(LifeSiteNews) — A Mexican bishop has warned about the danger of falling into “spiritist” or “satanic” practices due to a lack of “mature faith.”
Bishop José Trinidad Zapata Ortiz told ACI Prensa: “We are in need of a mature, committed, and convinced faith.”
The prelate lamented that “unfortunately, many of our parishioners who are baptized do not live out their faith in an orthodox manner” and end up seeking a “solution to their difficulties in other areas.”
“Having the solution within their own Church in pastoral practice and by living out the sacraments, they go looking for solutions elsewhere,” he noted, explaining that many fall “into spiritist practices or other types – satanic ones, or the so-called ‘Santa Muerte,’ [a Mexican folk saint and deity personifying death], etc.”
He explained that this leads to people suffering from spiritual attacks and difficulties.
Seeking esoteric means as a solution to one’s problems shows a lack of faith, Ortiz argued, for “when there is total trust in the Lord, we know that there may be difficulties, that there may be problems, but that, ultimately, the Lord permits all of this to bring about a greater good and to guide us along the right path.”
“The Christian life is not a victorious life devoid of pain or problems; rather, one embraces this as a path, following the Lord,” the bishop stated.
Ortiz is the leader of the recently established Ministry for the Pastoral Care of Consolation and the Ministry of Exorcism (DEPAC). The new pastoral ministry was established by the Mexican Bishops’ Conference due to the “growing need to address these situations of spiritual, moral, and physical suffering of some persons, which may have a malevolent origin.”
“Therefore, it was deemed appropriate to officially support the exorcists who were already undergoing training courses” and to “accompany them” and foster “unity and cohesion regarding this entire issue at the national level.”
Ortiz said DEPAC “will not focus solely on ministering to exorcists” but also aim at a comprehensive “pastoral ministry of consolation,” because “what people often need is consolation – to be listened to, to receive guidance, and to have prayers offered on their behalf – so that they may follow a path and a process in following the Lord.”
DEPAC aims to “form and guide all our priests so that they may recognize divine action, the action of the devil, and human action, and know how to discern,” while ensuring they are equipped to “attend to special cases of extraordinary [demonic] action.”
He stressed that the devil mostly operates through “ordinary action” like everyday temptation, while extraordinary actions, like possession, are very rare.
Ortiz described the qualities that a priest should have to become an exorcist.
“We simply need a priest grounded in doctrine, a good priest, generally speaking.”
“This is not a matter of having a charism; it’s a matter of a mandate issued by the bishop to a priest whom he sees has the qualities for this,” he noted. Consequently, prelates “must evaluate the qualities the priest has.”
He pointed out that it is important “that he be a Eucharistic priest, a Marian priest, a priest who enjoys caring for those in need, especially the sick.”
Thus “a priest who is, let us say, upright, transparent, and honest,” he concluded.