Fr Euteneuer says occult is on the rise

Fr Euteneuer warns that many forms of popular entertainment are portals by which satan enters souls.

“Most people with demonic problems have opened a door somewhere,” said Fr. Euteneuer. He cited the popularity of the occult in bringing people closer to demonic interaction, primarily through the growth of the New Age movement and other paraphernalia. He said that even Hasbro markets Ouija boards to children.

“I’m very set against Harry Potter,” he said. “It’s pumping into our children’s minds the language and imagery of the occult. It’s extremely spiritually dangerous.”

He also called attention to a growing fascination with the cult of the vampire, especially through the popularity of books and movies like Twilight, where the main character falls in love with a vampire.“

I predict that in the next 10 years or so, we’ll see an explosion of occult activity,” said Fr. Euteneuer. “The number of soft-core occultism in the form of things like Harry Potter, Wicca and the New Age is on the increase.

These are the gateways to the hardcore stuff. Ask any inner-city police department if they’re seeing evidence of Satanism. They’re organizing whole task forces to deal with crimes having to do with these things. As society becomes more faithless, this wickedness comes and fills the vacuum.”

This is where I get my aversion to books like Harry Potter, and the ubiquitous Twilight series. I trust priests like Fr Gabriele Amorth and Fr Euteneuer who have dealt with the devil in souls. They are speaking from experience, not personal taste. We should listen to them before someone we love is ensnared.

Read the entire story here. at The Bulletin.

I'll be attending this conference this weekend

The Battle For Souls
Spiritual Warfare Conference

October 17, 18 and 19, 2008
St. Matthew’s Roman Catholic Church
35 North Service Road Dix Hills, NY 1174
call (631) 793-1246
featuring:
Moira M. Noonan
Rev. John J. McCartney
Music by Al Barbarino

Friday Schedule:
Benediction 7:30 PM



Saturday Schedule:

Marty Rotella Singing 9:00am
Moira M. Noonan 9:30 am
Lunch 12-100 pm
Rosary 1:00-1:30
Susan Brinkmann 130-230
Divine Mercy Chaplet 3:00
Dr. Thomas Petrisko 3:15
Holy Sacrifice of the Mass 4:30
Spanish Group after Mass 7:00

Sunday is Youth Day
Moira will speak
to the youth after
the 9:30am Mass

Featured speakers include:
Moira M. Noonan
“Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, Lord.” These words of St. Augustine reflect the deep seated human desire for spiritual things. It is as if we are interiorly programmed to seek God and the things of God. Unfortunately, because of our fallen human nature, many people are looking for the divine in all the wrong places. Some get involved in the occult and its dark practices. Others latch onto the New Age movement and its promise of enlightenment. In 1993, after a series of powerful conversion experiences, Ms. Noonan returned to the Catholic Church, and is now a popular speaker explaining the deeper meaning and influences of the New Age movement. She recently published her first book: Ransomed from Darkness: The New Age, Christian Faith, and the Battle for Souls.
During this day of recollection you will learn what the Catholic Church teaches regarding the occult and the New Age movement.
What is the real message of the New Age Movement and why people are so attracted to it.
How to identify occult practices that have crept into our culture and are being publicly promoted and much more. Read about her new book, "Ransomed From Darkness" here.
Susan Brinkmann O.C.D.S.
Susan Brinkmann, O.C.D.S., author and journalist is, a member of the Third Order of Discalced Carmelites. She is the Editor of Canticle Magazine and a staff writer for Johnnette Benkovic, EWTN host of The Abundant Life. A former Correspondent for The Catholic Standard and Times, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, Susan has won numerous national journalism awards and has devoted her life and talents to building up the Church and tearing down the culture of death.
In addition to two historical fiction novels published by HarperCollins, she is also the author of a book on Carmelite prayer - “Lord Teach Us to Pray” - and a book published by Ascension Press on the fraudulent research of Alfred C. Kinsey - The Kinsey Corruption. Her new study series, Learn to Discern: Is it Christian or New Age will be published in the Fall of 2008.
Dr. Thomas W. Petrisko
Dr. Petrisko is the author of seventeen books concerning a variety of subjects regarding Catholic ideology, visionaries, apparitions and prophecy and publisher of ten newspapers (with millions of editions) concerning Marian apparitions, visionaries and prophecy. He has served as guest speaker at numerous regional and national Marian and Catholic conferences and has had guest appearances on national radio and television programs Joan Rivers Show and as consultant to the Oprah Show. His the president and director of St. Andrew’s Productions and Pittsburgh Center for Peace. Dr. Petrisko is also the father of six children.

