican to shoo the devil out of the demon-possessed. The violent ones are the worst, says Amorth. They have to be tied down.

But the good Father doesn't want any tape-recordings of his exorcisms. I wonder why? Especially since he insists that "exorcism is God's true miracle" (as opposed to what - God's false miracle?), and "Medicine and science have cases they can't solve but which are instead solved by exorcism."

Hmmm. Maybe we could try that on Bush and Cheney?


Seriously, there are all kinds of satan-related crimes in Italy. "Many Italians are forsaking priests for magicians, fortunetellers and faith healers."

Hmmm, again. Sounds like priests to me!

It's so bad, though, that law enforcement has enlisted the assistance of Catholic priests to help solve violent crimes.


That should do the job.