The following comes from an Oct. 31 story on Vice News.
Catholic exorcists and experts have said that there has been a revival in requests for the practice in recent years, gaining a nod even from Pope Francis earlier this week when he thanked priests who perform the ritual.
The Pope sent a message to members of the International Association of Exorcists, a Catholic organization that held a conference in Rome October 25 and 26, thanking them for showing “love to those possessed,” IAC spokesman Valter Cascioli told Vatican Radio after the conference, according to the Religion News Service. Cascioli told the radio station that there had been a “steady increase” in requests for exorcism.
Rev. Gary Thomas, a member of the IAE and practicing Catholic priest and exorcist in Saratoga, California, explained that the uptick in requests is a result of young people moving away from the church and toward an ill-defined “spirituality” that he said can lead to danger.
“As people are drawn away from religion they are still searching for answers to the dilemmas of life, and are being drawn into other mutations of what spirituality is,” Thomas told Vice News. “As people are more drawn away from faith, superstition has increased, and that’s what a lot of this is. But it’s not just hokey, it has a lot of power to it. When you start tapping into the spirit world, you don’t know what you’re going to find. The demonic world is very much attached to the occult.”
Thomas and other experts cited growing interest in occult practices, including fortune tellers, Ouija boards, and psychics, as an opening for demons and the devil to take hold.
“A lot of it has to do with more people claiming to be spiritual rather than religious,” the Rev. Anthony Cutcher, president of the National Federation of Priests Councils, told Vice News. “Once you become spiritual, there are good spirits and bad spirits. If you open yourself up to the spiritual, it’s a mixed bag of which spirits you’re going to get.”
‘We are very careful. We move very slowly on this, we take a careful approach, we have to discern.’
But David Frankfurter, chair of the religion department at Boston University, said that an increased interest in exorcism is likely because of portrayals in the media, starting with The Exorcist in 1973 and continuing through today.
“What these movies do, and the reason they focus on Catholic exorcism, is it shows Catholicism to have a secret power that doesn’t seem to be emphasized by the Pope and post-Vatican II priests,” Frankfurter told Vice News. “The church in many ways wants to be seen as a modern religion, but with exorcism it comes off as a religion that has ancient secrets and ancient rituals.”
“People who are interested in alternative forms of spirituality, what they’re interested in is ancient secrets, usually,” he added. “So they are interested in Tarot and Kabbalah, not modern Wicca or neopagan spirituality, but what kinds of secrets have been lost in religion. People like that might be interested not in the Catholic Church as it is today, but as it used to be in the Middle Ages.”
Yet belief in the devil is a core tenet of Catholicism, and Catholic priests insisted to Vice News that exorcism remains a healing ministry of the priesthood.
“In a nutshell, it’s founded on the real belief that there is a tangible doer of evil in the world that we have traditionally called the devil or Satan, and it is a personal power of evil,” Rev. James T. Bretzke, a Jesuit and professor at Boston College’s School of Theology and Ministry, said. “Just as we believe there is a personal power of goodness, and the highest form of that is God, we believe that there is a counterforce that is personal or tangible and that is the devil or Satan.”
When a person requests an exorcism, they typically go to their parish priest or bishop’s office and are then asked to meet with a team of psychological and psychiatric experts and clinicians to see if the problem is actually a mental or physical illness or condition.
Thomas stressed that most of the requests he gets don’t end up in actual exorcisms. Often people need prayer, medical help, and counseling.
“We are very careful,” he said. “We move very slowly on this, we take a careful approach. We have to discern….”
To read the original story, click here.
More sodomites and more abortions means more minions of Satan who need to be exorcised. It really is that simple.
