The "rite" movie but some wrong messages

Over at Food for the Soul, Father Leo Patalinghug has an excellent and thought-provoking review of The Rite.

Go read it. Really. Now. You're stuck inside. What else are you going to do. Thanks. Have a good day.

After Communion, what do I do?

A question frequently asked of priests runs something like this: What should I do after I receive Holy Communion?

This morning I found a good and simple answer to the question from Saint Thomas More:

Now when we have received our Lord and have him in our body, let us not then let him alone, and get us forth about other things, and look no more unto him . . . but let all our business be about him. Let us by devout prayer talk to him, by devout meditation talk with him. Let us say with the prophet: Audiam quid loquatur in me dominus, I will hear what our Lord will speak within me.

For surely if we set aside all other things, and attend unto him, he will not fail with good inspirations, to speak such things to us within us, as shall serve to the great spiritual comfort and profit of our soul.

Coptic Christians feel safer under Mubarek

From the Wall Street Journal, with my emphases and comments:

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt—Like the protesters who have flooded the streets of Egypt in the past week, the country's large minority of Coptic Christians worry about joblessness and lack of freedoms. But most want President Hosni Mubarak to stay in power [This isn't simply a case of "the devil you know..."].

Fear of what may follow the removal of Mr. Mubarak, a secular strongman who has ruled the country for the past 30 years, is making reluctant supporters out of the country's Christians, an estimated 10% of Egypt's 80 million population. Mr. Mubarak has been aggressive in pursuing perceived Islamist extremist groups, a policy that has endeared him to Coptic Christians, not to mention the U.S. [this has received very little attention in the press.]

Many Copts worry that Mr. Mubarak's exit would leave them dangerously exposed—either by chaos, or to a government that may be more tolerant of Islamist extremists [I fear the same, and this morning it is beginning to look more likely].

Pope Shenouda III, head of the Coptic Church, expressed support for Mr. Mubarak in an interview with Egyptian state television Monday. "We have called the president and told him we are all with you and the people are with you," he said, according to a transcript of the interview on the state television's website.

In Alexandria, where the Coptic Orthodox Church was founded in A.D. 42, worshippers slipped through a crack in the gate at St. Mark's and St. Peter's Church on Monday morning, for the first service to be held here since Egypt's anti-Mubarak protests began.

As recently as New Year's Day, this church suffered a horrific terrorist attack. Twenty-three people died and 97 were injured when a large bomb packed with nails and ball bearings detonated outside just after midnight, as the service was ending.

"We need Mubarak. What we need above all is to be safe," said Samy Farag, director of the St. Mark's Hospital, which is attached to the church and where the dead and injured were brought immediately after the bombing.

"We feel safer with him because he heads a big, strong party. If he leaves, parties will come to power that we don't know," said the 65-year-old doctor. He added that this included any government that might be headed by Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Prize winner and former international nuclear official.

"We just don't know what their policies toward Christians would be," Dr. Farag said.

The Jan. 1 attack was the latest in an escalating cycle of extremist violence against Christians in the broader Middle East.

A year earlier, a gunman killed seven Christians in Nag Hammadi, Upper Egypt, as they left church, triggering days of sectarian violence in the streets there. In October, al Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility for an attack on a Christian central Baghdad church. The same group also issued a threat to Christians in Egypt.

It isn't certain who was responsible for Alexandria's Jan. 1 attack. Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, an influential banned Islamist political party, condemned it as contrary to Islam.

"There were many Muslims who came here to give blood after the explosion," said Dr. Farag.

But in the aftermath of the killings, angry Copts clashed in the streets with Muslims and then with riot police, sending a new stream of patients into Dr. Farag's hospital wards, adorned with Christian icon paintings and posters. "The people who did this are trying to turn [Christians and Muslims] against each other," he said.

On Monday, the worshippers milled about just inside the cracked gates of the church, hidden from the street. They worried that when the police disappeared from the streets on Saturday, the police guards in front of the church also disappeared.