The devil and the politician

Chief exorcist of Rome, Fr. Gabried Amorth said, “Everybody is vulnerable to the work of Satan” and that “the devil loves to take over those who hold political office.”
You must be watching CNN, Father!
HT CNA

The Smoke of Satan

A Catholic Perspective has a fascinating interview with Fr. Gabriel Amorth, the chief exorcist of Rome on how sadly, many bishops in the Church feel we no longer need exorcism and why he knows that we do now, more than ever.
Fr. Amorth: "The smoke of Satan has entered everywhere. Everywhere! Perhaps we were excluded from the audience with the Pope because they were afraid that such a large number of exorcists might succeed in chasing out the legions of demons that have installed themselves in the Vatican."
I have read his book, "An Exorcist Tells His Story" and highly recommend it. Fr. Amorth's testimonies of demonic posession are credible and will convince you to pray for the Church to restore the Old Rite of Exorcism. This world has certainly given itself over to Satan's power.
Here is another outstanding article by Fr. Amorth about the power of the rosary against Satan. Read it and you'll never miss your daily prayers with Our Lady again.
"The Hail Mary - The Value of the Rosary. Father Gabriel Amorth, chief exorcist of the Vatican writes:
One day a colleague of mine heard the devil say during an exorcism: "EveryHail Mary is like a blow on my head. If Christians knew how powerful the Rosary was, it would be my end." The secret that makes this prayer soeffective is that the Rosary is both prayer and meditation. It is addressed to the Father, to the Blessed Virgin, and to the Holy Trinity, and is a meditation centred on Christ. "
HT A Catholic Life

Dumbledore; The Gay 'Father Figure'

Years ago, when JK Rowlings was asked if she was concerned about the effect that her "Harry Potter" series had on children, she responded coldly that it wasn't her problem.

And you trusted your children's imaginations with this woman?
OK, here it comes. . .I told you so.
And so did Fr. Gabriele Amorth the chief exorcist of Rome,

and Fr. Tom Euteneuer.

Fr. Andrew Crane on Mercatornet has a different opinion.

