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Mexico City, Mexico, 2nd September
2004 (CNA) -
The Archbishop of
Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera,
inaugurated this week the first National Meeting of
Exorcists as a means of combating the spread of
Satanism. Among those participating in the event
is Fr. Gabriel Amorth, founder of the International
Association of Exorcists.
Addressing the more than
500 participants, including exorcist priests from
various dioceses in the country, the Cardinal emphasized
that “this is a crucial moment for the Church” and that
the Church “must denounce with the Word everything that
is against God,” particularly witchcraft, occultism,
magic, fortune telling, tarot cards and masonry, among
other things.
The meeting includes
conferences, panels and roundtable discussions by
experts such as Fr. Giancarlo Gramolazzo, President of
the International Association of Exorcists, and Fr.
Mario Angel Flores Ramos, Director of the Theology
Department of the Pontifical University of
Mexico.
In his homily during the
inaugural Mass, the Cardinal warned that “something even
more relevant is that, in certain cities of the world,
Satanic cult worship is taking place” and “the reality
of our times also includes Satanic works such as the New
Age, which attempts to attract people with false ways of
thinking and living.”
According to the Cardinal,
the New Age proposes “believing not in a personal God
who has revealed Himself to us, but in an impersonal god
who identifies himself with this material world of which
we are part, in an attempt to make us believe that we
ourselves are God.”
“Some seek to solve their
problems, sicknesses, pain and suffering by following an
unreal and superficial path without establishing a
personal relationship with God,” he added.
Lastly, he called on
participants to “make Christ your center, who through
his passion, death and resurrection, through the cross,
triumphed over Satan, and offers Himself to us through
bread and wine in the Eucharist, so that united to Him
we might participate in His victory, together with Mary,
star of the Evangelization, principal cooperator with
Christ in the work of redemption and in crushing the
head of the serpent and his seed.”
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