On Pentecost Sunday all hell broke loose in Rome. Following Mass that day, the unpredictable Pope Francis laid hands on a demon-possessed man from Mexico and prayed for him. The YouTube video of this encounter was flashed around the world, and the story caught fire: Is Pope Francis an exorcist? The Holy Father\u2019s Vatican handlers were quick to deny such. The pope simply offered a prayer of deliverance for the distraught man, it was said. Exorcism in the Catholic Church is a sacramental, a sacred act producing a spiritual effect, which must be done according to the officially prescribed Rite of Exorcism. And yet what the pope did on Pentecost Sunday in St. Peter\u2019s Square was more than a simple prayer for someone to get better. It looked for all the world like a real act of spiritual warfare.<\/p>\n
Timothy GeorgeThe scene now shifts to South America, the continent where Jorge Mario Bergoglio was born and has spent most of his life. The place: All Saints Church, in Steenrijk, Cura\u00c3\u00a7ao, in the Anglican Diocese of Venezuela. The date: May 12, 2013, one week before the pope\u2019s exorcism-like event in Rome. The preacher: The Most Reverend Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church (formerly known as ECUSA). When she was elected to her post in 2006, Father Richard John Neuhaus described it as an occasion of great sadness. His reaction reflected neither personal animus nor schadenfreudlich glee. Rather, he saw her accession to this high office as likely to deepen the pain and division within the Christian community. Sadly, he was right.<\/p>\n
In Venezuela, Bishop Katharine also confronted a demon\u201d\u201dthe one found in her sermon text for the day, Acts 16:16-24. This is Luke\u2019s account of Paul\u2019s exorcism of a manic slave girl in Philippi. The bishop\u2019s sermon was really a polemic against what she called, in postmodernist lingo, \u201cdiscounting and devaluing difference.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n