Sviatoslav Shevchuk is Major Archbishop of Kyiv–Galicia and Primate of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. / Credit: Screenshot/EWTN News Nightly
ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 1, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
The pontifical foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) announced the release of two Ukrainian Greek Catholic priests who had been captured in November 2022 by the Russian National Guard.
The freed priests are Ivan Levitsky and Bohdan Geleta, members of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer (Redemptorists), who had been accused of having committed “subversive” and “guerrilla” activities.
The priests, who served the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish, were accused of allegedly possessing weapons, ammunition, and books on the history of Ukraine in a parish building.
The information about the release, announced June 28 by María Lozano, press officer for ACN International, has been confirmed by the information department of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
The priests had been arrested on Nov. 16, 2022, in Berdyansk, a city on the north shore of the Sea of Azov, an area occupied by the Russians. Despite the danger, both had decided to stay to serve the “communities of Roman Catholics and Greek Catholics, to give them hope in the face of the occupation.”
The ACN news brief also noted that Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic major archbishop of Kyiv-Halyč, expressed his “deep gratitude to the Holy See,” in particular to Pope Francis, to Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin; to the Italian Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, who has carried out various peace missions to try to end the conflict; and to Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, apostolic nuncio to Ukraine, for his efforts to obtain the release of the two priests.
“Despite the joy of this news, ACN recalls that many innocent civilians remain in custody and invites its friends and benefactors to continue to pray for their release, and for peace in Ukraine,” the news brief concludes.
On multiple occasions, Pope Francis has encouraged prayer for “martyred” Ukraine and has urged dialogue to end the conflict.
On June 23, in his last public intervention on the matter, he asked the Holy Spirit to “enlighten the minds of the rulers,” stressing that “negotiation is needed” to end not only the war in Ukraine and the Holy Land but also in other places in the world.
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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Warsaw, Poland, Dec 12, 2019 / 03:42 pm (CNA).- A coalition of abortion advocacy groups has launched a hotline service to inform Polish women on how to procure abortion inside and outside of the largely pro-life country.
“Abortion without Borders” was released Dec. 11 by a collaboration of six pro-abortion organizations, including Abortion Dream Team, Kobiety w Sieci, and the Abortion Support Network.
The service will advise callers on how to purchase abortion drugs online or refer them to abortion clinics in the Netherlands, Britain, or Germany. The project will also provide financial assistance to women unable to afford the process. According to the Guardian, this may cover travel and medical costs.
The project will be offered to women seeking an abortion in Poland, which has some of the most pro-life laws in Europe. The country bans abortion except in cases of fetal abnormalities, rape, incest, or life-threatening emergencies.
According to Thomas Reuters Foundation News, official figures state that about 1,000 women receive an abortion in Poland each year, but abortion advocates believe the number to be much higher. They estimate that tens of thousands of women receive an abortion annually through abortion drugs ordered online or by traveling to other countries to get the procedure.
Last month, Poland was among 11 countries affirming the univeral right to life on the sidelines of the Nairobi Summit, saying the gathering was too focused on “reproductive rights.”
The joint statement said “there is no international right to abortion; in fact, international law clearly states that ‘[e]veryone has the right to life’ (e.g. Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights).”
“The ICPD notes that countries should ‘take appropriate steps to help women avoid abortion, which in no case should be promoted as a method of family planning’ (ICPD 7.24) and to ‘reduce the recourse to abortion’ strongly affirming that ‘… [a]ny measures or changes related to abortion within the health system can only be determined at the national or local level according to the national legislative process’ (ICPD paragraph 8.25).”
The bishops of Poland issued a pro-life statement in 2018 after the “Halt Abortion” bill was approved by the parliamentary Committee on Justice and Human Rights. If passed, the law would prohibit the practice of eugenic abortions – those procured because of an unborn child’s congenital disorder or genetic deformity.
“Every conceived child has the right to birth and to life, regardless of innate diseases and genetic defects. The role of the state is to provide protection for every citizen, also in its first stage of life,” said Archbishop Stanislaw Gadecki of Poznan, president of the Polish bishops’ conference.
“The right to life is a fundamental human right, there is no doubt in this matter,” Archbishop Gadecki added in a recent statement.
The trailer of the upcoming Russell Crowe movie “The Pope’s Exorcist” indicates that the film might not do justice to the Italian exorcist Father Gabriel Amorth or the rite of exorcism as practiced in the Catholic Church, according to an exorcist organization Amorth himself helped to found.
The International Association of Exorcists on March 7 voiced concern that the film seems to fall under the category of “splatter cinema,” which it calls a “sub-genre of horror.”
The Vatican, the statement said, is filmed with a high-contrast “chiaroscuro” effect seen in film noir.
This gives the film a “‘Da Vinci Code’ effect to instill in the public the usual doubt: Who is the real enemy? The devil or ecclesiastical ‘power’?” the exorcists’ association said.
While special effects are “inevitable” in every film about demonic possession, “everything is exaggerated, with striking physical and verbal manifestations, typical of horror films,” the group said.
“This way of narrating Don Amorth’s experience as an exorcist, in addition to being contrary to historical reality, distorts and falsifies what is truly lived and experienced during the exorcism of truly possessed people,” said the association, which claims more than 800 exorcist members and more than 120 auxiliary members worldwide.
“In addition, it is offensive with regard to the state of suffering in which those who are victims of an extraordinary action of the devil find themselves,” the group’s statement added. The statement responded to the release of the movie trailer and promised a more in-depth response to the film’s April 14 theatrical release.
Father Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist of Rome, speaks to CNA on May 22, 2013. Steven Driscoll/CNA
Amorth, who died at age 91 in 2016, said he performed an estimated 100,000 exorcisms during his life. He was perhaps the world’s best-known exorcist and the author of many books, including “An Exorcist Tells His Story,” reportedly an inspiration for the upcoming movie.
