(LifeSiteNews) — An exorcist priest warned that glorifying the demonic during Halloween can lead to possession.
Father Robert Joel Cruz, who trained under the prolific, world-renowned exorcist Fr. Gabriele Amorth, told John-Henry Westen in an exclusive interview that dressing up as the devil for Halloween, far from being “harmless,” is a way of glorifying Satan that can open the door to possession.
“It’s an indirect permission, an opening to say, ‘I don’t believe in you, but I am glorifying you.’ It is, so to speak, ‘worship,’” Fr. Cruz said.
He pointed out that “putting on costume, putting on the horns” is a “form of ritual.” “Can people be possessed through that? Yes,” Fr. Cruz said. He was not referring to all forms of costume, as he later noted, but at the very least to dark, demonic dress.
“I know of many cases in the world of people who get possessed by doing just that,” he continued, adding that he also knows of “cases of mass possession because of the celebration of Halloween.”
He said such celebration can be especially dangerous when one is not receiving the Sacraments, confession and the Eucharist. “You cannot be glorifying God when you have horns,” Fr. Cruz said.
However, Fr. Cruz supports children’s dress-up as saints in honor of All Hallow’s Eve, the eve of All Saints Day. The demons recoil during exorcisms at the invocation of certain saints, such as St. Padre Pio, he said. “They say, why are you calling that ‘old man?’” when he calls upon St. Pio.
He added that there is nothing wrong with eating candy as part of the celebration of All Hallow’s Eve.
Fr. Cruz said he would agree with some people that stories of supernatural manifestations of the demonic are “fake” if he had not witnessed such incidents himself.
As an example of such a demonic manifestation, he told how during one exorcism, a beautiful woman’s face morphed into the form of a “cow” or “bull,” and he then heard “seven or eight voices together from the depth of hell” say, “‘You know me. I am Baal.”
He told how another time, he was helping a woman who told him she had a demonic infestation in her home. Her husband would not stay as Fr. Cruz visited to pray over the home, and eventually the exorcist insisted the husband stay.
When they all sat down at the table to eat, all of a sudden the husband’s coffee mug levitated. “And he looked at me, and I just nodded. He ran outside and didn’t want to enter his house.
Whereas before, he told his wife she needed psychiatric help, he was now the one telling people the demonic presence in their home was real, Fr. Cruz recalled. They are now a stronger couple because of the experience.
The exorcist noted that he contributed to the making of the recently released documentary “Triumph Over Evil,” although he declined to appear in the film. It is the only film on exorcism that has been endorsed by the International Association of Exorcists, and features the testimony of several exorcists, including Fr. Amorth.
The film is not meant to shock and horrify but to bring people closer to God.
“I hope that you will feel the joy that God cares for you,” Fr. Cruz said. Exorcisms, he said, are “an expression of God’s compassion and God’s mercy.”
“God is always waiting for His people to come back,” he told Westen. “God will never abandon His people.”
