Pontifical University to Take on the Devil (Course on Satanism/Exorcism) [View All]

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A Vatican university said on Thursday it will hold a special "theoretical and practical" course for Roman Catholic priests on Satanism and exorcism in response to what the Church says is a worrying interest in the occult, particularly among the young.

This year, Italy was gripped by the story of two teenage members of a heavy metal rock band called the "Beasts of Satan" who were killed by other band members in a human sacrifice.

The deaths horrified Catholic Italy, with pages of newspapers given over to descriptions of the black candles and goats' skulls decorating one victim's bedroom and witness statements of sexual violence.

The Regina Apostolorum, one of Rome's most prestigious pontifical universities, said in a statement that such episodes should be seen as an "alarm bell to take seriously a problem which is still far too underestimated."

"In the last few years there has been a lot of interest in Satanism and it develops because of the media. It's not that the devil is in the media, rock and roll or the Internet but the media can be damaging when it is used the wrong way," Carlo Climati, one of the professors of the course, told Reuters.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=industryNews&storyID=7043360