Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke, who presided over a traditional Latin Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica last week where 97-year-old Cardinal Ernest Simoni delivered a prayer of exorcism, told Newsmax on Sunday that the action was a powerful reminder that “the forces of evil are on a rampage in the world, even within the Church itself.”
The decision to include the rite came after recent desecrations at the Vatican City basilica, Burke told Newsmax’s “Sunday Agenda.”
Cardinal Simoni is known as the “living martyr of Albania” for surviving decades of persecution under communist rule. He requested permission to recite Pope Leo XIII’s 1884 “Exorcism Against Satan and the Apostate Angels.”
“The prayer of exorcism, especially this very powerful prayer written by Pope Leo XIII, is our way to combat with the force of Christ himself, the forces of evil,” Burke said.
There have been two separate desecrations of the basilica’s high altar by two different individuals within a short period, he added.
“There’s certainly a need to pray, asking our Lord to expel any influence of Satan from our midst, and especially in such a holy place as St. Peter’s Basilica,” said the cardinal.
Born in 1928 in Albania, Cardinal Simoni endured decades of persecution under a communist regime that outlawed Christianity. Arrested in 1963 for celebrating Mass for the repose of assassinated President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, he was sentenced to death before the penalty was reduced to 25 years of hard labor.
“He is a most saintly man, a confessor of the faith, and a seasoned exorcist,” whose prayer resonated deeply amid modern turmoil, Burke said.
The Mass and prayer of exorcism came as Burke continues to advocate for the canonization of Blessed Bartolo Longo, the 19th-century Italian lawyer who turned from Satanism to faith and founded the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii.
Vatican observers have cited Longo’s cause for sainthood as especially relevant given rising interest in exorcism and spiritual healing within Catholic practice.
Burke warned on Sunday that disbelief in evil only strengthens it.
“All you have to do is look around and see the thoroughly evil things that are taking place — the violence, the destruction, the Satanism itself,” he said. “You’ll be convinced that there are indeed evil spirits, and that they are at work in our world.”
Burke added that the faithful are not powerless, invoking St. Michael the Archangel’s promised victory in the Book of Revelation.
“We have the help of our Lord himself, and his messengers — the good angels,” he said.
“St. Michael will have the victory in the end in this combat between the forces of evil and the forces of good in the world.”
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