Church of Satan

On 7 June 2000 the small Italian town of Chiavenna was rocked by the discovery of a gruesome murder in one of its quiet back lanes. The blood-soaked victim, who had been struck with rocks and smashed against a wall before being stabbed nineteen times, was later identified as Sister Maria Laura, the much-loved Mother Superior of the local convent. The brutality of the killing shocked townspeople, and attracted widespread media attention: and with no obvious motive for the murder, rumours soon started to fly. Satanic signs and slogans were found nearby and the killing was blamed on devil worshippers striking a blow against the Catholic Church. On 28 June 2000 three popular teenage girls were arrested.

They were fans of the depraved “entertainer” Marilyn Manson, a member of the Church of Satan, whose lyrics are too blasphemous, hate-filled and obscene to quote on this group. At first the girls’ attitude was arrogant and cold. They refused to speak to the police. But when they eventually began to speak it became apparent that their appalling crime was a premeditated act. Milena, one of the girls, admitted that they had met outside the church one night and cut their hands, drinking the blood while they pledged an oath of eternal loyalty to each other. “We decided to go for a nun,”

Veronica, another of the three girls, told her interrogators, “because she was the opposite of us. We believe in Satan.” The third girl is named Ambra. They beat the nun into unconsciousness with a tile and by beating her head against a stone wall. When that failed, they took out knives and stabbed her to death. But throughout her ordeal, Sister Maria Laura had prayed for her attackers, and promised them that God would forgive them even as she did herself. Armed with these confessions, the carabinieri searched the girls’ homes and found diaries testifying to their obsession with Satanism, and with the lyrics of the degenerate performer and singer Marilyn Manson who cashed-in on the tragedy when touring Italy in February 2001.

Marilyn Manson said:

“If having your own opinion makes you evil, then I am evil. … All I say is don’t feel guilty for having emotions like lust, greed and hate - because you are going to have them.”

On 9 August 2001 Ambra had the case against her dismissed on the grounds of diminished responsibility, and was sentenced to three years’ rehabilitation. The other two girls, Milena and Veronica, were found guilty of first degree murder and were each sentenced to eight years and six months. There is a move in Chiavenna to have Sister Maria Laura, who had taught in the town for more than thirty years, beatified.

Aleister Crowley’s satanic religion of Thelema, followed by the birth of modern witchcraft, occult explosion of the 1960s-1970s and the New Age movement of the 1980s-1990s, all share a common heritage from where the current satanic revival has found succour. The formal establishment of the Church of Satan, with such derivatives as the Temple of Set, has certainly played its part. Between Charles Manson, Son of Sam and Richard Ramirez alone we have dozens of murders in the name of Satan.

One could easily add to this list case after case that would fill several books, but the point has more than sufficiently been made for those who will honestly look at the evidence. The most influential and notorious satanic leaders have had a campaign to dupe their followers into becoming unwitting followers of not a symbol, nor an abstract force, but of Satan himself. Not only their own admissions, but the deceptive web they have spun to prey on outer circle initiates, give witness to this fact.

Marilyn Manson with Anton LaVey of the Church of Satan.