And today we have a story, or rather it is a testimony given to us by a priest.
This is from an article and it was to shed light on what exorcism is.
We're going to be having a look at that today.
Welcome to this channel, Following Padre Pio, and here we have a series of short stories
on the life of our great Saint Padre Pio.
He was a Capuchin friar, he was a mystic and a tremendous miracle worker.
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In the story today, our Lord Jesus as we know did exorcisms, and he also commissioned his
disciples using the following words.
He said, "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, and drive out demons."
So the word exorcism, it actually comes from, it has a Greek origin, exorkizeim , meaning
to curse.
So it's like removing curses from people.
That's the idea behind it.
But what does the deliverance from evil spirits really consist of?
Is it even something real?
And when should one even be thinking about this, or considering the possibility of exorcism?
Now there's the website, exorcismus.org and they give us this word of caution.
They tell us, "Beware of false exorcists."
And they say currently more and more frequently, there are unauthorized people taking up this
ministry of freeing and commonly they are frauds.
They exercise against our Lord's commandments.
They exercise for money, in exchange for money.
And apparently these actions can often bring dire effects, usually done by people like
psychics, charmers, witch-doctors, and the like.
And in fact, they tell us that their actions, they often covertly are occultistic or spiritism.
Do they have a real power of freeing?
And the author of the website tells us absolutely not, so you stay away from that sort of thing.
We stay keeping away from this occultish parody.
We're not talking about that at all today.
In the story, there was a Father Piero Catalano.
And in fact, he was a spiritual child of Father Gabriel Amorth, the famous Vatican Exorcist.
He died in 2016, and he says that during exorcism, the demons often called the Saint of Pietrelcina,
the bearded man or Francesco Forgione.
They avoid using Padre Pio.
Just a little bit of background, Father Piero is a priest.
He's an Exorcist of Reggio Calabria and he is explaining the use of relics of saints
during exorcism, and says that he invokes Saint Pio of Pietrelcina against the devil
to very good effect.
We can see here how the demons, they really fear the name of Padre Pio.
They avoid using his name.
Now Father Piero studied for a number of years to be an exorcist.
And as we said, he's spiritual son of Father Amorth.
Way back, he started practicing what he called a prayer of liberation, perhaps praying against
vices and things like that, being liberated from these things.
And he was 18 years old.
And then he studied for a number of years in order to become an exorcist.
And he tells us that in his office, he has many relics of saints.
And he says, I use them during my exorcisms.
And he explains this to the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera.
Now Father Piero says, "Which saint do I invoke the most often?"
He says he has a special love for Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, who often makes himself present
or known during exorcisms.
When the person possessed, suddenly becomes afraid, then he'll say, "The one with the
beard is here."
And I reply, "By any chance is that, is he named Saint Pio of Pietrelcina?"
To which the demon will respond, "No, his name is Francesco Forgione."
The devil fears, even to use Padre Pio's name.
And then he describes a little bit of what would be the indications for an exorcism.
And it can be a variety of things from nausea to cold.
And Father Piero says that he becomes aware of a demonic presence, a position, or a vexation
through typical reactions of the demon.
For example, he says, "As soon as I put my hand on the person's head, he or she pulls
back or turns icy cold, or feels like they are choking, or they become nauseated."
And he says, if it's not a case of demonic presence, then he simply does a prayer of
liberation, and he leaves it at that.
In these exorcisms, how would we expect the demons to react?
And he tells us, "The demon does everything possible to tempt the exorcist.
And once he asked me how much money do you want to come over to my side?"
And Father Piero says, "I started to laugh because I've made a vow of poverty.
I don't even have money to pay for my own funeral.
And I share everything I have with the poor."
And the devil said, "If I could, I would kill you instantly."
So why doesn't he?
And Father Piero replied, "You can't because I belong to Jesus."
So he's under the protection of our Lord.
And so we can see from this, that it seems that Padre Pio, even his relics appear to
be very disturbing to the demonic world.
They have an exorcistic effect.
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