Last weekend, on October 25, 2025, a 97-year-old hero of the faith — Cardinal Ernest Simoni — stood in St. Peter’s Basilica and audibly prayed the ancient “Exorcism against Satan and the Apostate Angels” during a Pontifical Traditional Latin Mass celebrated by Cardinal Raymond Burke as part of the Summorum Pontificum pilgrimage. In an era when too many of Rome’s halls have been treated with casual indifference to tradition, that simple, courageous act was a clarion call that the Church remembers who her enemy is and knows how to fight him.
Cardinal Simoni is no performative figure; he earned his stripes under the worst of evils, enduring decades of imprisonment and forced labor under Albania’s communist regime for the crime of being faithful. That background matters — this isn’t a cheap theatrical stunt but the testimony of a man who literally survived the devil’s handiwork and has spent his life ministering against it. The sight of such a man addressing Satan in the heart of Christendom should shame every cowardly cleric who has cowered from doing what is right.
The prayer Cardinal Simoni recited is not some novelty; it is the longer St. Michael prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII, a solemn plea to consign the ancient serpent to defeat. Saying such a prayer in St. Peter’s — where abuses and profanations have been protested for years — is an act of spiritual reclamation and a reminder that the Church’s ancient weapons are still potent. The faithful who gathered heard a message louder than any sermon: repentance, reparation, and courage remain the path to restoration.
This Mass, celebrated by Cardinal Burke and drawing thousands of pilgrims, marks a refreshing turn toward reverence and tradition in a moment when too many in high places have flirted with novelty and accommodation. The contrast between that solemn Latin rite and past episodes of scandal at the basilica — from idolatrous displays to politicized spectacles that wounded devout Catholics — could not be starker. For conservatives who love the Church, seeing tradition restored in that sacred space is both vindication and a call to vigilance.
Let us be clear: this is not nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. It is common-sense resistance to a slow erosion of sacred norms that opened the door to confusion and even sacrilege. When the ancient prayer for deliverance is raised where millions of Christians look for leadership, it exposes which voices in the Church still take sin and the spiritual battle seriously, and which prefer applause from the world. The faithful must rally behind leaders who protect sanctity, not behind those who normalize what once would have been unthinkable.
If anything, the Vatican’s own recent reaffirmation that exorcists and deliverance ministry are necessary should put to rest the notion that the Church has outgrown the language of spiritual combat. Pope Leo XIV’s message to exorcists and the attention paid to these ministries underscore that this is not fringe superstition but pastoral necessity in troubling times. Patriotic Catholics must support bishops and priests who stand firm, restore reverent liturgy, and refuse to let Rome’s altars become stages for the whims of cultural elites.
