A Catholic Bishop from Colombia has announced his plans of taking to the sky and dropping holy water over the crime-ridden city of Buenaventura to cleanse it of its evil, The Guardian reported.
Monsignor Rubén Darío Jaramillo Montoya will be stationed inside a military helicopter to complete the aerial exorcism during the city’s annual patron saints festivities this weekend.
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Buenaventura has long been a hotbed for violence and seemingly unceasing criminal activity for years.
Rival gangs have been fighting for control of the city’s drug trade for years, resulting in an increase in murders, rapes, kidnappings and disappearances in the area.
In 2014, it was named the country’s most violent place.
Human Rights Watch described the city as being “dominated by powerful criminal groups that commit widespread abuses, including abducting and dismembering people, sometimes while still alive, then dumping them in the sea.”
The less-than-honorable distinction reportedly led to locals banding together in an attempt to clean up their city.
There was, for a time, significant improvements made to Buenaventura, with about 300 families forming a committee of activists. With the added help of the Inter-Church Justice and Peace Commission and Christian Aid, the community declared an urban “humanitarian space” and denounced armed violence.
However, despite apparent improvements made to the city, there’s still an alarming amount of crime and violence occurring.
Local media have reported that in the first five months of 2019 alone, there were 51 homicides in the city, 20 more than what was reported in the same time period last year.
After a 10-year-old girl was discovered to have been tortured and murdered in the city, Montoya announced his sky-high exorcism plans.
Ordained by Pope Francis in 2017, the Bishop told local radio of his intent to cleanse the city: “We have to drive the devil out of Buenaventura.”
“We need to see if we can restore the peace and tranquility that our city has lost.”
He continued to say that this lose of peace is “due to so many crimes, acts of corruption and with so much evil and drug trafficking that invades our port.”
By flying high above Buenaventura in a helicopter and completing a holy water drop, Montoya hopes to purge the city of “demonic infestation”.
“Where blood flowed, where blood was shed, we are now going to pour holy water as a sign of reparation at the place where those who died were struck down by violence,” he told religious news agency CNA .
While traditional exorcisms are typically carried out against one possessed individual, there are special exceptions.
In 1890, Pope Leo XIII added a prayer known as the “Exorcism Against Satan and the Fallen Angels” as a means of resolving demonic infestation cases that go beyond one specific instance of possession.
Just last year, the Vatican held an exorcising training course to teach priests the proper ways to complete the ritual.
The course was in response to a world-wide increase in demand for priests capable of performing exorcisms which the Vatican-backed International Association of Exorcists dubbed a “pastoral emergency.”
Surprisingly, the demand for exorcisms is rising.
In Italy, the number of people claiming to be possessed by demons tripled to more than 500,000 a year, and an Irish priest recently said the demands for exorcisms in Ireland has “risen exponentially.”
The helicopter holy water drop isn’t exclusively meant to conduct a city-wide exorcism, Montoya explained.
In addition to reciting the proper exorcist prayers, he also plans on blessing all those who have tragically lost their lives in Bueneventura due to the amount of violence the city so frequently and consistently experiences.
I guess that’s one way to support a city.
Hopefully this drives up the good kinds of spirits and drives out the bad.
h/t: The Guardian
