Satanic sect members arrested

Six members of satanic sect arrested for coercion, in Chiclana de la Frontera (Cadiz)

The Civil Guard has undertaken the dismantling of a sect with the arrest of six suspects who allegedly made money out of its members after achieving "control over their wills" coerced with esoteric and satanic rites.

The Armed Institute said in a statement, that 'operation Creator' was launched early last September, when he learned that a house located in Chiclana de la Frontera (Cadiz) could be practicing satanic rites and that animals were being sacrificed.

After six weeks of investigation, agents were able to verify the accuracy of the facts, identifying people who ran these ceremonies, a pairing only known as CJRL, 34, and MMP 24.

According to the Guardia Civil, these people advertised in the "ads section " of various media with the following: "Teacher, Seer, Witch Satan Spiritual experience and reliability, power in all areas to solve problems, especially getting a loved partner back, remove the evil eye, impotence, and so on. Guaranteed 100%".

Once potential customers contact the couple mentioned, these were offered the solution to any problem through all kinds of activities related to Santeria, esoteric and satanic rites, while they were held in the house like prisoners.

Through its activities, the suspects came to "obliterate the personality of their victims, creating a relationship of subordination and total dependence" to achieve, in some cases to agree to the sale of all their properties and deliver the money of the sale to the couple in question. Similarly, and after convincing them that if they disobeyed their orders, the devil would kill the victims family first and it eventually led to them acting as their "slaves".

More reaction to Chris Selley's illiberal tripe

Mark Steyn weighs in:

So which response to this issue is, in Chris Selley's words, "a few chick peas short of a falafel"? The Misses Geller and Shaidle? Or the sensible, reasonable, moderate, measured approach of the PC eunuchs at Canada's most-watched TV stations and major metropolitan newspapers?

When Ezra Levant went nuclear on the "human rights" regime's medieval ass, wise old birds like Catsmeat Kinsella cautioned that Canadians wouldn't put up with some bezerk loon trashing "their" beloved human rights commissions. Really? Whether or not we achieve the repeal of Section 13 and its provincial equivalents, I doubt The Globe & Mail, Professor Moon, and even very tentatively the House of Commons would even be considering the question had it not been for Ezra going ballistic. That's what it took to drag the debate even half-an-inch in the direction of sanity.

I have no views on Chris Selley one way or the other. But I note his response to the Prime Minister's interview with Ken Whyte:

Principal Harper Ends The Free Speech Food Fight.

Each to his own. I don't happen to think of the Queen's first minister as the "principal" with me and the rest of the citizenry as his charges. The head of government is no more or less than just that: He is not my "leader", and certainly not on inalienable rights. But the headline seems to sum up Mr Selley's approach: the judicious arbiter settling midway between two extremes.

Not for me. As I've said re the so-called "global consensus" of the UN, if you mix half-a-pint of vanilla ice cream with half-a-pint of dog feces the result will taste more like the latter than the former. Likewise, if you split the difference between me and Commissar Barbara Hall, or Ezra and Jennifer Lynch, QC, you're still quite a long ways down the road to tyranny. "Moderation" - of the CTV/Gazette school - is a euphemism for drift, for letting the culture be tugged gently, imperceptibly, remorselessly into darkness:

I like the way Deborah Gyapong puts it:

You know why I want to defend Kathy Shaidle? Because she helps keep me honest about whether my civility really is a choice and not a blind or fearful conformity to the pressures of political correctness. She helps me to think about where I might be influenced by group think and the progressive air we breathe in Ottawa. She reminds me of where the line is between kindness and weakness.

Just so. Self-suppression is the most cost-effective form of tyranny. Or as Andrew Klavan says:

The whole way liberals work is to redefine manners and morals in such a fashion that conservative common sense automatically becomes hateful. If you note that women and men are different, you’re misogynistic. If you denounce the destruction of marriage in black communities, you’re racist or moralistic. If you call for the defense of America against the world-wide Islamist menace, you’re a bigoted warmonger. If we take this garbage seriously even for an instant, we spend our whole lives playing catch-up, saying sorry, going on defense.

The Binks adds:

~ WORD HAS IT NATPOST SCRIBBLER CHRIS SELLEY thinks Pam Geller and the Binks family and all the others who wanted a decent memorial stone for honour-slaughtered Canadian teen Aqsa Parvez are not very sensible people.

Ottawegian journalist Deb Gyapong weighs in; as has the inimitable Kathy Shaidle, Pam herself, and others. I had this to say a little while back, in a letter to Jason Kenney. Looks like Teh Steyn has chimed in, too.