Several of Amorth’s books are carried by the U.S. publisher Sophia Institute Press. The publisher’s newly released book “The Pope’s Exorcist: 101 Questions About Fr. Gabriele Amorth” is an interview in which the priest addresses many topics ranging from prayer to pop music.
Michael Lichens, editor and spokesperson at Sophia Institute Press, voiced some agreement with the exorcist group.
“The International Association of Exorcists is right to be concerned and I’m thankful for their words,” Lichens told CNA. “My hope is that audiences will remember that Father Amorth is a real person with a great legacy and perhaps a few moviegoers will look up an interview or pick up his books.”
“This was a man who included St. Padre Pio and Blessed Giacomo Alberione as mentors, as well as Servant of God Candido Amantini, who was his teacher for the ministry of exorcism,” he said. “Father Amorth fought as a partisan as a young man and grew to fight greater evil as an exorcist. His life is an inspiration and I know that his work and words will still reach many.”
Amorth was born in Modena, Italy, on May 1, 1925. In wartime Italy, he was a soldier with the underground anti-fascist partisans. He was ordained a priest in 1951. He did not become an exorcist until 1986, when Cardinal Ugo Poletti, the vicar general of the Diocese of Rome, named him the diocesan exorcist.
The priest was frequently in the news for his comments on the subject of demonic forces. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph in 2000, he said: “I speak with the devil every day. I talk to him in Latin. He answers in Italian. I have been wrestling with him, day in, day out, for 14 years.”
The movie “The Pope’s Exorcist” claims to be “inspired by the actual files of the Vatican’s chief exorcist.” The Sony Pictures movie stars the New Zealand-born actor Russell Crowe as Amorth. Crowe’s character wears a gray beard and speaks English with a noticeable accent.
“The majority of cases do not require an exorcism,” the Amorth character says in the movie’s first trailer. A cardinal explains that Crowe’s character recommends 98% of people who seek an exorcism to doctors and psychiatrists instead.
“The other 2%… I call it… evil,” Crowe adds.
The plot appears to concern Amorth’s encounter with a particular demon. Crowe’s character suggests the Church “has fought this demon before” but covered it up.
“We need to find out why,” he says.
The trailer shows short dramatic scenes of exorcism, including a confrontation between Amorth and a girl apparently suffering demonic possession.
The International Association of Exorcists said such a representation makes exorcism become “a spectacle aimed at inspiring strong and unhealthy emotions, thanks to a gloomy scenography, with sound effects such as to inspire only anxiety, restlessness, and fear in the viewer.”
“The end result is to instill the conviction that exorcism is an abnormal, monstrous, and frightening phenomenon, whose only protagonist is the devil, whose violent reactions can be faced with great difficulty,” said the exorcist group. “This is the exact opposite of what occurs in the context of exorcism celebrated in the Catholic Church in obedience to the directives imparted by it.”
CNA sought comment from Sony Pictures and “The Pope’s Exorcist” executive producer Father Edward Siebert, SJ, but did not receive a response by publication.
Amorth co-founded the International Association of Exorcists with Father René Laurentin in 1994. In 2014 the Catholic Church recognized the group as a Private Association of the Faithful.
The association trains exorcists and promotes their incorporation into local communities and normal pastoral care. It also aims to promote “correct knowledge” about exorcism ministry and collaboration with medical and psychiatric experts who have competence in spirituality.
Exorcism is considered a sacramental, not a sacrament, of the Church. It is a liturgical rite that only a priest can perform.
Hollywood made the topic a focus most famously in the 1973 movie “The Exorcist,” based on the novel by William Peter Blatty.
“Most movies about Catholicism and spiritual warfare sensationalize,” Lichens of Sophia Institute Press told CNA. “Sensationalism and terror sell tickets. As a fan of horror movies, I can understand and even appreciate that. As a Catholic who has studied Father Amorth, though, I think such sensationalism distorts the important work of exorcism.”
“On the other hand, ‘The Exorcist’ made the wider public more curious about this overlooked ministry. That is a good thing that came out, despite other reservations and concerns,” he continued. “Still, I would love it if a screenwriter and director spoke to exorcists and tried to show the often-quotidian parts of the ministry.”
An unhealthy curiosity can be a problem, Lichens said.
“When I work as a spokesperson for Amorth’s books, I am always concerned about inspiring curiosity about the demonic,” he told CNA. “As Christians, we know we have nothing to fear from the demonic but curiosity might lead some to want to seek out the supernatural or the demonic. Father Amorth has dozens of stories of people who found themselves afflicted after party game seances.”
Lichens encouraged those who are curious to read more of Amorth’s writings, some of which are excerpted on the Catholic Exchange website. Sophia Institute Press has published “Diary of an American Exorcist” by Monsignor Stephen Rosetti and “The Exorcism Files” by the American lay Catholic Adam Blai.
“First and foremost, Father Amorth was involved in a healing ministry,” Lichens said. “Like other exorcists, his work often involved doctors in physical and mental health because the goal is to bring healing and hope to the potentially afflicted.”
“Those of us who read Amorth might have been excited to read firsthand accounts of spiritual warfare, but readers quickly see a man whose heart was always full of love for those who sought his help,” he added.
The International Association of Exorcists, for its part, praised the 2016 documentary “Deliver Us,” saying this shows “what exorcism really is in the Catholic Church and “the authentic traits of a Catholic exorcist.” It shows exorcism as “a most joyful event,” in their view, because through experiencing “the presence and action of Christ the Lord and of the Communion of the Saints,” those who are “tormented by the extraordinary action of the devil gradually find liberation and peace.”
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