There has always been an need for exorcists and they will be until Our Lord comes again. Satan is the prince of this world and so many have fallen under his influence. It is quite telling this quote in the article: “The church in many ways wants to be seen as a modern religion…” The problem is that the Church has bent over backwards to please man that in doing so, too many souls have drifted away from God and have dabbled in activities that bring about evil entities. What good is a modern religion? The True Religion is the Catholic faith, and the Lord gave His Apostles the authority to cast out demons, and this has been handed down the ages to the priests of our time. So I pray for those priests who conduct exorcisms. This milieu of modernism that plagues us is doing no good for the souls of those possessed who are in desperate need. May St. Michael pray for us in battle.
The exorcist quoted in this article all but concedes that the rite of Exorcism is being used principally on those who have simply left the Church, not on someone whose body and mind are so completely controlled by a demon that extroadinary spiritual intervention is needed because all other potential solutions have failed. The film The Exorcist was based on a 1948 case in Maryland that was actually reported in the Washington Post. That exorcism lasted several weeks and was successful. Prior to the exorcism, doctors and the boy’s mainstream Protestant minister could not get a handles on his bizarre behavior and the paranormal powers at work around him. The boy’s identity remains a tightly held secret. My take is that kind of case is extremely rare. After the exorcism has and the boy was fully healed, his parents joined the Catholic Church.
Evil exists all around us, but the medical field is going to weed out almost all of these cases as someone who is immature, dabbling in offbeat spirituality, and not particularly congenial to people.. Such a young person has problems, but such cases do not meet the Roman Ritual’s requirements of indisputable signs of demonic possession.
CCC: ” 1673 When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism.
Jesus performed exorcisms and from him the Church has received the power and office of exorcizing
In a simple form, exorcism is performed at the celebration of Baptism.
The solemn exorcism, called “a major exorcism,” can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of the bishop. The priest must proceed with prudence, strictly observing the rules established by the Church.
Exorcism is directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which Jesus entrusted to his Church. Illness, especially psychological illness, is a very different matter; treating this is the concern of medical science. Therefore, before an exorcism is performed, it is important to ascertain that one is dealing with the presence of the Evil One, and not an illness. ”
CCC: ” 414 Satan or the devil and the other demons are fallen angels who have freely refused to serve God and his plan. Their choice against God is definitive. They try to associate man in their revolt against God. ”
CCC: ” 1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire.”
Our parish in Texas had a pastor who was one of eleven exorcists in the U.S.. I didn’t have an inkling that this dear friend of mine was one of the eleven, until he just remarked casually that he held that position. It struck me as unfair that anybody who was only a human being had to struggle with the awful reality of Satan at his meanest. Silly, eh, when we think of the power of God being invested in us poor humans. We can do!
Woody,
Welcome back, we have missed you. I have known priest exorcist including Fr. Gary Thomas, Fr. Aloysius Elacuria, Fr. Thomas Matin and others. Actually prior to the new Rites, all priests were ordained as Minor Exorcist.
Hope and pray you are ok.
God bless, yours in Their Hearts!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
It is deceptive and dangerous, to get involved in the “Black Arts,” of the occult– and it is a SIN, for this reason, in the Catholic Church! There have been, historically, many great and gifted Catholic saints, as well as Old Testament heroes, who have been blessed by God, with healing and prophetic gifts, very similar to the ones we hear of, in the occult practices. However– these great people were all very religious, and deeply dedicated to God! It is well-known, that Satan loves sin! How very sad, that the dirty, immoral hippies and social activists of the 1960’s, failed to understand that they were inviting Satan to come into their lives, and to reign there– when insisting on destroying our country, mindlessly demanding acceptance of their sinful behavior as “normal!” Satan just loves lawless sex acts, drugs, rock and roll music, filthy language, alcohol abuse, and all kinds of crimes, and lying about it– as people now do! They LIE and LIE– demanding that SIN be viewed as “acceptable!” How HORRIBLE!!
