(LifeSiteNews) — We all remember the Pachamama event at the Vatican, when at the last Mass of the Amazonian Synod Pope Francis placed a bowl of what appeared to be dirt on the High Altar of St. Peter’s Basilica. Some may also remember when he came to Canada last year and took part in a pagan smudging ceremony that invoked the “Western Grandmother,” or when a series of pictures were projected onto St. Peter’s containing occultic symbols.
Charles Fraune, author of The Rise of the Occult: What Exorcists and Former Occultists Want You to Know, joins me on this episode of The John-Henry Westen Show to discuss these events, as well as how the laity can protect themselves from the rise of the occult in the Church and in the world.
Defining the occult, Fraune explains that it is “basically seeking hidden powers, powers that dwell in the darkness that are only accessible through secret rituals… often involving sin, sacrifice… and some things that just don’t make any sense.” Fraune also states that the reason why people practice the occult is to become a god, something common to all forms of the occult, forming “a counterfeit of the true faith” whose presence in the Church is “extremely alarming.”
Discussing the Pachamama event in the Vatican Gardens, for instance, Fraune recounts that a priest told him that the sight of a Franciscan bowing prostrate to the Pachamama was “the stuff of nightmares.”
“This is a carved, disturbing, strange image that resembles an earth deity, and it’s being paraded and celebrated in the Vatican,” Fraune says about the statue. Discussing the bowl that the Pope placed on the High Altar of St. Peter’s, Fraune observes “there’s some true occult symbolism there and some mystery about what’s actually in the bowl.”
Recounting a conversation with an exorcist about Pachamama, Fraune tells me that the exorcist explained, “Whenever you have a demon of fertility – which is what Pachamama is – you have a demon of death as well that goes along with it.” Fraune also notes that exorcists at the time of the Pachamama event said it “essentially offered up some kind of sacrifice to a demon,” allowing a demon to have “more power to work against the Church.” Fraune also connects it to the subsequent COVID pandemic and the lockdown of churches.
Fraune also offers comment on the smudging ceremony that Francis took part in during his visit to Canada last year, explaining that since the promulgation of Nostra aetate, Vatican II’s declaration on non-Christian religions, Catholics became confused about what to make of other religions, a confusion that has subsequently increased since the Council’s close.
“The more you celebrate the error that all the other religions have something to offer, the more you’re going to let them speak, you’re going to join with them, you’re going to mix rituals into the Mass,” Fraune tells me. Speaking about the smudging ceremony specifically, Fraune explains that exorcists “[came] out saying, ‘Hey look, sage smudging, which is what the Canadian elder was doing… is getting people possessed, oppressed, afflicted by demons.’”
Offering solutions as to how the laity can protect themselves from the onslaught of occultism, Fraune recommends reliance on God’s grace: “There’s two things: we need to tap into grace as God has willed for it to flow through the Catholic Church, through the sacraments and through the sacramentals, through the life of prayer and humility, but we also need to remove the obstacles.”
Explaining the removal of the obstacles to grace, Fraune states that one needs to reject the occult entirely, such as playing with Ouija boards or dabbling with Wicca. “We have to think back,” he explains. “Have I ever gone to a psychic because I lost my kid and I was so despairing and I wanted to talk to him and then I forgot about it [because] that was decades ago?”
“Dig up from your past these evil things you’ve done, remember them and take them to confession, then make sure none of these occultic mindsets are still lingering,” Fraune continues.
According to him, many people keep “superstitious ways of thinking,” such as the use of a rabbit’s foot, or even the misuse of sacramentals, such as wearing the brown scapular with an absolute belief in one’s salvation, or the practice of “manifesting,” or attempting to make what one wants to be a reality simply by willing it to be, all of which boil down to a species of pride.
“If we’re humbly accepting what God wants to send us, crosses or blessings, then we will avoid control, which feeds into these occultic mentalities,” Fraune states.
He also posits a warning about the current culture, recommending parents “pull the plug on the TV [and] trim the internet as much as you can,” maintaining the culture is “set up against our kids.”
For more from Charles Fraune on the occult in the Church and in the world, tune in to today’s episode of The John-Henry Westen Show.
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