The Roman Catholic Church, to invoke a cliche from the banal world of corporate public relations, is facing significant challenges.
The kind of clergy sex abuse scandals known to the American faithful are now being reported in Europe, too. In the United States, the number of men willing to enter the priesthood is dwindling, and almost every week brings news of parish closings in once-thriving dioceses.
The church’s response? Bring on the exorcists! The Vatican’s chief exorcist, the publicity-crazed, 84-year-old father Gabriele Amorth, is sparing no horses in promoting his new book, “Memoirs of an Exorcist.’’ The root of the church’s problems, Amorth claims, is that “the Devil is at work inside the Vatican.’’ He freely discusses “cardinals who do not believe in Jesus, and bishops who are linked to the Demon.’’ Popping off to the Times of London, Amorth says he is on a first-name basis with Satan, and claims to have performed 70,000 exorcisms.
Full story: Access of evil: In these troubled times, exorcism could be a growth industry – The Boston Globe