The Exorcist - Redux

More than a year after my post about Harry Potter and the Exorcist, here are two news stories reported on IBN Live, within the space of a month. In one, the Vatican says that Harry Potter is the wrong kind of hero, and in the other the Vatican's chief exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth (now I finally know the name of the guy I was speculating about in my last post), talks about how exorcism is more and more necessary in today's world.

Apparently, the story of Harry Potter glorifies the knowledge of the occult (read as knowledge, period) . Apparently, intellectuals feel that using knowledge, they can turn dark powers to good. How? By using nuclear power to power cities and factories rather than to blow up the earth, stuff like that maybe. The positive values that we come across in the book are apparently of no use, as the tale is set in the backdrop of witchcraft, which, instead of being shunned and reviled, is actually portrayed in a positive light.

In the previous post I had wondered why the church simply doesn't make DVDs of exorcisms to prove the truth and make a killing at the box-office at the same time. The news clip reveals that the catholic church forbids filming real exorcisms. Hmm... wonder why. Could it be because people will figure out that there is just some crazy mumbo-jumbo happening there, and that there are no levitating beds and priests being flung to the corner of the room by girls regurgitating green vomit?

According to the man in charge of exorcisms in the Vatican, the action of the devil is a lot more widespread now than in the past because the devil is being given more space. For three centuries now, the church has almost totally abandoned exorcisms, and so now there are hardly any priests equipped to handle the possessed. These priests, because of their ignorance, send people to psychiatrists and psychologists instead of exorcising them. "Thank god", the father said, "that there is a pope who wants to fight the devil head on."

I suppose the Vatican will keep issuing statements like these and I will keep writing blogposts to try and show how completely ridiculous they are. Here's to a long and healthy blogging career.