Fighting the Devil
Relics
are particles of the bodies of saints, or things that have touched their bodies
or the body of Christ or Mary. Normally,
indulgences are "attached" to the relics and can be gained by anyone
possessing them, venerating them or kissing them.
But
all this was insignificant compared with the discovery-officially endorsed by
the Church-of the foreskin or prepuce of Jesus in
Some
of these were even revealed by Christ, Mary or the saints.
Thus Mary taught St. Dominic how to say the rosary and
In
recent generations the accent in indulgenced articles has been on medals.
The two most popular have been the scapular and the miraculous medals.
They replace the clumsy cloth scapulars which would be disconcerting when
worn with a low-cut sexy evening gown but as a medal can be carried
unobtrusively in a purse or billfold and still give a beautiful girl an
indulgence from the sin she is committing by tempting a willing young swain to
evil thoughts.
Holy
water is one of the oldest and most widely used blessed objects.
Its use not only conveys indulgences when entering church, but it keeps
lightning out of the house and drives away devils.
An ancient proverb depicts aversion: "Like the devil loves holy
water."
A
list of these superstitious objects and their blessings could fill a book, and
indeed it has-the Rituale Romanum recently endorsed by the
AU
these blessed things become channels of God's grace, and when indulgenced join
the vast panoply of animate and inanimate objects conscripted to substitute for
personal spiritual effort in the avoidance of or atonement for crime and sin.
The
foundations of superstition are laid in the Roman Catholic classroom.
Little children are taught not only about God, the Trinity, Mary and the
saints. Their childish imaginations
revel in a whole fairyland of spirits as fantastic in their deeds and worlds as
the land of Oz or the Arabian Nights or the kingdoms of Hans Christian Andersen.
There are angels and archangels, cherubim and seraphim, thrones and
dominations.
Children
learn of the crisis in paradise before the beginning of the world when the great
angelic leader, Michael, squared off against the most brilliant creature below
the throne of God Himself, Lucifer, and in the titanic struggle that rocked the
universe, swept Lucifer and his proud minions into the depths of bell.
The nuns keep repeating to their believing pupils that those fallen
angels are the devils who roam the earth unseen while whispering in unwary
little ears constant temptations to sin.
The
enemy of the devil is the guardian angel, assigned to "love us, pray for
us, encourage us to good and protect us from harm in soul and body."
A
common portrait framed on parochial classroom walls shows a beautiful child
about to wander off a cliff restrained by the hand of a colorful angel.
In lieu of the Protestant child's prayer, "Now I lay me down to
sleep,"' the Catholic youngster learns to recite at nighttime:
To
whom His love commits me here,
Ever
this day be at my side,
To
light and guard, to rule and guide.
The
satirical circus-like scene of the apparition of the Virgin Mary to the devilish
little children in "La Dolce Vita" was to me the most delightful gem
in the film, because the superstitious reaction of the faithful, including
priests, was so typical and so historically true.
In
spite of Catholic verbal denial of superstition, its own official
over-preoccupation with spirits, good and bad, fosters superstition in its less
discerning members. They are only
too prone to blame the devil's temptations for their lapses and condone their
own moral weaknesses. They are
inclined also to expect the guardian angel and the magical power of St.
Christopher to protect them on highways without constant reliance on human
precautions.
During
wars Catholic servicemen are encouraged to wear blessed medals over their hearts
to ward off deadly bullets. Water
from the Shrine of Lourdes becomes a better cure for a varicose ulcer than a
saphenous vein ligation. Viewers of
television sports events can see Catholic boxers and wrestlers making the sign
of the cross before attempting mayhem, and Catholic football squads slipping to
their knees in huddles asking God to favor them over any heretical-or opposing
Catholic adversaries.
In
the most sheltered spot of all, Padre Junipero Serra, the founder of the
California Mission chain, built his favorite church.
It was dedicated to Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
It became his chosen retreat, and here the saintly colonizer died and is
buried.
When
the Mexicans chased out the Spaniards, and the Americans under Colonel Fremont
conquered the California Mexicans, all the missions came upon evil days.
Some were gradually returned to Catholic use, but the original
Franciscans had died, and
The
priest lived out his years in a semblance of sanctity with a full measure of
comfort, and was gathered to his fathers.
