Holy Water and the Haunting Spirit of Revenge in the Name of a Deceased Pope.

Fighting the spiritual war in a besieged church.

Usually when there is a haunting by an unrested spirit, the first reaction is often to call in a Catholic exorcist to deal with it.

But what happens when instead of a place, the spirit has taken residence in people?

Worse than that; what happens if those people in whom it has taken residence are Catholic bishops who appear to be channelling it in the name, for instance, of a deceased pope?

One might argue from their behaviour, that a number of recent Episcopal appointees by the late pope Francis are taking precipitate and what appears at first sight to be action tinged with the spirit of revenge, against Catholics who stood for an earlier Catholicism that the late pope found an anathema.

It is well known that Pope Francis found it formidably difficult to forgive his enemies. And it looks, from their actions and priorities, as though some of his recent Episcopal appointees are in some rather bizarre and disturbing way, channelling this aspect of the spirit of their mentor.

How else should one understand the actions of two new bishops in particular whose first priorities on being appointed were to punish, dismiss and expel the kind of faithful Catholic that Francis campaigned against?

And with what else beyond holy water can such victims of unreasoned and un-generous actions take refuge?