Traditional spark flaring

Priest witnesses Catholic renewal and ongoing fight against devil, curses

Fr. Clement Machado

By DEBORAH GYAPONG
Canadian Catholic News
Ottawa

Father Clement Machado sees a renewal in traditional Catholicism.

“Right now it’s a spark but it is growing,” Machado told a healing Mass at St. Patrick’s Basilica in Ottawa, where he blessed candles, rosaries, holy pictures, olive oil, salt and a range of other sacramentals Nov. 6.

He said he sees a change not only in a new generation of more traditionally-minded priests and bishops, but also in a new generation of lay people.

The Montreal-born priest who has broadcast on EWTN and WEWN, Mother Angelica’s television and radio networks, is now based in Rome as vice-rector of seminarians for the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT).

Dealing with the occult

Because he has worked closely with the exorcists of Rome, Machado said some bishops have told him they want to learn from him.

They do not have experience dealing with the occult and the demonic, but they have noticed their people getting involved in the occult, witchcraft and curses, he said.

“The devil is working overtime in our society.”

But instead of fear or concern, Machado’s message was of the power of the God through the Church and her sacraments.

“I know all of heaven is open and looking down,” he said, noting that the angels of the Lord were coming down, imparting supernatural grace.

After blessing the various sacramentals and celebrating Mass, Machado prayed for those kneeling at the altar rail by laying on of hands and by pressing the Blessed Sacrament inside a monstrance against their heads.

He also brought word of Mother Angelica, the nun who founded EWTN 30 years ago and has recently suffered a stroke. Since her stroke she has good days and bad days, he said, and on the day Machado visited she could not get up.

But Machado said she had a “great disposition,” and was “as alert, as sharp and as feisty as ever.”

He said he smelled roses in her presence even though there were no roses in the room.

Describing her as “one tough bird,” he said she spoke in a whisper, but she does not need to say much.

Machado said Mother Angelica “had such tremendous attacks from below” as she and her nuns built the network. They heard noises and objects moving and other manifestations of the demonic, he said.

What you see in them is their joyful persistence in prayer, he said. “They see the power of Christ and the communion of saints.”

Angels are here

“The angels are here, your patron saints are here,” he said. “We should call upon them.

“God has given them to you to help you.”

“There is such great joy in heaven when we show confidence in the Lord,” he said.

He also said that when we invoke God’s blessing for loved ones in purgatory “they feel it.”

The more we pray for them, the more we love them, and they more they love us and pray for us, he said.

“When was the last time you had a personal relationship with your angel or your patron saint?” he asked.

“Father this is the age of the angels,” he said Mother Angelica told him.

She also said. “Father, you can know the great joy of the angels who are here because you are invoking them.”

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 -- Western Catholic Reporter