The
faithful of the area began to see strange things.
As they walked through the mission garden of an evening after the
recitation of the rosary, they heard spectral wails in a key different from that
of the winds that whipped through the beaten cypress.
They saw a wraith of a figure in the black robes of a secular priest with
a long beard concealing any possibility of recognition.
A bold soul approached him one night and asked why he trod the earth in
restless anguish. He replied that
many years before he bad taken money, given him for holy Masses, and had spent
it for his own pleasure and had not recited the Masses for the intention of the
giver. His punishment was to walk
the hills and beaches of
The
faithful could not identify the spectral priest.
Their late pastor had been clean-shaven.
But an aged Indian, whose life had bridged the realms of the Spanish, the
Mexicans and the Americans, produced a faded picture of the Irish priest as a
younger man adorned with a full beard. The
kindly people gathered a substantial sum and gave it to the pastor of Carmel
Mission with the stipulation that Masses be recited to pay off the spiritual
debt of his predecessor. The ghost
of the bearded priest was never seen again.
That
story was told us at Santa Barbara Mission to emphasize the consequences of
neglect or malice in handling of Mass offerings.
We believed it! Not as a symbolic myth, but as literal truth, as fact!
The
Archbishop of San Francisco is a very powerful man.
His jurisdiction covers several hundred thousand Catholics, and his
authority over his hundreds of priests is absolute.
The
story goes that one of his priests in the city of
The
diocesan officials ordered his body brought back to
In
his former parish church, strange things began to happen.
At midnight lights would go on, invisible hands would light the altar
candles, a casket would float up the aisle toward the altar while the organ
pealed out the "dies irae, dies illa" (O that day, that day of wrath).
Neighboring parishioners noticed the church lights and informed the
pastor. He hid in one of the
confessionals and saw the eerie ceremony. Controlling
his own fear he stepped out, approached the floating coffin and recognized the
spectral body of the exiled parish priest. The
next day he learned that the dead priest had stipulated in his will that he
should be buried from that particular church.
The
pastor called his two assistant parish priests, his organist and his choir
director. He swore them to secrecy
and told them the story. That night
when the corpse arrived they stood in full funeral vestments and chanted the
solemn requiem
The
Archbishop of San Francisco heard of the incident, rumor had it, and called in
all the principals. If e swore
everybody to secrecy. Even the
priests of the area were forbidden to discuss the apparition.
As usual, censorship failed. We
heard the story in
Parochial
school children are constantly reminded of the Church's missionary work.
As seminarians we were encouraged to volunteer for service in the two
pagan fields assigned to our Province of the Franciscan Order.
One was a section of
In
catechism classes children are taught that God permits the devil to
"possess" souls, to take possession of their faculties.
We were told also that possession was more frequent in those pagan areas
not yet thoroughly Christianized.
One
devout missionary priest was making laudable progress among the devil
worshippers in the Apache tribe on the
One
evening, after the sun had set, the padre drove his car around a mountain curve,
and his eye caught the figure of a black stallion poised on a ledge some forty
feet above the road. When he was
directly below the spot the horse jumped. It
landed a straddle the engine hood, the face looking at him through the
windshield. The eyes glowed with the
satanic fire of a possessing devil, and the mouth was twisted into a hellish
leer. As the frightened priest
jammed on the brakes, the horse leaped into the canyon on the other side of the
road, and echoes of demoniac laughter warned the man of God that Lucifer would
not give up his Apache kingdom without a struggle.
When
Protestants bring fantastic tales of this nature to the attention of the Roman
Catholic clergy, they are told that such stories represent the mental
aberrations of the small Roman Catholic illiterate fringe.
But St. Michael's Church in
The
Catholic Church teaches that every unbaptized baby is possessed by the devil. In
the baptismal ceremony before the water is poured, the priest must drive out
that devil:
In
the latest official Roman Ritual (Rituale Ronwnum) embellished with the coat of
arms and an introductory letter of Francis Cardinal Spellman,
Instruction
5: Be cautious of the arts and deceptions that the devils use to disconcert the
exorcist (the priest); they usually lie, and make things so difficult that the
priest gets tired, or the patient appears not to be possessed at all.
