Of all the young people from countries participating in World Youth Day 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal, those from Spain are the most numerous. At least 75,000 of them will participate in the event that began Aug. 1 — a high number of young people from an increasingly secularized country.
During the days prior to the start of this long-awaited event, the presence of Spanish youth was noticed throughout the streets of the Portuguese capital and its surroundings, a witness that the faith is still alive in Spain despite the decline in the practice of religion.
At a July 31 press conference in Lisbon, Cardinal Juan José Omella, archbishop of Barcelona and president of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference, told ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, that sometimes “the falling tree makes more noise than the green shoots rising up.”
“And this is a sign that there are a lot of green shoots that are growing and that it’s the future. That’s why we live with hope, and a missionary and apostle never shrinks in the face of difficulty but rather grows with the small hope of a green shoot and not of 20 falling trees,” he stressed.
For Omella, “the secularized world is an exciting world for an apostle and a missionary.”
Also participating in the press conference were Auxiliary Bishop Arturo Ros of Valencia, Spain, who is the director of the Spanish Bishops’ Conference’s Subcommittee for Youth, and Father Raúl Tinajero, a priest of the Diocese of Toledo in Spain, who both reflected on the value that this World Youth Day has for young Catholics.
Speaking to ACI Prensa, Ros remarked that the high turnout is a sign of hope. “We affirm with this that we are alive, we must continue sowing so that there is a harvest, so that there is fruit; we are alive, and not in order to fight but to sow and walk.”
“It’s true that there are some realities that we contemplate with great concern, but for example this servant has joyfully had to administer confirmation on an ongoing basis in my diocese. The groups have not decreased; you see they’re happy, they get excited, they live it with intensity,” he noted.
Ros assured that “this is a sign that we are alive and that there is hope,” and he hopes to achieve a better future, “where reconciliation, forgiveness, fraternity, and the purity or beauty of the Gospel reign, about which Pope Francis continually speaks to us.”
“These data are life, and they are hope, a firm and sure hope that they give us with their presence and their commitments for the future,” he highlighted.
Tinajero pointed out that the COVID-19 pandemic “affected us in every respect; we were afraid to reactivate youth ministry, which is always alive — there’s not a time when there isn’t an initiative.”
The priest of the Diocese of Toledo assured that “we are on a path of hope” where young people “are wanting to respond to their deep desire for happiness, and we are here to try to show them that God can answer that desire.”
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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Krakow, Poland, Jul 1, 2019 / 06:37 pm (CNA).- An Ikea worker in Poland has filed a lawsuit after being fired last week for posting Bible verses opposing homosexual behavior on the company’s intranet.
Tomasz K is suing after he was terminated from his position at the furniture store in Krakow.
Poland Minister of Justice Zbigniew Ziobro has also asked the national prosecutor’s office to look into the case.
The issue arose when employees were asked to attend a pro-LGBT event at the company.
In response, Tomasz said that he objected to the promotion of homosexuality. He posted two verses from Scripture: “Woe to him through whom scandals come, it would be better for him to tie a millstone around his neck and plunge him in the depths of the sea,” (Matthew 18:6) and, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them,” (Leviticus 20:13).
Ikea then fired Tomasz. The company said in a statement that he was terminated for “using quotes from the Old Testament about death and blood in the context of what fate should meet homosexual people” and “expressing his opinion in a way that could affect the rights and dignity of LGBT+ people,” according to news.com.au.
Tomasz’s attorney, however, says he was simply exercising his protected right to express his religious beliefs.
Tomasz told TVP Info that his job was to sell furniture, not to promote same-sex ideology. When asked to take down the Bible verses he had posted, he said, “as a Catholic, I cannot censor God.”
“I do not think it was my duty. … [I] quoted two quotations from the Holy Scriptures: about stumbling and about the fact that the cohabitation between two men is an abomination,” he said, according to TVP Info.
After Tomasz was fired, another employee also quit in solidarity with him.
“[If Ikea] promotes equality and diversity towards people, why was this situation where the Catholic expresses his opinion and is thrown out of work for it?” the employee said, according to the TVP Info.
A spokeswoman for Ikea holding company Ingka Group issued a statement to news.com.au saying that in the company’s view, “Using your religion background as a reason for excluding others is considered discrimination.”
“At Ingka Group we believe everyone has the right to be treated fairly and be given equal opportunities whatever their gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, age, nationality, religion and/or any other dimension of their identity,” she said.
“Inclusion at Ingka Group means respecting our individual differences and creating a safe environment for all. Everyone’s views and opinions are welcome with the common goal to build a great place to work.”