The protests across Egypt are nonsectarian, focusing on issues of freedoms, democratic rights and employment. These are problems Egypt's Christians face too, said another doctor at the hospital, Viviane Ghaly. "People are angry, mainly because of unemployment, and they have a right to be angry and to protest about it," said the 26-year-old, who is training for an equivalency test so that she can emigrate—a path than a growing number of Copts are taking.

"We complain about his government too, but we got used to Mubarak and his ways," Dr. Ghaly said. "We don't know what would come next."

As Pakistani Christians pray for peace, Muslim radicals beat effigy of Pope

From the Catholic World News:

As Pakistani Christians prayed and fasted for peace, some 40,000 Islamic militants took to the streets of Lahore on January 30 to protest against efforts to change the nation’s blasphemy law and against Pope Benedict. Protestors beat Pope Benedict’s effigy with sticks, according to a Pakistani press report.

In November, the Pontiff called for the release of Asia Bibi, the Christian mother sentenced to death after she was accused of blasphemy.

Bolton: Egypt's Christians at risk

From the Daily Caller, with my emphases:

Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton warns Egypt’s ancient Coptic Christian minority could become increasingly endangered should the protests against Egyptian strongman Hosni Mubarak drive him from power.

The rioting against the Mubarak regime began on Jan. 25, in the wake of the Jan. 15 overthrow of Tunisian dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, with the publicly stated goals of ousting Mubarak from power and protesting Egypt’s high unemployment and rampant corruption, among other issues.

The rioting claimed the ruling party headquarters Friday and pushed the Mubarak regime to shut down Internet and cell phone communications in an effort to clamp down on opponents, and the regime sent the army into the streets Saturday to confront demonstrators as Cairo fell into near anarchy.

Bolton points out Egypt’s outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, which promotes the Islamist ideology employed more violently by Hamas and other terror groups, stands to gain despite being a late comer to the revolt.

“One thing I want to say about all of these young people and all of these university students is what they’re learning in the universities is very similar to what the Muslim Brotherhood preaches,” Bolton said. “So we have to worry about the radicalism among the students is very, very high.”

Consequently, conservatives are mistaken thinking anti-Mubarak forces will replace the current regime with a Western-style democracy because Mubarak represents the lesser of two evils when compared with the opposition, according to Bolton.

“The overthrow of the Mubarak regime will not by any sense of the imagination lead to the advent of Jeffersonian democracy,” Bolton said. “The greater likelihood is a radical, tightly knit organization like the Muslim Brotherhood will take advantage of the chaos and seize power.

“It is really legitimate for the Copts to be worried that instability follow Mubarak’s fall and his replacement with the Muslim Brotherhood.”

The Copts, who constitute between 10 and 20 percent of Egypt’s population and whose church traces its founding back to St. Mark the Evangelist, have been increasingly targeted by Islamic extremists in recent years and have suffered intense persecution.

Copts complain Muslims are able to get away murdering them with impunity much like whites did in the South under Jim Crow, and the government discriminates against them by placing restrictions on the building and repair of churches while not imposing a similar rule on mosques.

“The Coptic problem is that of pressure on a minority, intolerance towards others and a lack of acceptance of pluralism. The more Egypt is influenced by the Wahhabi interpretation of Islam, the worse it is for the Copts, ” Tarek Heggy, a leading Coptic intellectual, told the Italian press agency ADNKronos International last November while speaking about the Muslim Brotherhood’s relationship with the Copts.

Their plight became painfully apparent to the world after an al-Qaida affiliate bombed of a Coptic church in Alexandria, killing 20 worshippers and wounding 100 others. But this terror attack has been one of several carried out by Muslim extremists to hit the Coptic community over the past decade.

Although the Brotherhood condemned the New Year’s Eve attack, many Copts, particularly outside Egypt, worry their situation could grow worse should Mubarak fall.

“The Copts I know are scared,” said Amir Makkar, a Copt who lives near Lancaster, Pa. “It’s a dangerous proposal with what is happening in Egypt because the problem is there is a lot of uncertainty and it is impossible to tell what is going to happen amid the chaos situation because anything could happen.”

