Exorcist claims Pope Benedict XVI chased demons from St. Peter's Square
A blessing by Pope Benedict XVI exorcised the devil from two howling men during a general audience in St. Peter's Square in 2009, a leading Catholic exorcist says in an upcoming book.
Extracts from the book by Gabriele Amorth, a well-known exorcist for the diocese of Rome who has already written two books on treating demonic afflictions, were published in Panorama magazine on Thursday.
The Vatican has denied that the pope performed an exorcism on the men.
Amorth said two of his helpers brought the men, known only as Giovanni and Marco, to the audience to see the pope, where they began to shake, becoming increasingly agitated and showing violent signs of being possessed.
When one of the helpers asked Giovanni to control himself, he said "I am not Giovanni" in a voice that was not his own, before throwing himself on the floor along with Marco when the pope's car arrived, Amorth said.
"The two possessed men fell to the floor and banged their heads on the ground. The Swiss guards watched but did nothing, perhaps they have seen how the possessed react when faced by the pope before?" Amorth said.
"The pope began to wave to the crowd and Giovanni and Marco started to howl, drool, shake and fly into a rage. The pope did not get flustered, he raised an arm and blessed the four people.
"The possessed were then hit by a wild jolt, their whole bodies were hit. They flew three metres backwards... and howled no longer," he said.
The Vatican's spokesman Federico Lombardi told AFP that the pope had no idea who the men were or that they were there that day.
"Even if the facts are true, it's not correct to talk about an exorcism by the pope, who was not warned or aware of their presence. There is no connection, and the pope had no intention to perform an exorcism," he said.
Exorcism is an ancient practice of evicting demons from a person or place, and exists in several religions.
Jean Paul II is said to have performed several exorcisms in the Vatican in 1982 and 2000. - edmontonjournal
An Exorcist: More Stories
An Exorcist Tells His Story
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Check this out!
Eric Altman and Lon Strickler welcome independent paranormal researcher Thomas P. Fusco who has authored Behind The Cosmic Veil: A New Vision of Reality Merging Science, the Spiritual and the Supernatural
as you'll hear during the archived broadcast of This Week on 'Beyond the Edge' Radio: Author/Researcher Thomas P. Fusco...an insightful interview that you won't want to miss!**********
Question the obvious...are there 'big cats' roaming Britain?
This is the biggest question posed by many people who have an interest in the subject of 'British big cats', and it is a subject often scoffed at by sceptics. Hopefully, this blog will answer a few of the questions posed by sceptics and also those with a genuine interest in what has become known as the British 'big cat' phenomenon. As a full-time researcher into the subject I've collected reports from the south-east of England since the age of nine! after hearing about a sighting in the area of Blue Bell Hill. Almost three decades later I'm still collecting evidence and believe that without a shadow of a doubt there are large, exotic cats roaming Britain. It's only natural there are a lot of sceptics to this subject, after all, a majority of 'big cat' stories in the press are often inaccurate or simply a beastly Halloween headline, but again, I'm hoping this blog will convince some sceptics that these stories are not born from myth or overactive imagination and that I am not insane in my quest!
I'm looking forward to any constructive comments and thought-provoking questions and will be covering a wide range of subjects to hopefully explain the why, what, where and when of the saga, a saga which in fact has been going on a lot longer than many people would have you believe. Although I've always enjoyed studying folklore, my research into exotic cats is very much something I like to keep separate. I decided to take it upon myself to study the sightings and evidence because the so-called 'mystery' of such cats has, mainly since the 1960s, been relegated to folklore. The reality is, there is no mystery as to why there are large cats roaming the wilds of Britain, and hopefully I'll explain why in this blog. I have conducted lectures, organised field trips, written articles and books, and liaised with zoologists, police, scientists, in the hope of simply making the public aware that large cats do roam the UK. Most counties seem to have a 'big cat' in their midst, and this is true, and certainly not folklore. Over the last few weeks there have been numerous stories in some of the major tabloids regarding potential evidence to support the theory that 'big cats' roam the woods, but as you'll find when reading this blog, the evidence has always been there, and is in fact quite easy to find if you know what you're looking for.
Kent - the 'garden of England' is still a heavily wooded, and in some places, dense forest county. Our wilds can provide ample enough shelter for an animal that does not want to be seen - and yet, despite the scepticism, sightings persist - and have for decades since the Surrey 'puma' legend hit the county of Surrey during the 1960s. From then on there have been beastly legends, from the Exmoor and Bodmin tales of the West Country, to the forests of the Scottish Higlands, the valleys of Wales and the remote moors of Yorkshire. Is every eye witness mistaken ? Can every so-called 'big cat' sighting be explained by species native to the UK, such as foxes ?
