The Practical Parson

 So recently the priest who has been serving the Archdiocese of Washington, DC as exorcist for years and built up a good sized ministry there; has been ordered to leave the archdiocese, due to comments he made on a podcast.    Did he criticize the Pope?   No. Did he criticize the Cardinal of DC?  No. Did he make some public denunciation of the church or its teachings?  No. What he DID do, was dare to suggest that potential "extraterrestrial life" (I.E. UFO's) could be demonic activity.  Apparently, the Cardinal thinks it above the exorcist's pay grade to suggest that something that is not an absolute, could be the workings of demonic activity; although one would think that discerning what is demonic activity would rather be what the exorcist's job is, right?  I mean, scripture, tradition, and Christian history tell us that not only CAN demons manifest themselves as physical beings or disguise themselves as something else; they actually DO so ...

 As the clock ticks down to the planned episcopal consecrations by the Society of Saint Pius X on July 1st, there is a lot of philosophical grandstanding taking place across social media and religious news outlets.  The majority of Roman Catholic outlets and clergy seem to tow the predictable line that the SSPX is going to be straying into schism because of 'disobedience to the pope', an assumption presumably confirmed by the current bishop of Rome's own words on the matter this week at Castel Gandolfo.  The entirety of the assumption of schism centers around the SSPX's rejection of the majority of what has come to be attributed to the Second Vatican Council, although no one can ever quite cite what source from the council documents they proclaim the SSPX to be in revolt on.   At the very heart of the matter is, in plain fact; the very issue that the Roman church takes with other sacramental churches: liturgy and intent.  These 2 issues can be summed up qui...