Instruction
9: Sometimes the devil will leave the patient and permit him to receive the Holy
Eucharist. There are innumerable
tricks and frauds that the devil will use to deceive.
The priest-exorcist must be cautious.
Instruction
13: Let the priest-exorcist keep the crucifix in his band or at least in sight.
Relies of the saints, if available, should be carefully touched to the
head and breast of the possessed but let him beware lest these sacred objects be
abused or in any way damaged by the
devil.
Instruction
19: When exorcising a woman let the priest always have responsible people,
preferably relatives, to bold down the woman while the devil is agitating her
and let him be careful not to say or do anything that might provoke obscene
thoughts either in himself or in others.
Instruction
20: The priest should ask the devil if be was forced into the body of the
possessed person by some trick or magic (ob aliquam,
operam magicam) or an evil spell, or potion, which if the possessed has
taken by mouth he should be made to vomit up.
The devil must be forced to reveal any such physical evil things
(potions, charms, fetishes, etc.) still outside the body, and these must be
burned.'
Most
vile dragon, in the name of the Immaculate Lamb, who trod upon the asp and the
basilisk, who conquered the lion and the dragon, I command you to get out of
this man, to get out of the
I
have been perusing with deep interest your volume People's
Padre. It brings back a flood of
poignant memories. I am now an old
man, just past eighty. I joined the
Dominicans as a mere boy of seventeen back in the nineties.
I entered the novitiate at
Every
detail of your life story struck a sympathetic chord and made me live again
those experiences which have left an unhealed heart wound.
Across the miles that separate us, I extend to you the hand of spiritual
fellowship. There is a bond between
such as we are, though we do stand isolated and alone.
We have left many behind, still hiding under the shadow of an imposing
organization, who envy us in the decision we have made.
They fear to leave the protecting walls of the cloister to go forth as
single individuals pitted against a powerful institution.
If the defenses of the Church are ever destined to fall, you will behold
an exodus from the fold, not merely individually, but en masse.
/1' There are many half-hearted priests with little conviction of their own;
they hardly dare to breathe their doubts except by way of innuendo.
They have social and financial security assured them and lack the courage
to face the big outside world on their own.
The
claims of the Church are becoming more preposterous every day.
She has used her hypnotism over those born in the fold. She
keeps captive the minds of her faithful and would even imprison Christ in her
tabernacles.
Her
claim to monopolize God is as pretentious as a monopoly of sunshine and fresh
air. She continues to dominate by
threats and fear and has deprived God of his sanctions.
Her
whole system is a fabric of magic formula and taboos.
Her sacraments are rites of magic and incantation.
Her devotions seem to ignore God Himself and leave Him enveloped in the
shadow of the saints. Divinity goes
begging while relies are made objects of veneration.
It
may seem strange, but ever since I left the Church, nearly fifty years ago, I
have never felt the faintest qualm or experienced the slightest desire for
reconciliation. I went forth deeply
disillusioned and thoroughly at odds with the Church's claims and this frame of
mind has only strengthened with the passing years.
It
is shocking when you consider how little genuine thinking is done by the
Catholic laity and even by the priesthood. Very
few Catholics ever realize that they have never enjoyed the privilege of
choosing their own religion; from the cradle on, religion is imposed upon
everyone born in the Church. Any
Catholic who feels a misgiving and entertains a questioning mind commits a
mortal sin. He is told to make the
sign of the cross against even the shadow of a doubt.
I
have been astounded at the utter ignorance of priests with regard to early
Church history and their absolute indifference to exegetical study of the
scriptures. The old stereotyped
proofs of the faith taught in the theological curriculum are as obsolete as
medieval breastplates in modern warfare. Complacency
in satisfied ignorance is the bane of the Church today.
She is still fighting Luther and the presbyter of the sixteenth century,
and fails to realize that they are but windmills and phantoms.
Science
has not made a dent in her beliefs because she blandly ignores science and calls
it "pride of intellect." She closes her eyes and stops her ears
against persuasion and refuses to own that there is anything wrong with herself.
'Cleave
ever to the sunnier side of doubt,
And
cling to Faith beyond the forms of Faith."