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. 5Monsignor
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