I will say one more thing. The Devil also loves chaos, confusion, and disorder! Since the beginnings of the Modernist trends, in the late 19th century, and the terrible world wars and evils of the 20th century, as well as the violent, disordered upheavals of the 1960’s and of Vatican II, for the Church– the Devil and his evil spirits have a big opportunity to do great harm, everywhere! The violent Arab jihadists, likewise, are tools of the Devil! It is so sad, that since the 1960’s, nearly a fifth of the American population is now reported to having a crime record of some kind, big or small! This is a new and horrible occurrence, in our Nation’s history! Many people have police records for joining violent protests, or for committing crimes related to dope, to start off with. Then, there are also now a great many sex-related crimes! Plus– acts no longer considered to be crimes– such as abortion, gay sex acts, profanity, pornographic material of all kinds, and some dope-related crimes. Yet in God’s eyes– sin is sin, no matter what a corrupt society believes! The Church has a big weapon to fight Satan, with devotion to the Blessed Mother, her Rosary and a life of purity!
The case that formed much of William Peter Blatty’s basis for his novel was partly the story of “Roland Doe” (sometimes called “Robbie Doe”), who was in fact finally exorcised at the College Church (“St Francis Xavier Church”) in St Louis, MO, by Fr. William S. Bowdern, SJ (d. 1983), assisted by Fr. Walter Halloran SJ (d. 2005), over a period of several weeks and months in 1949. Frs. Bowdern and Halloran used the traditional Roman Ritual, the exorcism rite codified by Trent, but the substance of which, including the ancient powerful imperative and imprecatory prayers, actually extend back at least to Alcuin (735-804), the almost legendary Benedictine and councillor to Charlemagne. These are prayers that “actually work” against Satan.
The “new” modified rite of 1999 is a disaster: it is part prayer of petition and only part imperative oration. Christ granted the Church power over Satan and his demons (see Mark 16:17): there is no need to “ask” for the power: Go, expel the demon, frater! The old Ritual goes “at it” step-by-step without any Protestantizing about “asking” for a power apparently out of doubt that one has the granted capacity. The traditional Ritual is a rite of power and authority over the evil spirit. As well as many other things wrong with it, Fr. Thomas’ new exorcism (post 1999) is greatly weakened and will fail with a true full-blown possession case. Don’t believe me? Read Fr. Gabriel Amorth on the matter.
Actually, most Exorcist have gone back to the old Rite because they recognized the impotency of the new Rite!
God bless, yours in Their Hearts!
May God have mercy on an amoral Amerika and His Church!
Viva Cristo Rey!
Kenneth M. Fisher, Founding Director
Concerned Roman Catholics of America, Inc.
The whole world is now experiencing an uptick in the frenetic actions of the evil one, and there are so many reasons for it one’s head should spin if they could all be listed. And that’s mainly because there’s SUCH a blizzard of mortal sin being committed in almost EVERY country, almost without exception. Can anyone reasonably deny this? Just look around the world and honestly admit to what you see and intuit as going on, it’s a monumental binge of mortal sin possibly like never before in world history. And certain harbingers of an extremely Apocalyptic nature have actually been quite common for at least 70 to 80 years now. The state of Israel refounded in 1948 is one such manifestation of possible final times being ushered in. Another could be the murderous weirdness of the ISIS state born and established in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates river, long acknowledged as the “cradle of all civilizations,” the place where Paradise is alleged to have bee established in the first years of God’s creation. Certainly one of the strangest occurrences of the last sixty years was the emergence of this little-known and very obscure personage, Barack Hussein Obama, the “Community Organizer” from one of the MOST corrupt areas in American history, Chicago, Illinois. In fact Obama himself has been mentioned as an “apocalyptic” figure by none other than Cdl. James Francis Stafford, of the American University at the Vatican. Cdl. Stafford said Obama was a “divisive and ‘apocalyptic’ figure who, if elected as President of the U.S., WOULD RESULT IN “HOT TEARS OF REGRET” being shed by the American electorate afterwards. Can anyone deny the reality of that statement? But there’s SO MUCH MORE, and we’re literally LIVING THROUGH a very surreal time in our American history where it seems at times as if we experience a slow-motion TAKEOVER and DESTRUCTIVE TRANSFORMATION in progress.