Police are searching for a thief who entered the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street in Manhattan on Nov. 20, 2024, and stole a gold rose that memorializes a priest who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. / Credit: Courtesy of NYPD
CNA Staff, Nov 22, 2024 / 13:35 pm (CNA).
Police are searching for a thief who entered a Manhattan Catholic church this week and stole a gold rose that memorializes a priest who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Police said in a release that on Wednesday afternoon an individual entered the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street and “removed a gold-plated metal rose from the 9/11 memorial inside without permission or authority to do so.”
The suspect on Friday was identified as 21-year-old Deikel Alcantara. The incident was being treated as an act of grand larceny. In New York State, grand larceny involves the theft of property worth at least $1,000.
Police said in a release that on Nov. 20, 2024, an individual entered the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on West 31st Street and “removed a gold-plated metal rose from the 9/11 memorial inside without permission or authority to do so.” The suspect on Friday was identified as 21-year-old Deikel Alcantara. Credit: Courtesy of NYPD
Father Brian Jordan, the church’s pastor, told the New York Daily News on Thursday that Alcantara was “known to church staffers and had been asked to leave on several occasions,” the newspaper said.
For years, the memorial has stood in honor of Father Mychal Judge, a former pastor at St. Francis who served as a chaplain to the New York City Fire Department. Judge was struck and killed by debris during the collapse of the South Tower of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
The priest had rushed to the scene of the crisis after the first plane struck. He was reportedly asked by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani to pray for the victims who had initially died in the attack; Judge did so, including at a command post inside the North Tower.
Though not the first to die in the crisis, Judge was designated as “Victim 0001” of the day’s mass murder, becoming the first certified victim of the terror attack. He “refused to flee to safety” before the South Tower’s collapse, Giuliani said in a memorial tribute last year.
The memorial is also dedicated to Carole LaPlante, a secular Franciscan and former parishioner who died in the attack.
The small monument inside the church incorporates a section of twisted steel beams pulled from the wreckage of the World Trade Center after its collapse, along with the gold rose.
A plaque attached to the monument notes that the rose “transcends the senseless brutality” of the attacks “with an enduring promise of hope.”
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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.”
Gary, Ind., Nov 26, 2019 / 07:10 am (CNA).- Msgr. Robert J. McClory has been appointed as the fifth bishop of the Diocese of Gary, Indiana, the Vatican announced on Tuesday, Nov. 26.
The Diocese of Gary, in northwestern Indiana, is part of the metropolitan province of Indianapolis. The diocese is home to 170,203 Catholics and has been sede vacante since April 25, when Bishop Donald J. Hying was named the new bishop of the Diocese of Madison. McClory will be consecrated and installed as the new bishop of Gary on Feb. 11, 2020.
McClory was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Detroit on May 22, 1999, and was given the honorific title “monsignor” in 2005. He has been the pastor of the parish of the National Shrine of the Little Flower Basilica in Royal Oak, MI, since July 2017. McClory celebrated his first Mass at the shrine in 1999.
“I am honored and humbled that the Holy Father has appointed me as the bishop of Gary. During this week in which we celebrate Thanksgiving, my heart is full of gratitude that he has entrusted me to serve the people of northwest Indiana,” Bishop-elect McClory said in a statement published by the Archdiocese of Detroit.
“I look forward to getting to know the needs of our local church and, together, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ,” he added.
A native of Detroit, McClory has a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School and worked as a civil lawyer from 1991 until 1994, when he entered seminary. He received a bachelor’s degree in sacred theology in 1998 from Gregorian University in Rome, and received a canon law license from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas in Rome in 2000.
Since his ordination, McClory has been assigned to parishes throughout the archdiocese of Detroit. Since 2001, he has been a judge of the Detroit Metropolitan Tribunal, and he has taught canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary since 2002.
From 2009 until 2018, MCClory served as the Moderator of the Curia and Vicar General in the Archdiocese of Detroit. He has also acted as a consultant for the Catholic Leadership Institute, and served as a priest-observer for Region VI for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The Archdiocese of Detroit released a statement early Tuesday morning congratulating McClory for his appointment. USCCB Vice President Archbishop Allen Vigneron praised McClory as a “zealous priest who generously devotes all the talents God has blessed him with to the ministry of spreading the Gospel.”
“The pastors and people of the Church of Gary will find themselves blessed by his service,” said Vigneron. “We, the priests, religious and faithful of the Archdiocese of Detroit, send him on mission with our heartfelt prayers.”
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Mar 21, 2025 / 13:30 pm (CNA).
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