Fr. Eutneuer on Harry Potter

Halloween and Harry Potter
Many have asked me my opinion about Harry Potter. There is, among good Catholics, a general unease about the series, but the sense of disquiet is very, very difficult to define. I am at a bit of a disadvantage to comment on any particulars of the books since I have not read any of them or seen the movies, nor do I intend to - I have an aversion to adolescent fads and not enough time to spend on questionable materials when there is so much excellent fare for the soul out there. I do, however, feel it is important to offer some guidance on this issue from a third person point of view because some things can be observed about the books without having read them.
First and foremost, all adolescent obsessions have the capacity to steep the vulnerable souls of these kids in imagery and language that strikes deeper than the sermons they may (or may not) hear on Sunday. Some people give Harry an unqualified "wonderful" rating too quickly because J.K Rowling apparently is a very good writer, but the devotees of a sweeping force like this series tend to pass off the propaganda aspect of these books as harmless because they see it as "innocent" fantasy, and, in my opinion, this is dangerous. 4100 pages of word images about magic and the occult are not harmless, even if they fit the literary genre of "fantasy." Tolkein's Lord of the Rings Trilogy amounts to 1216 pages of beautiful imagery, but relatively few of the pages are about magic, let alone imbued with magic. Indeed, Tolkein's trilogy is a self-consciously mythical representation of reality in the light of the Christian faith, something Rowling can't claim. I find the "fantasy" comparisons of Tolkein and Harry Potter to be deeply flawed.
Fundamentally, Harry Potter indoctrinates young souls in the language and mechanics of the occult. The fact that the fake curses and hexes are not able to be reproduced because the "ingredients" are pure fantasy is beside the point. Curses are not pure fantasy. The fact that "curse" as such, and other elements of witchcraft, are presented in a glorified state throughout the Harry Potter series means that our kids' minds are being introduced to and imbued with occult imagery.
Is indoctrination too strong a term? How about socialization? Should it not concern parents that Rowling only now, ten years after the introduction of the character Dumbledore, admitted that she intended this character to be "gay"? For goodness sake, this character is a father figure and a mentor in the books, and he falls in love with his evil arch-enemy! Rowling has said that her books were a "prolonged argument for tolerance" (Time, 10/20/07). Okay, so no indoctrination going on there, right?
The second dilemma for every Christian parent should be the perennial Halloween fest of negative imagination that these books generate. If Harry Potter is innocent fun, its literary spawn certainly are not. One trip to the Harry Potter section of a Borders bookstore (way before Halloween) gave me pause. Surrounding the Harry Potter rack in the children's section of the store and in the front display were other titles that should raise the hair on the back of any parent's neck. I recount just a few titles here: Dark Possession, The Wheel of Darkness, The Care and Feeding of Spirites [sic], The Night of the Soul Stealer, The Thief Queen's Daughter, Blade of Fire, Secrets of Dripping Fang, My Father's Dragon, The Dark Hills Divide, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, Soul Eater, Chronicles of Ancient Darkness, Vampirates Tide of Terror, Nightmare Academy, Enter the Portal to Monster and Mayhem, Lyra's Oxford (authored by vicious anti-Catholic Phillip Pullman of "Golden Compass" and "His Dark Materials" fame)... and others.
337 million copies of occult imagery are being consumed by our youth in the Harry Potter series alone. The books may be good writing, but the writing is about something dark dressed up as something fun. That's a great way to get kids hooked on the occult.


Pilgrimage to EWTN
Pope Benedict on Harry Potter
Chief Exorcist of Rome on Harry Potter
Michael O'Brien on Harry Potter
Sincerely Yours in Christ,

The Victory of "Emily Rose"

When The Exorcism of Emily Rose came out in 2005 most people were not aware that the movie was based on a true story of a young German woman named Anneliese Michel who was possessed for many years and died in 1976 at the age of 23 probably of the possession itself. Her heart-wrenching story is instructive, not so much about the nature of evil, but about how good can be brought out of so much evil, especially when offered for the spiritual benefit of others. I believe that Anneliese Michel's faithful endurance of such demonic sufferings would qualify as truly heroic.
The pious young woman came from a Catholic family in the southern region of Germany and would have been the last person that anyone would have expected to be the victim of a full-fledged possession. Anneliese was the innocent target of a witch's curse when she was a child, and that was what caused her demonic problems. She lived a so-called "normal" life until her sixteenth birthday when, without warning, she began to experience the oppression of her senses through hearing voices and seeing grotesque faces. From that point on she suffered a series of deepening internal problems which grew worse as the years went on. By her twentieth birthday she was almost fully taken over by the demonic spirits which threw her into catatonic states and caused extremely violent aversions to religious objects as well as other occult phenomena such as speaking in esoteric languages. During the series of exorcisms performed on her over the period of nearly a year, it was discovered that she was possessed by six very powerful demons, one of whom was named Hitler and the strongest of which was named Judas.

Anneliese's heroism throughout this whole ordeal is truly hard to believe. She not only attempted to complete all her school assignments until she was utterly unable to do so, but she was completely accepting of her trials because she knew that there was a deeper meaning in them. In the midst of her sufferings she had visions of Jesus and Mary and learned that the Lord wanted her to offer her intense agony at the hands of demons for two primary intentions: the Catholic Church in Germany and, in particular, the German clergy. In the post-Vatican II era, Germany was rife with clerical dissent and loss of faith: this suffering child of God was praying in a most profound way that no soul would be lost to the true Faith.

