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, stated that the action underscored “the forces of evil are on a rampage in the world, even within the Church itself.” The decision to include the rite followed recent desecrations at the Vatican City basilica, Burke revealed.
Cardinal Simoni, known as the “living martyr of Albania” for surviving decades of persecution under communist rule, requested permission to recite Pope Leo XIII’s 1884 “Exorcism Against Satan and the Apostate Angels.” Burke emphasized that the prayer serves as a means to combat “the forces of evil” through the power of Christ. He noted two separate desecrations of the basilica’s high altar by different individuals in a short span, stressing the need for prayers to expel “any influence of Satan” from such a sacred site.
Simoni, born in 1928 in Albania, endured 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 initially sentenced to death before the penalty was reduced to 25 years of hard labor. Burke described Simoni as “a most saintly man, a confessor of the faith, and a seasoned exorcist,” whose prayer resonated amid modern turmoil.
The Mass and prayer of exorcism coincided with Burke’s advocacy for the canonization of Blessed Bartolo Longo, a 19th-century Italian lawyer who transitioned from Satanism to faith and founded the Shrine of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii. Vatican observers have highlighted Longo’s cause as relevant amid rising interest in exorcism and spiritual healing within Catholic practice.
Burke warned that disbelief in evil only amplifies its presence, citing “the violence, the destruction, the Satanism itself” as evidence of active malevolent forces. He asserted 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,” Burke said, adding that “St. Michael will have the victory in the end” in the battle between evil and good.
