Ang Pagpahinumdom [Reminder]: August 31, 2017
Exorcist warns
parents of rise in ‘demonic’ websites
January
5, 2017
Sites dedicated to the occult and
witchcraft are exposing young people to demonic influences, says Fr. Gary
Thomas.
An
American exorcist has blamed the internet for rising numbers of young people
who say they are possessed by the Devil.
Websites
dedicated to the occult, witchcraft, Tarot cards, psychics and séances were
increasingly exposing young people to demonic influences, said Fr. Gary Thomas.
The
priest, whose story has just been made into a major Hollywood film starring
Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, said that pornography and drug abuse were also
“doorways" to harassment by evil spirits.
He
said there were “no statistics" on how many people might be possessed but
said there was a definite increase.
“What
I can tell you is that there are more and more Catholics involved in idolatrous
and pagan practices," he said. “That’s really why there’s more demonic
activity. There’s the absence of God in the lives of a lot of people."
He
added: “A lot of parents today have no critical eye of faith with which to even
recognise the dangers their children are in. A lot of this is going on with the
internet. There are lots and lots of demonic websites."
Speaking
to the Catholic World Report magazine he continued: “A demon doesn’t show up.
He has to be invited in … The involvement in pagan, satanic, or occult
practices are the classical ways.
“Pornography
is a doorway. But addictions of any kind can be – not are, but can be – a
doorway, but it’s coupled with other things. For instance, drug use alone isn’t
going to invite the demonic in, but coupled with the occult it could."
Fr.
Thomas, of San José diocese, California, is rapidly emerging as the most famous
exorcist in America after the story of his ministry was turned into a film
called The Rite, which will be released in Britain on February 25.
[To Parents: Please
guide and discipline your children… God bless us… Fr. Danboy…]
