The Telegraph reports on a conference of Catholic exorcists in Poland:
The national congress comes as part of a policy by Poland’s Catholic Church to lift the veil on what was once a secretive practice. Frustrated by the Hollywood image of cross-wielding exorcists engaged in dramatic conflicts with demons the Church intends to show the complicated and often more mundane world of exorcism.
The article quotes Father Andrzej Grefkowicz, who explains that one sign of possession is the inability to enter a church. According to the New York Times, American bishops have just held a conference on the same theme in Baltimore, organised by Bishop Thomas J. Paprocki of Springfield, Illinois.
Details of the event in Poland are scarce, although there was an “Exorcists’ Congress” in Niepokalanow, near Warsaw, back in February. A report derived from Gazeta Wyborcza explained:
“Our role is mainly to say prayers and psalms,” Father Andrzej Grefkowicz told the press conference. Another priest, Aleksander Posacki, said that too many myths surround exorcisms, which in fact are based on fundamental church rules.
Congress participants argued that demonology lessons should be treated more seriously in seminaries and that ordinary people, too, would benefit from knowing more about exorcisms. During the congress, the priests discussed the main causes of possession by demons such as occult, esoteric beliefs like magic, eastern meditation and homeopathy.
…The congresses are held twice a year.
In 2009, Grefkowicz participated in a conference on “Occultism, Magic, Spiritism: Road to Torment and Enslavement”, held at Cardinal Stefan Wyszy?ski University and organised by the pastoral ministry there (known as “Kaganek”); other speakers were Fr. Aleksander Posacki SJ, Leszek Dokowicz, Robert Tekieli, and Fr. Dominik Chmielewski. According to a blurb accessed by Google translate, Posacki warned against the dangers of “intellectual arrogance”, defined as reasoning in opposition to church teaching; Tekieli attacked New Age ideas (according to this article, Tekieli believes that Harry Potter promotes Tai Chi “Mind Control”); Dokowicz denounced the “Satanic symbolism” of techno music; and Chmielewski warned of the occult aspect to martial arts, based on his own experience as a martial arts instructor (more on that here).
Grefkowicz is also listed as a member of a group called Krajowego Zespo?u Koordynatorów (KZK, the “National Team Coordinators”), headed by Bishop Bronislaw Dembowski. This is a Catholic Charismatic Renewal group, and as such influenced by trends in neo-Pentecostalism.
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