I read the Weekend Oz magazine story with some shock, do please have a read through this:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/deliver-us-from-evil/story-e6frg8h6-1225967837921

The new pope is setting a new low for religion, and his servant, Cardinal Pell, is doing a good job in trying to take our nation backwards with his world view.

This is more in-line with what Pentacostal's are up to, with their 'healing rooms' where they grow limbs back, banish diseases that doctors struggle with, and remove serpents, and eggs, from people's chests.

Naturally, now The Australian has become a de facto mouthpiece for the Vicar of God's business in Australia, it was no shock that they'd run a story like this.

Love to hear what others think.

If this is where our tax-free dollars go, supporting a pre-Enlightenment worldview, should we be reviewing the situation?

clearly you think demonic possesion is some fable
do you have any proof..its a con..or a lie

or is it just wishfull thinking
or a dumb hunch..[hope]

anyhow...please present your facts

you think teaching kids about harry potter
toothfairy/santa claws/easter bunny....is ok

or the new age-ism stuff..
astral travel...auras...spirit writing

ie just hate religeon..
or all that..generalised..spiritual stuff

anyhow offer your proof*..of no god

or no demons...no hell...no heaven...no afterlife

your soooo clever...give some proof..!
theory...ridicule..isnt proof

you athiests are winning...
trouble being...you dont realise the prize...you win
might just cost you...and your children..more than you thought

is it ok to believe in fairy-tales...but not religeon
i donty recall you critisizing hairy porter..or bewitched
just this obesession with the cathoholics...seems your only constant

Yet another reason why I no longer buy the Oz,
after having been in the practice of doing so
regularly all my adult life. It really is a
worry that so many of those who govern us take
this sort of hocus pocus seriously.

@one under god, the difference is that most adults
know that fairy stories, Harry Potter, Santa Claus
etc are just make-believe. The problem with
this demon garbage is that some adults take it
deadly seriously, apparently including a significant
number of our senior politicians and power brokers.

That is worrisome indeed.

TBC:

Thanks for the link. What a fascinating article! I had no idea that
exorcisms still take place today. I thought they were very hush, hush,
simply because possession was difficult to verify because the phenomenon could result from causes other than evil spirits. I did know that the Catholic Church in the A.D. 200s established the office of "exorcist", one who performs an exorcism and that priests that hold this office required a bishop's permission to perform the ceremony, so it's not something that's entered into lightly. But I had no idea that these ceremonies were on the increase in Australia.
I find that somewhat disturbing to say the least. Are people really that troubled? And if they are - what the heck - if an exorcism will make them feel better - it's better then drugs isn't it? It's all very well to brush things aside and say - "It's all in your mind!"
But if that's the case and you believe that some ceremony will help get rid of the problem - I say go for it! Whatever rocks your boat, so to speak. This reminds me of what the French writer Voltaire said when asked on his deathbed to renounce the devil:

"This is no time to make new enemies!" ;-)

In the beginning Man created God.
Even now we continue to create new ones.
And our creations keep us from being one.
Some day soon, a new God yes another one will be invented.
I can think off a few , say a murderous human bomber returns to life with a report that the 72 virgins do not exist but a special hell is in place for his like.
Let our next invented God be one that demands all humanity is one, this time with no room for we are better than them.
We can begin by exorcising evil from every church yes every one of them,not inferring they are all evil but too many are.

OUG, what a classic response, a real cartoon Christian one if you don't mind me saying so.

As Talisman says, if you equate Pell's demons with Harry Potter, Peter Pan, and Winnie the Pooh, then I have to ask, have you lost-the-plot just a little?

Don't you know the origins of Easter, bunnies, eggs and so on? Or Christmas for that matter?

No doubt, once runner gets on here, he too will be telling us all these celebrations of life came from the birth of Jesus, which oddly enough happened on a day already celebrated for millennia by others, as with his death.

How odd, or as my grannie used to say, borrowed from a concert hall line, 'how odd, of God, to choose, the Jews'.

Perhaps the very Vatican Oz wrote the story to raise ridicule OUG?

Who knows, but I posted the story because I am honestly staggered that anyone outside a third-world devil-and-serpent riddled nation, where most xtians are coming from these days, would seriously cater for this sort of excessive Mumbo.

And I am not alone, OUG.

Try this Catholic web page for a start:
http://www.catholica.com.au/forum/index.php?mode=printthread&thread=61756

Lexi, you have to know that Pentacostals, Baptists and other sundry religionists-of-ridicule, AOG frinstance, very much believe in this Mumbo, so the Vicar of God is not alone in his madness.

Worse, there are up to 2700 of these fruitcakes walking around schools in Australia, posing as 'school chaplains' and on the payroll of the ATO, whilst also gold-digging into P&C funds and directly into the pockets of students and parents in their fund raising efforts.

This is seriously sad, dangerous, and unwarranted.

But if Harry Potter is real, could we use him to fight the Vicar of God back into the Darkness, where he belongs?