Makkar, who pays close attention to the happenings in his homeland, believes Egypt could have a chance for democracy if someone like Mohammed ElBaradei replaces Mubarak.

But Copts fear the possibility the Brotherhood could use its strong organization to fill a power vacuum left by Mubarak.

There would be a lot for the Copts to worry about should the Brotherhood come to power because they likely would establish Islamic state that would impose a harsh interpretation of Islamic law on non-Muslims, as has happened in other Muslim nations in the region, Makkar said.

Pope Shenouda III, the head of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and other church representatives have called on Copts to refrain from participating, but evidence shows many Copts have ignored their church and have joined the revolt.

Washington Institute scholar Dina Guirgis, herself a Copt and an observer of Egyptian politics, cautions against jumping to alarmist conclusions about what could happen to the Copts should the Mubarak regime collapse.

Guirgis believes although the Muslim Brotherhood likely would play a part in a post-Mubarak government, it would not be the driving force.

“It would probably be some sort of national unity government comprised of various political forces, but all within the rules of a democratic regime, which the Muslim Brotherhood would have to subscribe to as well,” Guirgis said. “I don’t think we need to exaggerate fears of the transition from the Mubarak regime, especially because conditions were very poor for the Copts under the Mubarak regime, so it’s not as though things were rosy.”

Muslims and Christians will need to work side by side for Egypt’s future to put the three decades of the Mubarak regime behind them, according to Guirgis.

“People should not fear and not exaggerate,” she said.

The Copts have a chance to participate in a democratic government should one emerge because the anti-Mubarak movement is diverse and “largely secular,” according to Guirgis.

But Bolton counters that the experience in other majority Muslim countries where militant Islamic groups have come to power shows the Copts need to be concerned.

“Whatever you want to say about the military government for 60 years is it’s been secular,” Bolton said. “It’s a Muslim government, but it doesn’t operate under the tenet of sharia legal tenets that the Brotherhood would impose on Egypt.”

What name have you given your child?

The Rite Baptism for a children begins with the priest or deacon asking the parents, "What name have you given your child?"

As parents opt for increasingly bizarre and "unique" or "cute" names for their children fewer parents have opted to name their children in honor the saints. Sometimes it is hard to tell from the name if the infant is a boy or a girl. Sometimes you wonder if the name might work well enough for the child while he or she is young, but what about when he or she has reached the 75th year of age? All too often it is becoming hard to see to which saint the child will look for an example in living the Christian life.

Now the name "Mary" does not even rank among the top 100 names given to girls in the USA; her name has fallen to the 102nd most popular name.

The name of "Joseph," however, remains strong as the 16th most popular name for boys.

The new Missal is coming

Today I received an e-mail from Liturgy Training Publications describing their forthcoming edition of the Roman Missal, which will be released October 1st.

Are other publishers ready with similar information? Before I order one I would like to see what all of my options are.

Snowed in? Might as well ponder

Perhaps the lonly positive aspect of being under a blizzard warning is the time that can now be given over to reading.

As you're stuck inside over the next couple of days, consider these words from Jean Corbon from his The Wellspring of Worship:

Then man appears. It is because God is holy that he calls the man to be "his image." This unique creature, with its male and female forms, is essentially proposed and not thrust into being; it is the only creature that is not "made" but must always be born; it is the locus of the living God's most far-reaching kenosis [self-emptying] because it is the treasure he most loves. In the liturgical poem that describes the creation of man God does not say, "Let there be men!" as he does for all other creatures. He says, rather, "Let us make man in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves" (Gen 1:26). This decision contains within it all the risk and expectation of self-giving love: men are called into existence, but will they accept and respond? Will they gaze back into the adorable Face of God (p. 33)?

The Rite: Not as bad as it could have been, but not as good, either

If you're curious about the recently released movie The Rite, Brad Miner has a good review of it at The Catholic Thing. In short, he says:

Indeed, The Rite isn’t nearly as bad as you may have read. Then again, it’s not nearly as good as it should have been.