Tomasz is represented by the legal group Ordo Iuris. The group’s chairman, Jerzy Kwasniewski, argued that it is illegal to censor the Bible, and said the move was oppressive to Tomasz’s rights.
“The insinuation contained in the Ikea statement is unacceptable and violates Mr Tomasz’s personal rights,” he said, according to New.com.au. “[It] can be read as motivated by prejudices against Christians.”
The Cross of San Lázaro of Seville, Spain, sculpted in the 16th century, was vandalized on the night of Oct. 21-22, 2023. / Credit: Emergencies Seville
CNA Staff, Nov 17, 2023 / 13:28 pm (CNA).
Europe has witnessed a 44% jump in anti-Christian … […]
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.
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.”
Young people are the present and the future of the Church. “The secularized world is an exciting world for an apostle and a missionary” – His Eminence Cardinal Juan José Omella.
Re title – Or it could signify that Spain is just a stone’s throw from Portugal.
Sorry to be such a sceptic but I read the article listed above these comments: “Bishop warns of the ‘desolate panorama” of Spain’s birthrate”.
But, about the larger synodal drift toward doormat welcoming and, some say, a blended and indifferent faith, perhaps we have a clue from Spanish history…On the heels of the Second Vatican Council, observer and author Jean Guitton proposed that:
“Islam [in Iberia 711-1492 A.D.] has not wanted to choose between Heaven and Earth. It proposed instead a blending of heaven and earth, sex and mysticism, war and proselytism, conquest and apostolate. In more general terms, Islam proposed a blending of the spiritual and the temporal worlds […]” (Great Heresies and Church Councils, 1965).
Something like not-so-young versions of synodality— within the Church itself as a blending of formal Church teaching and informal and signaled moral exemptions for this and that, and globally as a blended fraternity within a “pluralism” of equivalent (?) religions?
Still, apart from such foggy nuance, a positively good sign—the Spanish youth and all youth at World Youth Day. As Pope Francis remarked in the 2013 WYD: “Yes, I am asking you to rebel against this culture that sees everything as temporary and that ultimately believes you are incapable of responsibility—that believes you are incapable of true love. . .
All of Portugal is bordered by Spain [Portugal would be a Spanish province if it weren’t for English archers sent to defend their sovereignty]. The numbers of Spanish youth is expected. Nevertheless, a hopeful sign. Photos of young, smiling youth mainly from other European nations, the US, S America and elsewhere speaks to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Despite misgivings on the messaging, Robert Royal seen with a group attending lectures assures the truth will also be served. There also appears to be faithful priests among them. That may carry the day.
Young people are the present and the future of the Church. “The secularized world is an exciting world for an apostle and a missionary” – His Eminence Cardinal Juan José Omella.
Re title – Or it could signify that Spain is just a stone’s throw from Portugal.
Sorry to be such a sceptic but I read the article listed above these comments: “Bishop warns of the ‘desolate panorama” of Spain’s birthrate”.
Very encouraging and uplifting.
But, about the larger synodal drift toward doormat welcoming and, some say, a blended and indifferent faith, perhaps we have a clue from Spanish history…On the heels of the Second Vatican Council, observer and author Jean Guitton proposed that:
“Islam [in Iberia 711-1492 A.D.] has not wanted to choose between Heaven and Earth. It proposed instead a blending of heaven and earth, sex and mysticism, war and proselytism, conquest and apostolate. In more general terms, Islam proposed a blending of the spiritual and the temporal worlds […]” (Great Heresies and Church Councils, 1965).
Something like not-so-young versions of synodality— within the Church itself as a blending of formal Church teaching and informal and signaled moral exemptions for this and that, and globally as a blended fraternity within a “pluralism” of equivalent (?) religions?
Still, apart from such foggy nuance, a positively good sign—the Spanish youth and all youth at World Youth Day. As Pope Francis remarked in the 2013 WYD: “Yes, I am asking you to rebel against this culture that sees everything as temporary and that ultimately believes you are incapable of responsibility—that believes you are incapable of true love. . .
“Have the courage ‘to swim against the tide [!].”
All of Portugal is bordered by Spain [Portugal would be a Spanish province if it weren’t for English archers sent to defend their sovereignty]. The numbers of Spanish youth is expected. Nevertheless, a hopeful sign. Photos of young, smiling youth mainly from other European nations, the US, S America and elsewhere speaks to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Despite misgivings on the messaging, Robert Royal seen with a group attending lectures assures the truth will also be served. There also appears to be faithful priests among them. That may carry the day.