MyCatholicSource.com - 'Quick Help' Page: Effectiveness Of Holy Water/New Rite

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Regarding your question, the closest thing we have is on the page here. It says...

"Changed Blessing of Holy Water - The new rite may entirely exclude both a blessing and the traditional exorcism! One priest ('Fr. X') has stated that '[The Book of Blessings] is a book of non-blessings. To take but one example, the 'blessing' of holy water outside of Mass contains no actual blessing of the water. The closest thing to it is a prayer to God asking for certain effects by the use of this water. The so-called 'Prayer of blessing' (in Latin and English) refrains from using the word 'bless' even once, and there is no Sign of the Cross made over the water. The Devil must have laughed when that 'Book of Blessings' was issued. The traditional exorcism of water and salt, and all the other Roman Ritual's traditional prayers against the devil and his influence were almost completely abolished.'"

Obviously this is not good. Yet, I have read a number of books on exorcism and although I can recall strong criticism of the new rite of exorcism, I can't specifically recall an exorcist saying that post-Vatican II holy water is "not effective at all" against Satan, even though the new rite may be 'greatly deficient'. To locate such a statement, it would be helpful to know who said it and when. I would think a legitimate quote like this would be pretty easy to find online, but I was not able to locate it. If it was actually true that post-Vatican II holy water had "no effect at all" against Satan, I would think there would be a strong movement to entirely abolish the new method. Again, I did not find evidence of this online via a quick search. Given the 'Fr. X' quote above, however, common sense suggests that the new rite would not be as effective or powerful against Satan. Just as laity are free to request Sacraments under the old rites, they should also be free to request holy water blessed using the old rite. IMHO, this is a very good idea.

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