Catholic Church and Exorcism

Demonic Possession & Oppression; Exorcism ROMAN CATHOLIC BELIEFS & PRACTICES Roman Catholic beliefs and practices about exorcism: In the past, the church’s beliefs about the nature of women and of human sexuality led to the belief that every newborn was possessed by an indwelling demon because of its intimate contact with its mother’s birth canal. The church routinely exorcised each newborn at the time of baptism with the following ritual: “I exorcise you unclean spirit in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Come out and leave this servant of God [infant’s name]. Accursed and damned spirit, hear the command of God himself,  he who walked upon the sea and extended his right hand to Peter as he was sinking. Therefore, accursed devil, acknowledge your condemnation… and depart from this servant of God [infant’s name]…Never dare, accursed devil, to violate the sign of the holy cross which we place upon his/her forehead. Through Christ our Lord.“ “Lesser” exorcisms at baptisms, at blessings of holy water, blessings of a home or other location etc. are still performed. 1 Throughout the church’s history, it has identified evil spirits in demon-possessed individuals and treated them by full exorcisms. The practice has been strictly controlled in modern times. Church canon law now requires that an exorcism be performed only upon a direct order “of the bishop, after two careful investigations, based on positive indications that possession is in fact present.” 2 Demons are believed to interfere in one of two ways with their victims: They can cause an obsession, in which the demon fills the mind of its victim with evil thoughts. The second is actual possession in which the devil physically takes over the human body. Various signs of demonic possession are: errors in belief, deceptions, falsehoods, lies, and confusion, “speaking with a great number of words from unknown languages, or understanding  them, making known things either distant or hidden, showing  strength beyond one’s situation, together with vehement aversion towards God, Our Lady, the Cross and holy pictures” 3 On 1999-JAN-26, Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, introduced an updated exorcism ritual for the church. 3 The previous major update had been issued as the Rituale Romanum during the reign of Pope Paul V in 1614 CE. The new ritual is described in a 84 page, bound in a red leather book. The ritual was originally available only in Latin; it will be translated into other languages. The exorcism ritual includes: “prayers, the blessing and sprinkling of holy water, the laying of hands on the possessed and making the sign of the cross, appeals to Christ, the Holy Spirit and the saints of the church.” 4 Next comes the imploring formula: the evils of Satan are listed and God is asked to free the victim from possession. Next comes the imperative formula in which the priest orders the devil to leave the person. It concludes with “Therefore, go back Satan.“ The Vatican guidelines stress that most behaviors that appear to be caused by demonic possession are actually triggered by psychiatric illness. 5 Monsignor Corrado Balducci, the Vatican’s chief exorcist, estimated that only five or six out of every thousand people who seek help from an exorcist are really possessed by evil spirits. The remainder are “in need of psychiatric help.” 5 “…priests conducting exorcisms should deal with evil as a force ‘lurking within all individuals’ rather than as a force, traditionally embodied as Satan, threatening human beings from without…Vatican officials say that under the new rituals priests will be encouraged not to refer any longer to the Prince of Darkness, the Accursed Dragon, the Foul Spirit, the Satanic Power or the Master of Deceit. Instead, the formulas refer more vaguely to ‘the cause of evil.’ They also introduce for the first time an appeal to the Virgin Mary to help combat evil in an ‘afflicted individual’, a reflection of Pope John Paul II’s personal commitment to” the Virgin Mary. 5 However the church is not going soft on belief in Satan and his demons. Vatican spokesman, Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, stressed that: “The existence of the devil isn’t an opinion, something to take or leave as you wish. Anyone who says he doesn’t exist wouldn’t have the fullness of the Catholic faith.” He said that the devil’s presence is seen in the widespread acceptance of “lies and deceit … the idolatry of money … the idolatry of sex...”The presence of the devil…explains the dramatic condition of the world, which languishes under the power of the malign one” According to the memoirs of Cardinal Jacques Martin, the former prefect of the pontifical household, Pope John Paul II successfully exorcised a woman in 1982. She was brought to him writhing on the ground. 6 Father Gabriele Amorth told La Stampa, an Italian newspaper, that the Pope has carried out three exorcisms during his 23 year pontificate. Amorth said: “He carried out these exorcisms because he wanted to give a powerful example. He wanted to give the message that we must once again start exorcising those who are possessed by demons… I have seen many strange things [during exorcisms]…objects such as nails spat out. The devil told a woman that he would make her spit out a transistor radio and lo and behold she started spitting out bits and pieces of a radio transistor…I have seen levitations, and a force that needed six or eight men to hold the person still. Such things are rare, but they happen.” 7 Fr. Gary Thomas of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Diego, CA, was interviewed briefly on the ABC program Good Morning America for 2006-MAY-16. He said that the Vatican is asking each diocese to have a trained exorcist on staff. 8 References used: The following information sources were used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlinks are not necessarily still active today. R.C. Brodeick, “The Catholic Encyclopedia,” Thomas Nelson (1987), Page   207. Fr. J. Mahoney, “Cast Out What?“, at http://www.jmahoney.com/ Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina, presentation of the new guidelines is available in Latin at:  http://www.vatican.va/ “New rules set to purge Satan: first update to exorcism ritual since 1614,” Associated Press – Reuters, Toronto Star, Toronto ON, 1999-JAN-27, Page A1 Richard Owen, “Satan gets a facelift,” http://www.theaustralian.com.au/, The Australian, 1999-JAN-26 Cardinal Jacques Martin, “My Six Popes.” “Pope has performed 3 exorcisms to ward off devil,” Reuters, 2002-FEB-18, at: http://in.news.yahoo.com/ “Exorcisms become big business in Arizona,” ReligionNewsBlog, 2006-NOV-27, at: http://www.religionnewsblog.com/ Copyright © 1998 to 2006 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance

Demonic Possession

GIVING THE DEVIL HIS DUE Real-life case of demon possession documented Woman levitated, spoke other languages, showed paranormal powers Posted: March 13, 2008 11:29 pm Eastern © 2009 WorldNetDaily An American woman who levitated, demonstrated paranormal psychic powers and spoke foreign languages unknown to her was clearly demon possessed, according to a board-certified psychiatrist and associate professor of clinical psychiatry at New York Medical College. The unnamed woman, with a long history of involvement with Satanic groups, was observed by a team of priests, deacons, several lay assistants, psychiatrists, nuns, some of whom also had medical and psychiatric training, levitating six inches off the ground while objects flew off shelves in the same room, according to Dr. Richard E. Gallagher, who documented the case in the February issue of the New Oxford Review. “Periodically, in our presence, Julia would go into a trance state of a recurring nature,” writes Gallagher. “Mentally troubled individuals often ‘dissociate,’ but Julia’s trances were accompanied by an unusual phenomenon: Out of her mouth would come various threats, taunts and scatological language, phrases like ‘Leave her alone, you idiot,’ ‘She’s ours,’ ‘Leave, you imbecile priest,’ or just ‘Leave.’ The tone of this voice differed markedly from Julia’s own, and it varied, sometimes sounding guttural and vaguely masculine, at other points high pitched. Most of her comments during these ‘trances,’ or at the subsequent exorcisms, displayed a marked contempt for anything religious or sacred.”