At the start of The Rite, there seem to be two dangerous and other-worldly forces in play: demonic evil . . . and Catholicism. The Church has become one of Hollywood’s enduring villains, and, thanks to intimations of anti-Catholicism, after about fifteen minutes I was half-tempted to walk out of the movie. And when young Fr. Kovak finally finds his faith – at the climax, by rule near the end – it’s mostly because he has sure as hell come to believe in Satan.

When he calls out a well-known demon in the name of Jesus Christ, it’s as though a vacuum at the heart of modern movie making has been unsealed. At the same time, you couldn’t call The Rite a Catholic or even a religious film in any proper sense. The movie fails to make the rite of exorcism anything more than a plot device, no different than the Ghostbusters’ Neutrino Wand that zaps out demons and stores them in a Proton Pack.

That’s sad, because as Fr. Lucas tells Fr. Kovak: “Choosing not to believe in the devil won’t protect you from him.”

Father Dwight Longencker has also posted a review at Standing On My Head. He summarizes this thoughts in these words:

So as a movie, it's pretty good. I like the Roman setting, the cool old architecture and atmosphere of Rome, the fine acting by both Hopkins and Donoghue. The directing is suitably atmospheric and the drama/horror managed in a way that is larger than life, but not too much so. There were little problems with verisimilitude church wise, but on the whole 8 out of 10.

Has Father Barron spoken on the movie yet?

Decisions, decisions

I am happy to see Father Valencheck continue his comic series over at Adam's Ale. His current post reminds me of the situation at the Cathedral last evening.

The Pastor of the Cathedral and I invited a neighboring Pastor and seminarian over for dinner, but found that we were lacking in staples and so decided to go out to eat. Before heading out we sat around for a bit catching up and trying to decide where to go.

The best decision would could come to was not to do Chinese (that was my contribution).

Finding ourselves at a standstill with none of us wanting to make the decision we decided to call another Pastor and ask him where we should eat. Unfortunately, he was unable to join us or give us a decision.

At long last we settled on a restuarant just a few blocks away and set out on foot. A good meal was had by all.

And with your what?

Perhaps the most contentious aspect of the forthcoming revised translation of the Roman Missal - which takes effect in the Dioceses of the United States of America on the First Sunday of Advent - is the change of the people's response, "And also with you," to the more accurate, "And with your spirit."

Father Austin J. Milner, O.P. offers a very fine explanation of the reasoning behind the change. The short answer is:

“And with your spirit” is the literal translation of et cum spiritu tuo, which itself is a literal translation from the Greek. This phrase, whether in Greek or in Latin, was quite strange to the ancient world. It appears only in Christian writings. It already forms part of greetings at the end of some of the Pauline Epistles: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit brethren. Amen” (Gal 6:18; cf Phil 4:23; Philemon 25); “The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you” (2 Tim 4:22).

His full answer is well worth a read.

The example of a saint, for my former students

While doing a bit of research for a homily for the coming celebration of Catholic Schools' Week - which begins this year on the memorial of Saint John Bosco, the patron of youth - I stumbled upon this helpful site with quotes from the "teacher and father to the young" (Collect of the day).

The Lord gives us the Saints as our friends and examples, so that in looking to them we might follow Christ all the more faithfully. Sometimes we choose saints and place ourselves under their patronage, and sometimes they choose us. The latter was the case with me and Don Bosco.

His example provided a great inspiration to me when I served as Parochial Vicar in Effingham while I taught at the high school and worked with the sports teams. Without his guidance, my ministry would have borne far less fruit; through his writings he taught me to be a loving father to those who were my spiritual sons. After I first encountered him through his writings, my ministry began to rise to new heights.

Browsing the quotes at the above site, I found this quote, the words of which I make my own:

Tell the boys that I shall be waiting for them all in Paradise.

May the Lord bring us all together again in his presence and, if it be his will, sooner.

