Italian exorcist to Jesuit leader: No, the devil isn’t just a ‘symbol’

Daiane Silva Pereira, 29, has been to every World Youth Day that Pope Francis has attended. Each of them played an important role in her discernment of religious life and now she’s in Lisbon for WYD 2023 as a member of the religious community Comunidade Canção Nova. / Credit: Natalia Zimbrão/ACI Digital

ACI Digital, Jul 31, 2023 / 14:40 pm (CNA).

Daiane Silva Pereira, 29, is a missionary of the Canção Nova Community in Cachoeira Paulista state in Brazil. On July 30 she embarked for Lisbon, Portugal, for her fourth World Youth Day (WYD). During her WYD experiences, she saw the awakening and maturation of her vocation.

“I had never stopped to think about it, but I have really followed Pope Francis in this. I see that it is also a move of God. The speeches of Pope Francis, the themes of the days always fit like a glove within what I was experiencing,” she told ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news agency, hours before boarding.

Pereira’s first WYD was in Rio de Janeiro in 2013. That was also Francis’ first WYD as pope and his first international trip after his election in March of that year.

“During Missionary Week, the week leading up to WYD, we welcomed 146 Norwegians in my city, Viçosa,” she recalled. “For me, it was an unimaginable experience, because I had never had contact with people from other countries and I could get to know their culture, their faith.”

She added: “For example, some shared with me that in my city, we could wear a shirt with a religious print, such as ‘Jesus Christ’ written on it, but in their city, some could not even say that they were Christians, they were persecuted … mocked. This was very shocking to me, because many times, we do not value what we have. It was an awakening.”

The theme of WYD Rio 2013 was “Go and make disciples among the nations.” 

“There, at the Rio WYD, I had my call to find out what God had for me,” Pereira explained. “… I was already walking in the Church but had not taken [further] steps. It was there that I began to realize that I needed to go deeper.”

Pereira recalled that she had already been to Canção Nova in Cachoeira Paulista in 2011 and in 2013, when she participated in the youth meeting Jesus Revolution, which took place in January. She returned for this meeting in 2014. 

“I came back and the Lord had already asked me: ‘Don’t you want to take steps? Then do it.’ But I didn’t think I could,” she said. 

In 2015, she said she felt God telling her: “Here is your place.”

“But I thought, ‘How can I let go of everything?’ It didn’t make sense in my head so I extended it another year,” she said.

In 2016, Pereira went with a small group to WYD in Krakow, Poland.

“We passed a shrine of St. Faustina where they had put up some awnings at the entrance with her story. One of them said that she was dancing with a boy and the Lord appeared to her, disfigured, and said, ‘How long will I have patience with you?’ I stopped at that moment and heard the Lord speaking to me: ‘Daiane, how long will I have patience? I have already called you.’”

She recalled that the theme of WYD Krakow 2016 was “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

“I experienced God’s mercy in a concrete way on that day,” she said.

After this experience, she decided to take steps and wrote to Canção Nova to begin the path of vocational discernment. In addition, she was preparing for WYD Panama 2019, to which she took a group of 17 young people from her city.

“The theme of Panama was: ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word.’ I went with many self doubts, whether I would be able to cope with this missionary life, with the demands,” Pereira said. “One day, I asked the Lord if that was what it was and the theme itself said so. Our Lady did not see the whole picture. When the Lord called her, she didn’t know if she would be able to cope, she didn’t know what it would be like, she didn’t know anything. And we often want to know everything, to have certainties. Faced with my doubts, I thought: ‘If Our Lady said yes and the Lord did everything through her, I am here too, Lord; do your will and not mine.’”

In 2020, Pereira joined the discipleship of the Canção Nova Community, which was founded by Father Jonas Abib in 1978 and follows the guidelines of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal.

“Now, WYD Lisbon will be the first one I’m going to be in the community, where we live by God’s providence. I thought I wouldn’t go, but I gave it to God as I wanted to go. By providence, Canção Nova won vacancies to send young people … a month ago, I learned that I would be one of those young people,” she said.

The theme of WYD Lisbon 2023 is “Mary rose and left in haste.” Pereira said she has been “praying a lot about it.” 

“I don’t know what awaits me on this journey. I am looking forward to it. But God has already put it very strongly in my heart that Our Lady heard God’s call, gave her ‘yes’ and left in haste to serve, to do God’s will. I also need to go out of myself, to have the boldness to bring the good news to other people, and especially in haste. Today’s times are very difficult, today’s young people are very difficult to evangelize. So I see that the Lord is in a hurry, he is in a hurry with the young people, because there are many young people getting lost today,” she shared.

“Jesus is coming back. And how many souls we still need to reach, how many young people we still need to reach, to evangelize so that the person can live the experience with God,” Pereira said. “As Father Jonas [Abib] used to say: ‘Let my life hasten the Lord and he will soon come.’ I also need, with my life, with my testimony of life, to run after these people to hasten the coming of the Lord.”

This story was first published by ACI Digital, CNA’s Portuguese-language news agency. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

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Vatican’s top abuse investigator Maltese archbishop Charles Scicluna (right) and fellow papal envoy Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu give a press conference at the Apostolic Nunciature in Santiago, Chile, on June 19, 2018. / Claudio Reyes/AFP via Getty Images

ACI Prensa Staff, May 23, 2023 / 15:01 pm (CNA).

In the wake of a new wave of scandals due to allegations of sexual abuse of minors committed by members of various religious orders in the country, the Bolivian Bishops’ Conference has announced that Monsignor Jordi Bertomeu, an official of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, will arrive in the country to examine the progress being made in abuse prevention.

In a statement posted May 21 on their website, the bishops point out that they themselves requested that the expert priest come to the country. According to the bishops, the visit had already been in the works for three years.

