Bishop Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya of Buenaventura explained Wednesday that drug gang violence in the Colombian port city has forced the churches to celebrate Masses before the evening, since the criminals dictate when people can be out on the streets.
At approximately 6:30 p.m on Aug. 30, a confrontation broke out in the Juan XXIII neighborhood between the Los Shottas and Los Espartanos trafficking gangs. Moments later, a group of police officers appeared and exchanged fire with the criminals.
Speaking to Noticias Caracol television Aug. 31, Bishop Jaramillo said that this “is not an isolated event, but rather it happens continually with many times when the community hasn’t slept” due to the bullets fired in the streets which hit the houses, putting “in danger the whole society.”
The prelate said that these groups go around with rifles, bringing their fights “from neighborhood to neighborhood.”
“They send out a statement that at six in the evening everyone has to be at home. So everyone has to obey,” he recounted.
“Schools close, churches have to celebrate Mass before a certain time of day, and the entire community has to close their businesses; therefore, it seems that they’re the ones exercising authority,” said the Bishop of Buenaventura, who asked the government to guarantee the rights of the population.
Bishop Jaramillo explained that the urban area of Buenaventura is dominated by Los Shottas and Los Espartanos, which had previously formed a single group called La Local.
The prelate said that the groups are confronting each other “for the control of the neighborhoods, for the drug trafficking routes and for imposing new extortion zones.” He said this causes great anxiety because the clashes take place in the streets and the population must hide.
The bishop said that the police and the armed forces react in time when these situations occur, however, “life and peace are at stake in our city.”
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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Bishop Pierre André Dumas is vice president of the Haitian Bishops’ Conference. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rome Newsroom, Feb 20, 2024 / 12:00 pm (CNA).
Bishop Pierre-André Dumas of the Diocese of Anse-à-Veau/Miragoâneis and vice president of the Haitian Bishops’ Conference is reportedly in stable condition after being caught in an explosion in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince on Sunday evening.
A communiqué sent out by the Conference of Catholics Bishops of Haiti on Monday announced that Dumas “was affected yesterday evening by an explosion which reached the house where he is accommodated during his stay in Port-au-Prince.”
The press release noted that the bishop is “stable” but did not provide additional details on the explosion or the bishop’s condition.
In a sign of solidarity with the bishop and the Church in Haiti, the Bishops Conference of Mexico (CEM), wrote on X: “We join in prayer and solidarity with the Episcopal Conference of Haiti in the face of the suffering of its people and the incident that affected Monsignor Pierre André Dumas.”
“We are aware of the difficult situation of violence and insecurity that Haiti is suffering. We admire the strength and firmness of the pastors of the Haitian Church who, despite the terrorist acts they have suffered, do not give up in their evangelizing mission,” the CEM’s full press release continued.
The bishops of Mexico also expressed that they were united ”in the pain of violence” and would pray “that soon there will be a time of peace, justice, and reconciliation for the people of Haiti. Count on our prayers and our commitment to continue working together as a Church for a future of hope.”
This is the latest incident to hit the Catholic community in the Caribbean island that has been rocked by gang violence, murder, and political instability.
Nearly a month ago, six Haitian religious sisters of the St. Anne Congregation were abducted in Port-au-Prince and released on Jan. 25 after a week in captivity.
In the wake of their release, Dumas said that “this traumatic event has once again put our faith to the test, but it remains unshakable.”
“We cried out to God. He made us strong in our trials and brought our captives back to freedom,” he continued.
Dumas has been vocal in denouncing the widespread violence and “the formalization of banditry in the country,” warning that without concrete action the situation could deteriorate into civil war.
The acting prime minister, Ariel Henry, assumed leadership of the government on July 20, 2021, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse fewer than three weeks earlier.
Henry was faced with a deadline on Feb. 7 to step down from office. However, in a TV address broadcast on the evening of the ultimatum, the de facto Haitian leader said that elections would be held once security in the beleaguered capital was restored, CNN reported.
In a report released Monday, a judge in Haiti responsible for investigating Moïse’s assassination indicted Moïse’s widow, Martine Moïse, ex-prime minister Claude Joseph, and the former chief of Haiti’s National Police, Léon Charles, among others, the Associated Press reported.
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.”
“Conversion is a forgetting of ourselves, it is to stop pretending to be the center of the universe… and saying: ‘Lord, sit down, now the center is going to be you’” Bishop Munilla said during his Sept. 11, 2024, presentation at the Internationa… […]
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