Rome, Italy, Jul 15, 2004 / 12:00 am (CNA).- Fr. Aldo Buonaiuto, director of an “emergency help line” that assists young people wanting to get out of satanic cults, expressed alarm this week at the growth of Satanism, which has created a “market” for consecrated hosts in Italy.

In statements published in the Catholic magazine Famiglia Cristiana, Fr. Buonaiuto explained that “a proliferation of cults exists which practice black masses, with the profanation of consecrated hosts, rape and torture.”

“We know of cases of consensual vampirism, and also the assaulting of young people who have been drugged in the course of ritualistic orgies.” 

According to Fr. Buonaiuto, “A true ‘market’ for consecrated hosts exists. They sell for 80-500 euros, depending on the size of the host, the prominence of the church from which they were stolen, and who consecrated them.”

“The highest price is placed on those that are consecrated in the churches of Rome, above all those closest to the Vatican.  They are stolen in two ways: from the tabernacle, but also at the time of Holy Communion,” he said.

“Some cults perform rituals with the consecrated hosts while under the influence of LSD or cocaine, led frequently by ex-priests who have offered themselves in the service of Satan,” he told Famiglia Cristiana.

According to Fr. Buonaiuto, the proliferation of these cults is very much connected with “the loss of the sense of the sacred.”  “Man needs to fill himself with something, and today the market is full of superficial alternatives, among them, Satanism,” he concluded.

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