Read Online The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Matt Baglio
Tags: Religión, General, Biography & Autobiography, Biography, Religious, Christian Theology, Christianity, Angelology & Demonology, Clergy, exorcism, Catholic, Matt, Baglio
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Community Association, has been working with ex-cult members for some time. Small in stature, Father Buonaiuto sports a collegiate handsomeness and a perpetual five-o'clock shadow. His appearance and mild demeanor seem completely out of place in the world of devil worship and murder. And yet, author of a book on the occult, Le mani occulte: viaggio nel mondo del satanismo (The Hands of the Occult, a Voyage into the World of Satanism), he is considered an expert on the subject and was recently asked to collaborate with the SAS.
During the course of his work, Father Buonaiuto has come up with different designations within satanic cults. The first, which he calls “Youth Acid,” consists of mostly young people into the physical trappings of Satanism, the hedonistic lifestyle mixed with drugs, selfmutilation, pedophilia, suicide, and even murder to provide human sacrifices. The second designation, known as “Power Satanism,” is more sophisticated, he claims, and counts as members very wealthy and influential people who are said to sell their souls to the Devil for the promise of power and riches, which are then used to ensure a perpetual state of strife—war, famine, economic instability, and such. The third designation he calls “Apocalyptic Satanism,” which, as the name suggests, has as its goal the total destruction of life as we know it (not surprisingly, he claims this is the most dangerous strain).
W HILE THERE IS NO DENYING that groups like the “Beasts of Satan” exist, and that they claim to kill in the name of the Devil, the larger question is this: Are these groups part of a bigger problem, or just deeply troubled kids?
Similar to the “satanic panics” that gripped the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s, when cases such as the McMartin Preschool trial (in which a group of teachers were accused of ritually abusing the students) turned out to be false, some critics wonder whether the Church might be overreacting to a few isolated incidents.
Italy has seen its fair share of scandals that, while garnering headlines, have failed to deliver. In 1996, for example, Marco Dimitri, the leader of a satanic cult called the Bambini di Satana (Children of Satan) was acquitted of raping a two-year-old boy and a teenage girl during an alleged satanic ritual. Likewise, in 2007, the town of Rignano Flaminio near Rome went through its very own McMartin-style scandal when fifteen students at a nursery school accused six individuals, including several teachers, of sexually abusing them in satanic rituals. A lengthy investigation, however, involving a number of child psychologists, failed to turn up any evidence.
Dr. Strano, for his part, doesn't believe the more sensational crimes attributed to satanic cults—such as human sacrifice, organ trafficking, and slavery—are going on to the extent that some people imagine. He thinks instead that many of these groups are just about rebellion, about young people doing drugs and perhaps becoming involved in petty crimes such as vandalism or theft. Most of them “do not even know what they are doing,” he says.
Father Buonaiuto, however, thinks differently. For the past five years, he has been running a cult hotline in Italy, counseling individuals and family members who are trying to get out of cults. “It's not true that they are isolated groups, that a sixteen-year-old kid suddenly wakes up and decides to start a group. There is always someone who gives them the permission; there is a territory, there is always someone who initiates the group with that doctrine,” he says. The hotline has opened Father Buonaiuto's eyes to a world that many people can't imagine exists. “The thing that is the most shocking is the amount of joy that these young kids, some of them sixteen years old, get out of suffering and causing suffering for others. They celebrate death. If you read what some of the people from the ‘Beasts of Satan’ said, you would not believe it. While
During the course of his work, Father Buonaiuto has come up with different designations within satanic cults. The first, which he calls “Youth Acid,” consists of mostly young people into the physical trappings of Satanism, the hedonistic lifestyle mixed with drugs, selfmutilation, pedophilia, suicide, and even murder to provide human sacrifices. The second designation, known as “Power Satanism,” is more sophisticated, he claims, and counts as members very wealthy and influential people who are said to sell their souls to the Devil for the promise of power and riches, which are then used to ensure a perpetual state of strife—war, famine, economic instability, and such. The third designation he calls “Apocalyptic Satanism,” which, as the name suggests, has as its goal the total destruction of life as we know it (not surprisingly, he claims this is the most dangerous strain).
W HILE THERE IS NO DENYING that groups like the “Beasts of Satan” exist, and that they claim to kill in the name of the Devil, the larger question is this: Are these groups part of a bigger problem, or just deeply troubled kids?
Similar to the “satanic panics” that gripped the United States in the 1980s and early 1990s, when cases such as the McMartin Preschool trial (in which a group of teachers were accused of ritually abusing the students) turned out to be false, some critics wonder whether the Church might be overreacting to a few isolated incidents.
Italy has seen its fair share of scandals that, while garnering headlines, have failed to deliver. In 1996, for example, Marco Dimitri, the leader of a satanic cult called the Bambini di Satana (Children of Satan) was acquitted of raping a two-year-old boy and a teenage girl during an alleged satanic ritual. Likewise, in 2007, the town of Rignano Flaminio near Rome went through its very own McMartin-style scandal when fifteen students at a nursery school accused six individuals, including several teachers, of sexually abusing them in satanic rituals. A lengthy investigation, however, involving a number of child psychologists, failed to turn up any evidence.
Dr. Strano, for his part, doesn't believe the more sensational crimes attributed to satanic cults—such as human sacrifice, organ trafficking, and slavery—are going on to the extent that some people imagine. He thinks instead that many of these groups are just about rebellion, about young people doing drugs and perhaps becoming involved in petty crimes such as vandalism or theft. Most of them “do not even know what they are doing,” he says.
Father Buonaiuto, however, thinks differently. For the past five years, he has been running a cult hotline in Italy, counseling individuals and family members who are trying to get out of cults. “It's not true that they are isolated groups, that a sixteen-year-old kid suddenly wakes up and decides to start a group. There is always someone who gives them the permission; there is a territory, there is always someone who initiates the group with that doctrine,” he says. The hotline has opened Father Buonaiuto's eyes to a world that many people can't imagine exists. “The thing that is the most shocking is the amount of joy that these young kids, some of them sixteen years old, get out of suffering and causing suffering for others. They celebrate death. If you read what some of the people from the ‘Beasts of Satan’ said, you would not believe it. While
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