Please, take a few moments and browse his words; learn from him as I have done.

Thoughts on Confirmation

Too often in recent decades the notion of the Sacrament of Confirmation as a 'rite of passage' has crept into the life of the Church. None of the Sacraments are milestones or rites of passage along the Christian life; the Sacraments are not about us as much as they are about Christ Jesus.

It is often said today the Sacrament of Confirmation allows a young person - or an older person - to "accept the faith for themselves." Rubbish! This notion you will not find in the Rite of Confirmation, in the Catechism or - unless I am much mistaken - in the tradition of the Church. The Catechism reminds us that "although Confirmation is sometimes called the 'sacrament of Christian maturity,' we must not confuse adult faith with the adult age of natural growth" (1308).

A person accepts the faith for himself when he renews his baptismal promises during the Easter season.

A person accepts the faith for himself when he renews his baptismal promises during the Baptism of a child.

A person accepts the faith for himself when he recites the Creed, either the Nicene at Mass or the Apostles during the rosary.

A person accepts the faith for himself when he responds, "Amen," to, "The Body of Christ," and receives the Eucharisitic Lord.

If a person has not accepted the faith for himself he should be doing none of these things, for in so doing he would make himself a great liar.

If Confirmation really were the acceptance of the faith for oneself, then my reception of this great Sacrament would be meaningless. Why? I was born, baptized and confirmed on the day of my birth, because I was not expected to live. Certainly as an infant of less than one day old I could not have accepted the faith for myself, and yet "his grace to me has not been ineffective" (I Corinthians 15:10).

It has been said that Confirmation is "a sacrament in search of a theology." Hogwash! It has a theology, and it always has.

Regarding the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, with my emphases:

Baptism, the Eucharist, and the sacrament of Confirmation together constitute the "sacraments of Christian initiation," whose unity must be safeguarded. It must be explained to the faithful that the reception of the sacrament of Confirmation is necessary for the completion of baptismal grace. For "by the sacrament of Confirmation, [the baptized] are more perfectly bound to the Church and are enriched with a special strength of the Holy Spirit. Hence they are, as true witnesses of Christ, more strictly obliged to spread and defend the faith by word and deed" (1285).

Because Confirmation is "a special outpouring of the Holy Spirit," it brings about "an increase and deepening of baptismal grace" (CCC, 1302-1303) and it

• roots us more firmal to Christ;
• increases the gifts of the Holy Spirit in us;
• renders our bond with the Church more perfect;
• gives us a special strength of the Holy Spirit to spread and defend the faith by word and action as true witnesses of Christ, to confess the name of Christ boldly, and never to be ashamed of the Cross.

I am in full support of a younger age for the recption of Confirmation, even before the reception of First Communion, both to restore the proper ordering of the Sacraments of Initiation and to strengthen the grace of God in our young people.

Consider this: if Confirmation really is the sealing with the fullness of the gifts of the Holy Spirit - which it is - why do we wait so long to give this gift to our children when they have already erroneously and - quite likely - invincibly formed their consciences? Would it not be wiser to confirm them when they are young so they have the fulness of the Holy Spirit to help them form their consciences according to the truth of the Gospel?

Encouraging news in the Confirmation debates

From Catholic Culture:

The Archdiocese of Liverpool has announced plans to change the order in which young people receive the sacraments of Christian Initiation, placing Confirmation before First Communion.

Beginning in the fall of 2012, children above the age of 8 will be invited to receive Confirmation and First Communion between the feasts of the Ascension and Corpus Christi. They will be encouraged to make their first Confessions later in the year, during Advent.

Doing so restores the proper order of the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist.

Would a married priesthood help?

Father Dwight Longenecker, himself a married man who was ordained a priest, answers this frequently asked question, offering a unique perspective.

Wha'ts a Catholic parent to do?

A Catholic Mom in Hawaii provides several excellent answers to this important question.

