Ok, don’t you dare bust out with a “who ya gonna call” on this, but Pope Benedict XVI has apparently committed some of the Vatican’s sizable resources to the fight against evil. So far so good, you say.

And how is the Vatican going to fight evil?

Exorcist squads of course!

Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.

The initiative was revealed by 82-year-old Father Gabriele Amorth, the Vatican “exorcist in chief,” to the online Catholic news service Petrus.

We are wondering if the demon fighting squadrons are going to ride around in specially armored exorcistmobiles?

Religious Persecution?

Is this a case of religious persecution or simply normal school discipline? Since this story happened in our original home stage of North Carolina and since we here at Mysterious Earth have been touched by His Noodly Appendage, you better believe this caught the eyeballs of your intrepid hosts!

A young man by the name of Bryan Killian at North Buncombe High School was suspended for wearing a pirate costume to school!

Since young Bryan professes to be a Patsafarian, he was simply wearing the Holy Pirate Outfit as a sign of his deep religious faith.

The school didn’t buy it - they suspended the young man after giving him several warnings - calling his pirate regalia “distruptive”.

You decide.

Here’s the original report.