Word: connors
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...Gospel text for the day was familiar enough: Matthew 4, depicting the devil's threefold temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. But the Sunday sermon, delivered last week by New York's John Cardinal O'Connor, quickly became a headline grabber. To illustrate the reality of evil and give the biblical theme a contemporary twist, O'Connor recited what he termed "gruesomely realistic" portions of The Exorcist, the 1971 novel (and later film) that drew upon accounts of hundreds of exorcisms. Moreover, after Mass the Cardinal revealed to reporters that priests had been authorized to perform two exorcisms...
That might have been enough for many preachers, but O'Connor wanted to give the devil his full due. He warned in his sermon that "diabolically instigated violence is on the rise" and asserted that heavy-metal rock music can "help trap people, especially teenagers," into dabbling in disgraceful Satanist practices. In particular, the Cardinal denounced rocker Ozzy Osbourne's tune Suicide Solution ("Wine is fine but whiskey's quicker/ Suicide is slow with liquor . . . Suicide is the only way out./ Don't you know what it's really about...
...Connor's attack enraged Osbourne, a flamboyant performer who first won fame singing with a group called Black Sabbath. The singer's onstage artistry has included such excesses as biting the head off a bat. Osbourne, who has fended off a lawsuit claiming his songs prompted a youth to kill himself, fired off a telegram, informing the Cardinal that he had "insulted the intelligence of rock fans all over the world...
Satanism? Exorcism? Was O'Connor seriously suggesting that demons were loose in the land? To be sure, the Cardinal did say in his sermon that demonic possession is "very rare," and that exorcisms are not conducted unless psychological or medical possibilities are first ruled out as explanations for extreme behavior. Still, the fact that they are performed at all seemed remarkable in an age when literal belief in demons is widely viewed by Roman Catholic theologians as a naive medieval holdover. (Among Protestants, exorcism is confined mostly to missionaries in areas where spirit-possession cults are common, and to Pentecostalists...
...Connor joined a chorus of U.S. clergy and others concerned about the weirdness of some rock music and its potential for harm. Though some music has exploited satanic and occult themes, the religious crusaders are more concerned about other problems. The Rev. Donald Wildmon's American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Miss., is concentrating on vulgar, sadistic and violent sex songs. Tipper Gore's Parents' Music Resource Committee of Arlington, Va., especially decries records that foment contempt toward Jews, minorities and women...