Angels, Demons, Dan Brown, and Miracles

If the phenomenon of Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" and the forthcoming "Angels and Demons" film have shown us anything, it's that people continue to have a fascination with the supernatural.

Yet examine films like "The Excorcist" and "The Exorcism of Emily Rose," not to mention numerous dark references in popular media, and a further truth becomes clear:

It's not just that people are into a good story, or that they are interested in the supernatural -- they remain fascinated with the picture of Catholic cosmology. They suspect, perhaps, that despite all modern advances, this worldview might actually be true.

The modern skeptic or agnostic has a terribly difficult path to follow, as -- contrary to popular belief -- we are living in the greatest age of Christian supernatural phenomenon, which might also explain why the 20th century also saw the greatest number of Christian martyrs in history.

The 20th century was an age of mysticism and miracles. Everything I am about to mention has been the subject of scientific and/or psychological examination, so this is far from science-fiction.

Padre Pio's incorrupt body continues to lie in state, being one of many modern saints whose body, rather than naturally decompose after death, remain wholly or partially preserved while emitting the scent of roses.

The 20th century has widely been called a Marian age, being as numerous Marian visions have occurred. The phenomenon of Medjugorje baffled scientists who studied the children suppossedly receiving the Marian visions. Or we can turn to Lourdes, where we had not only fulfilled prophecies, but a massive vision witnessed by thousands of people at the same time. Such things are hard to explain-away or push aside. The bloody history of the 20th century can in fact be understood almost entirely through an examination of the Lourdes prophecies.

Then there are bleeding and weeping statues, crucifixes, and even several documented Eucharistic miracles (one literally "gushing" example being captured on home video, where it is clear that no contraptions or tricks are being used.)

Then we can talk about the stigmata, a phenomenon that science has not been able to even begin to understand.

At the sites where such things have occurred, numerous high-profile and inexplicable healings (blindness, cancer, etc) have taken place.

Those who sarcastically ask where the ever-present God of the Old Testament went have merely to look to history -- especially recent history -- to see his constant intervention.

If God's hand is so visible in our time, perhaps the Devil's is even more visible. Father Gabriel Amorth -- the Exorcist of Rome -- has performed over 15,000 exorcisms. To this day, each diocese employees the services of at least one of these holy men (I've met one, actually.) They are men who -- after all the required batteries of modern psychology have failed -- have been able to intervene and save the minds, lives, and (we believe) souls of the terribly afflicted. While the Church has a general policy not to publically document such occurences, there is enough evidence on display to both baffle and terrify. The very phenomenon of possession and excorcism should be enough to move the most hardened skeptic, if not downright frighten them into a reconsideration of their position.

When an author like Dan Brown taps into the Catholic mystique, he is not only using a great device to tell a good story. He is tapping into what some of us downright believe, and others uncomfortably suspect may be true. It remains a terrifying and inconvenient truth, yet the evidence is there, and "all who have eyes should see."