I will attempt to update this blog as regularly as possible, so if you have any questions, evidence or sightings please do get in touch. By writing this blog I am hoping that any detractors of my research, or sceptics, will look at the evidence with a non-bias view. I am open to any suggestions or views regarding what some evidence could be, but hopefully you will find that the evidence presented on here suggests that exotic cats ARE roaming the south-east of England. - kentonline
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'Blue Balls' mystery solved
The suggested explanations for the mysterious blue balls that appeared in a Dorset garden have ranged from the unlikely — the eggs of a marine creature – to the downright bizarre – the bodily secretions of angels. Scientists at Bournemouth University have announced they have solved the puzzle. There is no need to prepare a welcome for extra-terrestrials. The blue balls are almost certainly sodium polyacrylate or waterlock, an absorbent polymer used in nappies and by florists and gardeners as a way of keeping soil moist.
It is still not clear how the substance came to be in the garden but it may be that a heavy hailstorm that seemed to make the balls appear had quickly saturated the sodium polyacrylate crystals, and so caused them to rapidly increase in size. Earlier this week, Bournemouth resident Steve Hornsby reported how the sky above his house turned dark then yellow. A violent hailstorm followed and afterwards he found odd gel-like blue balls in his garden. A jar of the crystals was taken to the school of applied sciences at the university, which has spent the week trying to work out what they are.
Scientists quickly established the crystals were not a life-form. They then drew the water out of them by slowly drying them in an oven and used FTIR spectroscopy, which measures how a sample absorbs or transmits light. This established the balls' "molecular fingerprint" – the procedure often used in crime scenes to establish the nature of a particular substance. Research assistant Josie Pegg confirmed the substance was sodium polyacrylate. It is sometimes used in gardening or agriculture to improve soil – as well as being used in nappies.
The puzzle of how the substance got into Hornsby's garden remains but, admittedly, it is not the greatest of mysteries. "Perhaps someone was having clear-out and chucked them over the fence," said Pegg. The heavy rain may have turned effectively invisible dry crystals into the gel-like blue balls. Pegg did not think her work has been a waste of time. "It has attracted lots of interest and been a break from the norm," she said. But next week she will go back to her normal day job, studying aquatic ecology. - guardian
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More Erie lights
Case Number 35505
Log Number US-02052012-0036
Date Submitted 02/05/2012 09:14 UTC
Date of the Event 08/25/2011 12:00 UTC
Disposition Unresolved
Summary An object with 3 very bright lights at tree top height. Lights made hard to see structure
City Erie
Region Pennsylvania
Country United States
Latitude 42.0782584
Longitude -80.2241083
Location Resolution Geometric Center
Viewing Distance Unknown
Sighting Duration Undisclosed
Object Features Unknown
Object Flight Path Hovering then path,Path with directional change
Object Shape Square, Rectagular
Weather Factors Unknown
(unedited) - My Family and I were traveling North I79 from Grove City on Aug 25th to go camping at Virginia’s on the Beach which is a lake side camp ground on Lake Eire, Pa. My wife was driving so I was taking advantage of being a passenger and was looking out the window at the sky. As we got closer to Lake Eire I noticed that there were a few out of place abnormally looking orange stars and commented on them. I was trying to determine if they were planets or stars or whatever they were when I saw what I thought was a shooting star and as I was about to announce it, it changed direction and stopped which really got my attention. We pulled off the interstate and stopped near the intersections of interstate 79 and 90 so I could take some pictures. I took some photos but it was really out of the reach of my 280mm lens so nothing earth shattering came out of that. It was near midnight at the time when those photos were taken. We got back in the car and proceeded on. We were letting the GPS guide is to the campground which was west of Eire about ½ ways between Erie and Conneaut Ohio. As we proceeded we ended up on West Lake Road Route 5 traveling west looking for the camp ground when I saw another shooting star thing that just stopped dead in the air off to the southwest.
We pulled over again so I could take more photos. This time it was much closer. My wife, Step-Son and Step-Niece and I all got out of the car to look at this thing while I grabbed my camera to photograph it. I was facing southwest and its flight path was eastward. As I focused on this thing with my camera I thought to myself I’m getting way better shots but I wish it was closer. Before I could think another thought in a split second this thing was right over top of us almost as if it read my mind. I was caught up in the moment photographing it but it really scared my wife, Step-Son and Step-Niece almost to tears because it moved so weird and approached us like that and I freaked out later. I was able to get some really crazy and descent photos of this thing especially for night shots of a moving object. This thing was house sized but the brightness of the lights made it difficult to make out object’s outline. It made no sound per say but what we did hear could be best described as an electrical buzzing sound like the ones you might hear in those old SciFi movies in mad scientist laboratory. I know that sounds like a goofy description but that is what it sounded like. It had 3 very bright lights no blinking lights or marking lights at all that would be on conventional air craft. And after it slowly flew by us at about tree top height it changed direction northward sped up and flew off. It went very quickly and disappeared towards the direction of Lake Eire.
We ended up lost in Conneaut Ohio and stopped at this convenience store to regroup and find the camp ground. We were talking about the event and the clerk over heard us. She said we see that all kind of stuff all the time here. if you are here for week you’ll see it at least once. she said many people see it near the power plant by the lake along with other strange lights. Heck most locals don’t even report them or give it a second thought it’s so normal anymore. - MUFON CMS