Needless to say, a real possession is a destructive and desolate experience for the possessed individual, and in the end, Anneliese succumbed to the power of the demons and died just after her 23rd birthday. Some speculate that a combination of misdiagnosed medications and her inability to eat anything during most of her ordeal led to her demise, but ultimately she died, according to her spiritual director, as a victim soul out of love for her people. He called her experience an "expiatory possession," that is, a suffering for the sins of others. It is evident that God permitted her death in this dramatic way, just as He permitted the death of His only-begotten Son, for the eternal benefit of others and as a witness to the reality of evil in a faithless age.
If we look only at her death at a young age or the tragic circumstances of her possession we will not see the meaning of her life or the heroism of her suffering. We have to look beyond the particulars to the fruit of her agony which needs the eyes of faith to see: that is, less than two years after Anneliese died as a victim for the German Church and clergy, a young priest by the name of Fr. Joseph Ratzinger was named Archbishop of Munich, the very region where Anneliese lived, suffered and died.
And well, you know the rest of the story.
Did Emily Rose see the Virgin Mary?
St Michael Prayer Card
Q & A Archive
Sincerely Yours in Christ,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,President, Human Life International
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Copyright 2007 - Human Life InternationalPermission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

Mexican Exorcist warns about the influence of Harry Potter

"The leading exorcist of Mexico's main archdiocese said the popular Harry Potter book and film series could allow the devil to enter children's minds, and does ''a lot of damage.''The Reverend Pedro Mendoza, a Roman Catholic priest and exorcist coordinator of the Archdiocese of Mexico City, made the comments at the end of a five-day exorcism conference in Mexico City.''If you put all these ideas in a child's head, that he can become a wizard, the child believes that, and that is opening an avenue through which the devil can get in,'' Mendoza said Friday - the eve of the release of the series' final book.He said that Harry Potter ''doesn't interest us,'' but ''unfortunately, it does a lot of damage.''
NDTV.com

My experience with the occult came as a result of the media fascination with the occult in the 1970's between The Exorcist, The Omen, The Amityville Horror, and, believe it or not, Bewitched. Sometimes, it's not so much what is in a particular film or book that is evil, but what that book leads innocent children to. In the case of the Harry Potter series, all you have to do is read the titles of other books which are included in the display in the bookstore where they are sold. All of them have to do with the occult. Harry Potter books serve as a jumping off point for children to explore the occult. Adolescent experts like Steve Wood call this a 'portal'. He told Johnette Benkovic that when police want to investigate a crime, they request library records of teens, and often such books are involved in the teen's downfall.
HT Colleen Hammond

My dealings with the dark side

Adoro Te Devote has an incredible story of her dealing with demonic possession and Tarot cards, followed by dozens of testimonies in the comments section. Another post is at The Recovering Dissident Catholic.

I have decided to share my youthful dabbling in the occult to help enlighten those of who think it is harmless. It's NOT. I was raised in a good Catholic home, never missing nightly prayers or Mass on Sunday. My parents were exemplary, comfortable college-educated professionals, therefore there is no reason I should have needed to dabble in the occult, right?
When I was nine years old in public school, we were shocked to hear of the Kasso murder of a classmate from Northport Junior High, in which he mutilated the victim's body, and emblazoned the words "Satin rules"(sic) and "666" all over the local playground. I'm not sure why, but it heightened already keen interest in the occult in a town, Northport, which already had a coven and a local New Age store in the village. Short stories from Poe and other masters of the occult were quite popular in my English classes in public school, and my recreation class showed a creepy video of Poe's "The Telltale Heart" repeatedly.
I had a best friend Noelle, a wealthy, well-loved daughter of a commodities trader, with an unhealthy interest in witchcraft. At my 10th birthday party, she made us close our eyes while she levitated items on the table(a hoax). But Noelle had incited my curiousity.