Catses & Meeses

OK– imagine: There is a big cat around, which most of the mice are afraid to mention, let alone ponder belling. Some of the mice are even into denying the existence or intent of said cat, and consider the concerned mice or pro-bell mice to be dangerous trouble-making catophobes (technically speaking, Ailurophobes). Even mentioning mice freshly eaten by the cat causes outrage and fear: better just blame those crazy cat-conspiracy mice for bringing it up.

The cats change, but the cowardly mice are always with us, seeking peace with the cat; cat-denial; blaming other mice; writing books about how all the cats are actually the best friends of mice, and are gravely misunderstood. The save-your-ass at the expense of others instinct; the feeding of other mice to the cat, hoping you might be last; the half-conscious denial of the whole cat-problem. Can you say “Peace In Our Time” with kindly Herr Hitler? Meanwhile, the dead mice pile ever up, lives needlessly sacrificed, in various ways and for various noble-sounding reasons, but no less dead.

Modern day witchcraft

Probably one of the most emailed-around articles on Election Day was this:

“In western Kenya, relatives, friends and a bull ready for slaughter were massed around the homestead of Barack Obama's late father, awaiting a hoped-for victory for their new favourite son…Leading in US opinion polls over Republican rival John McCain, Obama received some added support in Kenya with special prayer sessions and even a victory prediction from a local witch doctor.” [Obama's Kenyan relatives ready bull for slaughter, by Odhiambo Akombo, AFP, November 4, 2008]

Witch doctor?

In the wide, wide world of diversity, there's nothing quite as pungent as witchcraft. In many ways it is the gold standard of primitive anti-civilization belief systems—because it takes the human yearning for meaning and plops out credos that are reason-free and often violence-prone.

And because witchcraft and superstition represent such a complete refutation of multiculturalism—the ideology that all cultures are morally equal—there is little discussion in the polite liberal press when monstrous crimes result. The tone is one of proper shock, e.g.: isn't it terrible these things still go on in the world? Yet immigration in large numbers from these same societies is accepted with no question.

Man killed because he said he believed in God

VALENCIA -- A 21-year-old Valencia woman has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in the stabbing death of a man who told her he'd seen God.

Samantha Elizabeth Rothwell, who said she communicated with the devil, was convicted of second-degree murder for killing 18-year-old Walter Rivas in August 2006.

Rivas was attacked on the balcony of a Huntington Beach hotel room as a group of friends and acquaintances gathered outside to smoke.

Prosecutors say Rivas remarked that it had been such a beautiful day that he had "seen God."

Rothwell replied, "I'm the devil and don't talk about God or I'll stab you," then went to her room, prosecutors said. The young woman returned soon after with a small pocket knife from her purse and stabbed Rivas in the jugular vein and back.

The Defilers news

Read what people are saying about The Defilers here. An excerpt here.

If you'd like to buy a copy, you can go here or find it on Amazon here. Canadians can find it at Amazon.ca here.
Photo by Chris Humphrey Photography CHPhotography@verizon.net. More photos here.

Priest faces fraud investigation for alleged fake exorcisms

Florence, Apr 6, 2008 / 02:10 am (CNA).- A priest in Florence is being investigated for fraud after allegedly earning millions by performing fake exorcisms, the Telegraph reports.

Prosecutors alleged that Father Francesco Saverio Bazzoffi would “stage shows” before crowds of more than 400 people at the House of the Sainted Archangels, an organization he founded.

According to prosecutors, the priest’s associates would “pretend to be possessed by demons” and Father Bazzoffi would allegedly exorcise them using obscure rites.

The priest would then offer to heal members of the audience who were sick and solicit donations to his organization.

“During Mass, the priest spoke in Aramaic, and strange things happened. I do not know if it was group hysteria or our suggestibility, but I remember one old woman screaming in a man's voice while five big guys held her down,” one witness told police, according to the Telegraph.

snip

“I would like to make clear the following: any sort of special rite of benediction, such as the laying on of hands, is forbidden. Exorcisms are also prohibited,” the cardinal wrote in his letter. A priest must be authorized by the diocese to carry out an exorcism.

Big feature on exocism in The Ottawa Citizen

Jennifer Green has a big feature on exorcism in the Saturday Observer section of The Ottawa Citizen.

She writes:

But in the past few decades, the devil has returned. As the late John Paul II said, "Anyone who does not believe in the devil does not believe in the gospels."

His successor, Pope Benedict XVI, exhorts the faithful to take Satan seriously, praises his team of exorcists, offers university courses in exorcism and calls for more exorcists around the world.