Father Barron on St. Thomas Aquinas

A review of The Rite

John Mulderig has reviewed The Rite, which is released in theatres today. The text of his review follows, with my emphases and comments:

NEW YORK (CNS) -- Any movie that opens with a quotation from Pope John Paul II and ends with the sight of a dedicated priest hearing his parishioners' confessions is well calculated to win the support and approval of viewers of faith. And so it is with the religiously honorable drama "The Rite" (Warner Bros.).

Considered purely as a piece of cinema, however, this descent into the tortured world of the demonically possessed, and of those who courageously minister to them, proves aesthetically tentative, its ultimate impact weakened by the effort to showcase its main character's spiritual journey -- a conversion tale based on real events -- as an old-fashioned chillfest.

That central character is skeptical seminarian Michael Kovak, played by feature film newcomer Colin O'Donoghue in an impressive first outing.

Having pursued priestly studies mainly to get a free college education and avoid following in the footsteps of his undertaker father, Istvan (Rutger Hauer) -- with whom he shares a tangled relationship -- Michael sends off a resignation e-mail soon after his ordination as a transitional deacon.

But the recipient of his message -- his superior, Father Matthew (Toby Jones) -- is convinced that Michael possesses at least the pastoral qualities of a good priest. So, to forestall his departure, Father Matthew dispatches Michael to Rome to complete a Vatican-sponsored course in exorcism.

There Michael vents his ongoing doubts -- not just about devils and such, but about the very existence of God as well -- both to fellow student Angeline (Alice Braga), an Italian reporter who has enrolled in the class for research purposes, and to their instructor, Dominican Father Xavier (Ciaran Hinds).

Knowing a hard case when he sees one, Father Xavier arranges for Michael to serve an informal apprenticeship with veteran demon fighter Father Lucas (Anthony Hopkins), a forthright Welshman renowned for his unusual but effective approach to his work.

The inexplicable experiences that follow, as Father Lucas and his initially reluctant protege wrestle with the dark forces at work on pregnant teen Rosaria (Marta Gastini, another newcomer), force Michael to reassess his secular certainties.

The idea that a contemporary doubter should be moved toward belief in the source of absolute good by witnessing the effects of absolute evil run amok is certainly an intriguing one [and a reality not altogether unheard of].

And a few shaky details along the way -- as when Michael, though only a deacon, appears to be giving absolution to a dying victim at the scene of a car accident -- can easily be overlooked [maybe; still, it's sloppy research] in light of screenwriter Michael Petroni and director Mikael Hafstrom's resounding affirmation faith and the value of priestly ministry.

But Michael's story -- a fictionalized version of the life of Father Gary Thomas of the Diocese of San Jose, Calif., as recounted in journalist Matt Baglio's 2009 book, "The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist" -- would have been more effectively presented on its own terms.

Instead, it has been wedged, somewhat uncomfortably, into the mold of a conventional horror movie. The effect is to diffuse -- and slightly diminish -- its valuable underlying message, though enough of that endures to make the picture, despite the objectionable features listed below, possibly acceptable for mature teens.

The film contains incest and suicide themes, some gruesome imagery, incidental irreverence, a couple of uses of profanity and a few rough and crude terms. The Catholic News Service classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is PG-13 -- parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

The Atlantic on exorcism

Bishop Paprocki was recently interviewed for an article in The Atlantic regarding exorcism and today's release of the film The Rite. The text of the article, written by Christina Koningisor, follows, with my emphases and comments:

Foaming at the mouth, rolling of the eyes, assuming serpentine characteristics in the face or body: all classic signs, explains Father Gary Thomas, of demonic influence.

Father Thomas, pastor of the Sacred Heart Parish in Saratoga, California, is an avid Giants fan and a 28-year veteran of the priesthood. He is also a practicing exorcist; in the fall of 2005, Father Thomas traveled to Rome to complete a year-long training course under the tutelage of a master Italian exorcist. The story of his training inspired The Rite, a Warner Brothers film starring Anthony Hopkins that opens in theaters Friday.

