Last night's full moon added a lot to the atmosphere, though no trick or treaters showed up in our neighborhood.
In Portland, Oregon, Archbishop Alexander Sample led a procession of more than 200 people to a city park on Oct. 17, offered a prayer, then conducted a Latin exorcism rite intended to purge the community of evil.
On the same day, 600 miles to the south, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone performed an exorcism ceremony outside a Catholic church in San Rafael, where protesters had earlier toppled a statue of Father Junipero Serra.
“We pray that God might purify this place of evil spirits, that he might purify the hearts of those who perpetrated this blasphemy,” Cordileone said. Cordileone said the exorcism prayers in Latin, remarking that “Latin tends to be more effective against the devil because he doesn’t like the language of the church.”