One Vatican City priest told his congregation on Ash Wednesday: "How could a person know anything about Satan if he has never encountered the reality of Satan but only the idea of Satan? ... It is like someone who brags about not being afraid of lions and proves this by pointing out that he has seen many paintings of lions and was never frightened of them."

Only 37 per cent of Canadians believe in the devil, but twice that number of Americans do. Well over half of Latin Americans and African also believe in Satan and 80 per cent of Pentecostal Christians in those regions say angels and demons are active in the world.

Most interesting. My novel The Defilers deals with exorcism, and whether demonic oppression is real.

Ottawa Archbishop appoints two priests as exorcists

The Ottawa Citizen's Jenny Green has a most interesting story on this today.

She writes:

Ottawa's Catholic archbishop has appointed at least two new exorcists, one each for the English and French communities, replacing the region's last exorcist who retired five years ago.

The archdiocese will not name the priests, or say how many exorcists there are for fear of a flood of phone calls. Msgr. Kevin Beach says all the men are experienced clergy with overseas experience, some in areas of the world where belief in demons is more robust than it is in North America.

He said it wasn't easy to find men with the right qualifications, nor was it easy to persuade them to take the duties.

"I think they had to give prayerful consideration. If they are looking for the job, that's not the person you want."

They all have other duties as well as their new roles.

The archdiocese doesn't receive any more than seven or eight calls a year. Nor are the callers any more likely to be possessed -- in the past 15 years, Ottawa clergy say they have had only one case of demonic possession.

But exorcism has always been part of the Catholic ministry, even if it has fallen by the wayside in the last generation.

Green has an interview with the archdiocese's retired exorcist here:

Q: How do you separate what is human evil and what is demonic? I might be tempted to cheat on my taxes. Is that demonic temptation?

A: That's human nature. But the enemy might use it to get us in deeper. He may get you to lie about the reality of your situation. The devil is deceit. So it can (start) as something that is human but can be led in the wrong direction.

There was a young fellow who came for counselling. He was having difficulty controlling himself and his actions. One day he said to me, "I have a feeling of rage. I hear in my mind, the voice says, 'Kill.' I haven't done it yet, but there is that compulsion."

I started asking about the video games he had played as a child and they were full of violence. So it's not surprising to me we have these shooting incidents in high schools.

Q: Are they the work of the devil?

A: I have to take it from the point of view that the devil is against mankind. There is no doubt about it - he wants to ruin everybody. He doesn't just have a few favourites that he works on. He tries to get his hoof in wherever he can.

Green also blogs about how she came across this story.

Just two days before the story was to appear, I met Ottawa's former exorcist, a gentle, elderly man with shaking hands. We read a passage of scripture and said a prayer before the interview, and he anointed me with holy oil afterwards. He prayed that I would find my way to the truth, which is as good a journalist's prayer as I have ever heard.
I found myself relaxing utterly in the prayers, and the anointing, although I joked to friends later that he was probably trying to see if the oil made me sizzle and smoke, a gutter dog of the press.
In the final drafts, my editors looked at me funny and struggled to find a tactful way to ask, ‘do you really believe this stuff?' They settled on, ‘who are you readers here? People who believe this stuff?'
By the end of the day, I shook my head with a smile and shrugged. ‘I'm laughing at this stuff," I told them, "but not very hard."
Why trouble trouble? I think I'll tiptoe away.

Documented case of demon possession

An American woman who levitated, demonstrated paranormal psychic powers and spoke foreign languages unknown to her was clearly demon possessed, according to a board-certified psychiatrist and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College.

The unnamed woman, with a long history of involvement with Satanic groups, was observed by a team of priests, deacons, several lay assistants, psychiatrists, nuns, some of whom also had medical and psychiatric training, levitating six inches off the ground while objects flew off shelves in the same room, according to Dr. Richard E. Gallagher, who documented the case in the February issue of the New Oxford Review.

"Periodically, in our presence, Julia would go into a trance state of a recurring nature," writes Gallagher. "Mentally troubled individuals often 'dissociate,' but Julia's trances were accompanied by an unusual phenomenon: Out of her mouth would come various threats, taunts and scatological language, phrases like 'Leave her alone, you idiot,' 'She's ours,' 'Leave, you imbecile priest,' or just 'Leave.' The tone of this voice differed markedly from Julia's own, and it varied, sometimes sounding guttural and vaguely masculine, at other points high pitched. Most of her comments during these 'trances,' or at the subsequent exorcisms, displayed a marked contempt for anything religious or sacred."