Exorcist Fr. César Truqui, warned everything harming the family, including divorce, pleases the devil.

"A demon who specializes in the attack on the family, [is] also cited in the story of Tobias, called 'Asmodeus,'" he said.

In the Old Testament book, the demon killed seven of Sarah's husbands.

Saint Raphael chained Asmodeus in the desert.

The demon "is present" in many exorcisms, Truqui said.

He said he saw the demon when he helped with "exorcisms by Father Gabriele Amorth and Father Francisco Bamonte."

The recently-deceased Amorth was a renowned exorcist in Rome.

He performed an estimated 70,000 exorcisms over the course of 29 years.

In the US, the number of Catholic priests officially designated as exorcists has quadrupled during the past 10 years.

Experts from the Catholic Church in Italy and the US say exorcists are in urgent demand.

They say this is a result of a sharp rise in people dabbling in Satanism and the occult

There is now a Satanic Temple in the US.

Exorcism can need many sessions. Each time the rite is administered it counts as one instance.

Truqi said he remembers a young couple who wanted to get married, but the woman had to be exorcised to be set free.

He said the demon was furious and threatened Amorth to prevent the marriage, otherwise he would kill the young woman.

"It was a threat from the Liar which in fact did not happen."

He also said the devil tires to attack families through ideologies and lifestyles.

Individualistic thinking and the spread of divorce are some of the ways the devil does this.

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image:Telegraph.co.uk

Father Amorth was known for his blunt words about the devil and his works, always insisting that Satan's greatest triumph is getting people to believe he doesn't exist.

He also earned worldwide attention last year by attributing the work of the Islamic State terror group to the influence of the devil.

"ISIS is Satan," he said in an April 2015 Facebook post. "Things first happen in the spiritual realms, then they are made concrete on this earth."

"Biblically-speaking we are in the last days and the beast is working furiously," he said.

A prolific writer, Amorth published numerous books during his career, including An Exorcist Tells His Story, Memoirs of an Exorcist: My Life Fighting Satan, An Exorcist: More Stories, and An Exorcist Explains the Demonic: The Antics of Satan and His Army of Fallen Angels.

During his life Father Amorth performed some 70,000 exorcisms, often sacrificing sleep and leisure time to combat the "father of lies." Humanly inexplicable phenomena would accompany cases of demonic possession, Amorth said, including the ability to speak languages that hadn't been studied, superhuman strength, and levitation above the ground.

"Now he rests from his many battles with the devil," Spanish theologian, Father Jose Antonio Fortea told Catholic News Agency Friday.

Father Amorth believed that Satanism was on the rise all over the world, and counseled the faithful to resist Lucifer with prayer and vigilance.

In 2001, journalist Stefano Maria Paci asked Father Amorth about the influence of Satan in the Catholic Church and in the Vatican.

"The smoke of Satan enters everywhere," he replied. "I have no doubt that the devil tempts especially the leaders of the Church, as he tempts all leaders."

Source

• Breitbart
• Belfast Telegraph
• Los Angeles Times
• Catholic News Agency

The controversy came after Fr Roland Colhoun preached a sermon in Drumsurn in Northern Ireland earlier this month.

The priest said he warned about several aspects of the new-age movement, including yoga and Indian head massages.

Fr Colhoun told the Derry Journal that, while people may decide to take up yoga with good intentions, they could set themselves on a path towards "the bad spiritual domain" and even "Satan and the fallen angels".

He told the Journal: "Pope Francis said 'do not seek spiritual answers in yoga classes'. Yoga is certainly a risk. There's the spiritual health risk.

"When you take up those practices from other cultures, which are outside our Christian domain, you don't know what you are opening yourself up to.

"I'm not saying everyone gets it, or that it happens every time, and people may well be doing yoga harmlessly.

"But there‘s always a risk."

The president of Universal Society of Hinduism, Rajan Zed, urged Pope Francis to take disciplinary action against Fr Colhoun for linking yoga to Satan.

Mr Zed noted that the Vatican Library itself carries books on yoga.

He said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was "a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilised by all".

In a homily on January 9, Pope Francis said that only the Holy Spirit can teach true love.

"You can take a million catechetical courses, a million courses in spirituality, a million courses in yoga, Zen and all these things," Francis said.