The conference said that in the coming days “meetings of a reflective nature” will be held and that they will take place in “a climate of profound closeness to all those who have been victims of the scourge of abuse in the Church.”

The bishops reiterated their “firm commitment to justice” and their pastoral service to the most vulnerable.

Who is Monsignor Bertomeu?

Bertomeu works in the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith. Along with Archbishop Charles J. Scicluna, he was a delegate of Pope Francis to deal with cases of sexual abuse in the Church in Chile.

In February 2018, the two investigated an alleged cover-up by the former bishop of Osorno, Juan Barros, in the abuses committed by the late priest Fernando Karadima, whom the Vatican found guilty of sexual abuse in January 2011.

The results of the investigations by Bertomeu and Scicluna were delivered to the pope, who then decided to meet with all the Chilean bishops in May 2018. At the end of that meeting, the prelates of the South American country put their positions in the hands of the Holy Father.

Bertomeu and Scicluna returned to Chile in June 2018 as part of a “pastoral mission” to continue reviewing the abuse issues. Finally, some of the bishops were removed from their dioceses by Pope Francis and others were retained.

In recent years, Bertomeu has dedicated himself to giving conferences in various countries, seeking to raise awareness about the importance of abuse prevention and prompt attention to victims.

In March of this year, during a conference on “safe spaces” organized by the Venezuelan bishops, Bertomeu charged that the abuse of power is much more serious within a spiritual institution than in any other body, because it can totally destroy the person.

“You find a man, a woman of God who helps you make your vocation flourish. If that person is an aggressor, that person can completely destroy you. Therefore abuse in the Church is much more serious than in other social institutions, because the abuse is committed by someone who presents himself in the name of God. It’s the biggest perversion there can be,” he emphasized.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

[…]

Santiago, Chile, Jan 16, 2018 / 12:55 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis visited a women’s prison in Santiago on Tuesday, telling the inmates that while at times it might seem like they have no future, they must never stop dreaming and should look for opportunities for personal growth.

“Losing our freedom does not mean losing our dreams and hopes. Losing our freedom is not the same thing as losing our dignity,” the Pope said Jan. 16.

Because of this, he stressed the need to reject all of the “petty clichés” that tell us “we can’t change, that it’s not worth trying, that nothing will make a difference.”

“No, dear sisters! Some things do make a difference,” he said. “All those efforts we make to build for a better future – even if often it seems they just go down the drain – all of them will surely bear fruit and be rewarded.”

Pope Francis spoke to inmates at the San Joaquin women’s prison in Santiago, which was founded by religious sisters from the Congregation of the Good Shepherd.

Established in 1864 and entrusted to the sisters in 1996, the prison until 1980 had no more than 160 inmates. However, with the increase in drug trafficking and the use of narcotics, by 2000 the prison had around 1,400 inmates.

Today the prison, which has 885 spaces available, houses nearly 45 percent of all female inmates in Chile.

Francis visited the prison on his first full day in Santiago, which is part of a Jan. 15-22 visit to Chile and Peru. He gave the penitentiary a ceramic bas-relief of Our Lady from Italy.

During the encounter, he heard the testimony of Sister Nelly León, who is in charge of pastoral outreach in the prison and who lamented that the poor are disproportionately incarcerated in Chile.

He also listened to one of the inmates, Janeth Zurita, who asked forgiveness of those who have been harmed by the wrongs the imprisoned have done and spoke about the suffering of the children of inmates. “May God have mercy on all the childen whose parents are prisoners, because they have a punishment we gave them, without willing it,” she said. Zurita also asked that “we may be able to repay our debt to society without being separated from our childen.”

In his address, the Pope thanked Zurita for “coming forward and sharing your hurt with all of us, and for your courageous request for forgiveness.”

“How much we all have to learn from your act of courage and humility,” he said, and also thanked Zurita for her words on forgiveness, which serve as a reminder “that without this attitude we lose our humanity.”

He noted how many of the women at the prison are mothers, and therefore know what it means to take on a new life and bring it into the world.

“Motherhood is not, and never will be a problem. It is a gift, and one of the most wonderful gifts you can ever have,” he said, noting that in their position, the women face the very real and unique challenge of caring for the life they have created.

“You are asked to care for the future. To make it grow and to help it to develop,” he said, adding that as women, “you have an incredible ability to adapt to new circumstances and move forward.”

Children themselves are a source of strength and incentive for the future, he said, explaining that their presence is also a reminder that life must be lived for the future, and not stuck in the past.

“Today your freedom has been taken away, but that is not the last word. Not at all,” he said, and told the women to “keep looking forward. Look ahead to the day when you will return to life in society.”

Pointing to the Gospel passage in Mark in which Christ is laughed at for saying the daughter of a synagogue leader was not dead but merely asleep, the Pope said Christ “pays no attention to ridicule and never gives up,” but rather takes our hand and tells us to get up, just as he did for the little girl.

Sadly, he noted that a jail sentence can seem like just a punishment with no opportunities for personal growth. “This is not good,” he said, explaining that initiatives aimed at job training and the restoration of relationships are “signs of hope for the future.”
 
“Let us help them to grow,” he said, adding that “public order must not be reduced to stronger security measures, but should be concerned primarily with preventive measures, such as work, education, and greater community involvement.”

Francis closed his address saying life itself blooms and shows its beauty when we work hand-in-hand to make things better and open the door to “open up new possibilities.”

He greeted all those who work and volunteer at the prison, who carry out “sensitive and complex” tasks. He also spoke to the authorities at the prison, asking them to provide “the conditions needed to carry out your work with dignity. A dignity that engenders dignity.”

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