Despite this fictional portrayal, Father Thomas is also the embodiment of a new trend in the American Catholic church: Long the purview of American cinema, Catholic exorcism is being reclaimed, publicly, by its real-life practitioners. A factual account of Father Thomas's training has been published in a book by journalist Matt Baglio; the Discovery Channel recently announced the airing of a reality show featuring the accounts of trained Catholic exorcists (though the Vatican has denied any official involvement with the series); and last November, Bishop Thomas John Paprocki of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois convened a two-day conference to discuss the practice of exorcism within the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church does not maintain official statistics on exorcisms. Yet Bishop Paprocki estimates that there are only around 30 priests in the United States qualified to perform the Rite of Exorcism, and he argues [he suggested it more than he argued it] that these priests must contend with a growing number of exorcism requests. The exorcism conference included sessions devoted to canon law and the dangers of an improperly performed exorcism, and the bishop hopes to eventually create a network of exorcists that extends across the United States. He also envisions the establishment of a formal program to train the next generation of exorcists. "The priests who have this responsibility get exorcism requests from all over the country," he explains. "We want to prevent these priests from being overburdened."

Roughly a quarter of active bishops in the United States registered for the event, underscoring a growing interest in the Rite of Exorcism--a ritual that has remained, among American Catholics, relatively obscure. Historically, Catholics in the United States have been concerned with successfully assimilating into a majority-Protestant culture, explains Mathew Schmalz, a Professor of Religion at the College of the Holy Cross. They began to distance themselves from religious practices that came across as odd or out of place: the 1949 exorcism that inspired the 1970's film The Exorcist, for example, was the last to be held in the archdiocese of Washington, D.C. [I'm not sure what she means here; the 70s film was based on actual events that happened in St. Louis.]

Today, however, broader changes within the church's leadership and its flock have brought attention back to the ritual. Many of today's Catholic worshippers are drawn from immigrant communities with a strong tradition of religious exorcism, explains Schmalz, and their members are accustomed to seeking priestly assistance with the expulsion of satanic influences. He believes that the movement also stems from an effort to reclaim the centrality and distinctiveness of the priest's role. "There is a feeling that priests' lack of specialness is among the reasons for a decline in interest in joining the priesthood," he says. "If a priest has the power to cast out demons, that's a lot of power." [But to say that a renewed interest in exorcism will lead to an increase of men pursuing the priesthood seems a long strength to me.]

Father Thomas, however, points to more insidious forces: he views the rising demand for exorcisms as a consequence of increased involvement in the occult [this sounds much more reasonable]. And once the door has been opened to satanic influence, he warns, it is both difficult and dangerous to close. An improperly trained exorcist can place both himself and his charge in great peril: "As a cardinal rule you never talk to demons," he says. "Demons are, by their nature, devious, and they lie. They can engage you in all kinds of conversation to throw you off track."

The priest recently conveyed this advice to Anthony Hopkins, one of the stars of The Rite--a film that joins a long tradition of dramatic fictionalized depictions of the church's battles with the devil. Yet the reality of Catholic exorcism, cautions one Pennsylvania-based priest, is far more banal. "The worst people do is growl or make noise," he says, "although I had one client who repeated the first three lines of 'Hickory Dickory Dock' over and over again--and that drove me crazy."

Rather than a spectacle of spinning heads and violent tantrums, he says, a true exorcism does not necessarily lend itself to the big screen; the real torment and suffering is internal.

Now we're getting somewhere

From Catholic Culture:

Denouncing “Christianophobia,” the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe has passed a resolution condemning violence against Christians in the Middle East and calling for the development of “a list of measures against states which knowingly fail to protect religious denominations.”

The assembly called upon European nations to “refrain from encouraging the members of the Christian communities in the Middle East to seek refuge in Europe, except in cases where the survival of such communities becomes impossible; in the latter cases, member states should take fully.” At the same time, the resolution urged European states to “develop a comprehensive policy of asylum based on religious grounds, which would acknowledge in particular the specific situation of those who convert to another religion”-- a clear reference to Muslim converts to Christianity who face the prospect of death in their native lands.