Possessed ‘The Exorcist’ de l’album Seven Churches (1985)
‘Possessed performs ‘The Exorcist’ in Baltimore, 1987.’
Clergy take lessons on demonic possession, exorcism
The rite, those few priests who have performed it say, can unfold as a quiet prayer session or a show of violence.
The afflicted person may curse the cleric, speak in a voice not his or her own, even assume facial features that one priest described as « reptilian. »
But in the great majority of cases in which a Catholic seeks an exorcism, church officials say, what the person really needs is help of a less dramatic nature: a doctor, a therapist or simple pastoral counseling.
With some parishes seeing an increase in claims of demonic possession in the United States, the Roman Catholic Church is training its clergy in how to respond to requests for the ancient rite. More than 100 bishops and priests attended a November workshop on the subject in Baltimore.
Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki, who organized the two-day, closed-door event at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, says pastors need help discerning the difference between those who need an exorcist and those who only believe they do.
The goal, he says, was to help the clergy counsel people who believe they are possessed by a demon by referring them to a physician, a therapist, or — in very rare cases, he stresses — an exorcist.
« We have only a small number of priests who have any training in this area in the United States, » said Paprocki, who heads the Diocese of Springfield, Ill. « Every diocese should really have its own resources. »
While no one is keeping statistics, he says anecdotal reports suggest that the phenomenon of people claiming to be possessed « seems to have increased in the last five years or so » …
Read the full article by Arthur Hirsch in The Baltimore Sun (January 10, 2011).
Sleepchamber ‘Spellbondage’ tirée de la VHS du même nom (1987)
Un peu ‘shaky’ mais on dirait que ça ajoute au charme … Pour rendre hommage à notre parution favorite de MMX :
SLEEPCHAMBER ‘SixSixSix’ Boxset (4xLP + 7″)
Chronicles 1979 to 1988, but focusing on the first 6 years of Sleepchamber (Also includes rare ZEWIZZ KIDZ tracks).
Details here.
Satan Claus
J.X. Williams, USA, 1975, 3 min, 16 mm
« In the mid-Seventies, I was working as a projectionist for this crummy movie theatre in downtown LA. The owner owed me six weeks back wages and when I ask him for the money, the scumbag has the gall to inform me that I’m getting laid off Christmas week.
If he’d known my reputation for mischief, he might have thought twice about it.
On my last day of work, I had to project a Christmas matinee for kids. Before the main feature, I added an unannounced opener to the program called « Satan Claus ». I fled the theatre right after my film ended but I heard the owner had to refund the entire box office. Even then, several outraged parents filed a lawsuit against the theatre.
Merry Christmas, you cheap bastard! »
City of the Living Dead / Paura nella città dei morti viventi (original title)
Lucio Fulci, Italy, 1983, 93 min
In the small New England town of Dunwich, a priest commits suicide by hanging himself in the church cemetery which somehow opens the gates of hell allowing the dead to rise.
Peter, a New York City reporter, teams up with a young psychic, named Mary, to travel to the town where they team up with another couple, psychiatrist Jerry and patient Sandra, to find a way to close the gates before All Saints Day or the dead all over the world will rise up and kill the living.