On a visit to my home, we dressed up in my mother's 1950's bridesmaid gowns for fun, and Noelle told me "I can make you a witch like me". I couldn't resist, since I had already followed occult practices such as horoscopes, Ouija boards, levitation, and seances, mostly at girls' sleepover parties. I was mostly curious, and anxious to see if I could perform any magic.
We began to say the Lord's Prayer backwards. I have no idea if we were doing it correctly, but our intention was to say it backwards to make something spiritual happen. Then, out of the blue, the glass top to a tea cart by the window was split right down the middle!
We ran screaming out of there, and didn't try any more witchcraft until. . .we performed levitation of one of our classmates on the 8th grade field trip in Salem Massachusetts' House of Seven Gables with six girls using two fingers each. It worked. We raised her over our heads.
Later, I had my Tarot cards read twice. Both times a horrible death was predicted for a family member. Both predictions came true. My great uncle died painfully of a heart attack in a hospital corridor in Haiti, completely unattended by doctors. My Dad's cousin, a saxophone player and high school music teacher, was shot by an unstable next door neighbor after he tried to wash off some eggs th children had thrown at his home. He died in front of them.
I was never corrected for any of these practices, in fact our Girl Scout leaders watched us do a seance at camp. My aunts went to fortune tellers and bought me Jean Dixon horoscope books. We were victims of 1970's ignorance of our Catholic faith, and fascination with ESP and the occult. I was always a practicing Catholic, but struggled with the same sins which all singles in this society struggle with, without realizing how my involvement with the occult had weakened my resistance to temptation
In 1983, while still in college, I was 'Baptized in the Holy Spirit' after a Life in the Spirit Seminar at St. Anthony's Church. The week before the 'Baptism' a long prayer of exorcism was prayed over me by laymen, who asked me which occult practices I had been involved in. I was 21, and this was the first time I had heard from anyone that they were dangerous. I gladly renounced them, received the 'Baptism' and a warning that Satan would be angry at the change in me. I was given a binding prayer which I still use, "Satan, I bind you away from me, to the foot of the cross for Jesus to deal with , and I plead the precious blood of Jesus over me to protect me. "
That night, as I slept, I had the most terrifying nightmare of my life, where abnormal long-legged black spiders were closing in on me to kill me. I ran downstairs, still asleep, and somehow fell over the bannister into the living room. My parents, terrified, wondered why this had happened, as I have never been a sleepwalker.
I share all this not to titilate, but to inform. If a good girl from a devout Catholic home could get this involved with the occult, anyone can. Don't let well-meaning ignorant friends, or clergy convince you that they do Reiki while praying to Jesus and Mary, or that Yoga isn't rooted in worhip of Hindu gods, or that the Ouija Board and Tarot are just parlor games. Don't wear crystals or any kind good luck charms like the Greek evil eye, or Italian horn. These are portals which Satan uses to infiltrate your eternal soul.
Don't let your children read books like Harry Potter, which arouse the curiousity about the occult. Is is a coincidence that those books are surrounded by books on witchcraft at Barnes and Nobles? That's why when police see kids involved in violent crime, the first place they look is the kids' library card activity to find these kinds of books.
Read this excerpt from an article in the British paper The Independant,

Record numbers of young women are dabbling in witchcraft, fuelling a boom in
sales of spell books and other pagan paraphernalia, according to new research.
A study of teenagers and their consumption of books, magazines, kits, film
and other media found that there are some 700,000 internet sites for teenage
witches. The Pagan Federation claims to have several hundred inquiries a week
from young people, and has set up a network for those under 18.
"There has
been a noticeable rise in the number of young people identifying themselves as
witches," saidDenise Cush, professor of religious studies at Bath Spa
University.

Read experts like Fr. Gabriel Amworth's book An Exorcist Tells His Story, The Vatican Exorcists or watch shows like The Abundant Life which has just run several shows on New Age and the Occult. Buy Johnette's book, The New Age Counterfeit.
Pray with me:
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle,
Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the power of God,
Cast into hell, Satan, and all evil spirits who prowl about the world,
Seeking the ruin of souls. Amen