"But all of this will never be able to give you the freedom" of being a child of God, he said.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, before he was Pope Benedict XVI, warned Christians that yoga, Zen, and other forms of transcendental meditation could "degenerate into a cult of the body" that devalues prayer.

In 2011, the Vatican's chief exorcist said practising yoga is satanic.

Sources

• The Independent
• Belfast Newsletter
• Image: The Sport in Mind

A conference of exorcists in Rome last weekend warned of the danger to young people at Halloween.

This is a time when there is an increase in occult activity, the warning noted.

International Association of Exorcists director Fr Aldo Buonaiuto said Halloween is the antechamber of something dangerous, not innocent fun.

The IAE receives hundreds of calls during the Halloween period, especially from parents who fear their child has been drawn into the occult, he said.

"There are always more evil rituals, animal sacrifices, desecrations of cemeteries and thefts of sacred bones at the time of the 31 October."

It is also the best time of year for sects to attract new members, he noted.

The Catholic Church in Italy has now launched the initiative "Holyween", he added.

"While most people are steeped in zombies and horror we put on our door or windows a light or an image evocative of the saints.

"And then there will be Masses, prayer vigils and worship to celebrate the saints and victory of good over evil."

Children would dress up as saints for Holyween, some reports say.

The Vatican officially recognised the IAE in June and about 300 exorcists attended the Rome conference.

The conference focused on the impact of the occult and satanism on modern men and women.

In a message to delegates, Pope Francis said: "Those who perform this particular ministry, in conjunction with the bishops, must work "with love and kindness from the Church towards those who suffer because of the Evil One."

Psychiatrist and IAE spokesman Dr Valter Cascioli told Vatican Radio the number of people who turn to the occult or are fascinated by satanic cults and rituals "is constantly increasing".

He said this "worries us" because it appears to coincide with "an extraordinary increase in demonic activity".

Sources

• The Tablet
• National Catholic Reporter
• Daily Mail
• Image: Brandeis University

Angra Mainyu had planned to use the host in a ritual black Mass next month.

Oklahoma archdiocese filed the lawsuit claiming the host had been obtained by "illicit means".

After the return of the host, the archdiocese dropped the lawsuit.

Angra Mainyu leader Adam Daniels said the host had been sent to him by a priest in Turkey who is also a Satanist.

The satanic group will instead us Black Forest bread for its ritual, which will take place in a municipal building in Oklahoma City.

The group will also hold a Satanic exorcism, designed to drive out the "Holy Ghost" from a person, it said.

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The event, scheduled for September 21 in the Oklahoma City Center Music Hall, will involve the desecration of a consecrated host taken illicitly from a Catholic Church.

The Black Mass will be staged by Satanist group Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, but it says the event has been toned down to allow it to be performed in a public government building.

Lawyers for Oklahoma City's municipal government say the occultists have a right to lease the public space under the US Constitution's first amendment, which guarantees freedom of speech.

Catholic Archbishop Paul Coakley said he was disappointed at the city's response.

"If someone had come to them to rent the Civic Center to stage a burning of the Koran or to hold an event that was blatantly and clearly anti-Semitic, I think they might find a way to prevent it," he said.

He said hate speech intended to ridicule religion is not protected by the constitution.

Archbishop Coakley urged churchgoers to prayer to St Michael the Archangel at the end of Masses until September 29.

Oklahoma City has 120,000 Catholics.

He said the host would be desecrated "in the vilest ways imaginable" and then offered to Satan.

It is believed the event will involve stomping on the host.

The black Mass is a "blasphemous and obscene inversion of the Catholic Mass", Archbishop Coakley said.

Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa released a similar message.

He urged parishioners to fast and pray for the event's cancellation.

As of August 8, only 13 tickets had been sold to the Black Mass, which will be monitored by police.

The leader of Dakhma of Angra Mainyu, Adam Daniels, is a registered sex offender.

Oklahoma City's city manager has received thousands of emails and phone calls demanding the cancellation of the event.

Writing in the National Catholic Reporter, columnist Phyllis Zagano noted that Oklahoma state has blasphemy laws and they should be enforced.

Sources

• Fox News
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Integrated Catholic Life