Exorcists are super concerned about a major scourge of modern society -- no, not greed or narcissism-- sexy vampires.
"There are those who try to turn people into vampires and make them drink other people's blood, or encourage them to have special sexual relations to obtain special powers," said Professor Giuseppe Ferrari, head of The Group on Research and Socio-Religious Information, an Italian occult watchdog, at a conference in Rome last week. "These groups are attracted by the so-called beautiful young vampires that we've seen so much of in recent years."
Ferrari is not some fringe exorcist (ha ha) -- he is actually backed by the Vatican and the Pope himself, who has insisted that dioceses have one trained exorcist on campus to deal with any urgent possessions.
Father Cesare Truqui, a Swiss exorcist and protégé of Father Gabriele Amorth (the Vatican's longtime chief exorcist) who also spoke at the conference, told The Independent that exorcism training is super important but overlooked: "It's like training to be a journalist without knowing how to do an interview." Amorth's main concerns were sex abuse scandals, the fantasy genre and yoga.
In fact, under Pope Francis, who frequently mentions the Devil, exorcisms are booming.
"Until a few years ago, a significant number of people in the Church didn't believe in the Devil, but people are now going back to the Scriptures," said an unnamed British exorcist priest in an interview with The Telegraph. "Pope Francis has given a certain amount of encouragement to that. A few years ago at least half the dioceses in England and Wales did not have an exorcist. Now, pretty much all of them do."
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