The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist (17 page)

Note that exorcists believe these objects don't necessarily come from the person's stomach, but instead materialize in the mouth. In this way, such people are not harmed physically even though they appear to vomit sharp objects such as pieces of glass or needles. According to Father Nanni, spirits can modify the state of matter, even to the point of provoking “materializations.”
“A
person can vomit an object, but he doesn't have it inside from a material point of view. It is there spiritually, but for the person he feels it inside, a wasp stinging, or a scorpion stinging, the pain of a nail, and then he vomits and the object materializes outside the mouth.”

Other exorcists have seen things that defy explanation, such as pools of mysterious black liquid appearing on the floor, or live animals—including crabs or scorpions—vomited up. Father Carmine once saw a woman vomit a small black toad that was alive. When he went to catch it, it fizzled away into black saliva.

Psychotic patients swallow strange objects and expel them routinely. For this reason, the exorcist has to take these phenomena in context with other manifestations rather than simply depend on vomiting as proof of a possession.

If the curse were carried out indirectly, say exorcists, it often turns out that objects from home, such as pillows, when blessed and torn open, reveal strange objects as well—perhaps pieces of metal or bones wrapped in twine, braided hair. When they find these objects, exorcists usually say another blessing and burn them. Some objects, however, do not burn right away and need to be blessed repeatedly before they finally ignite.

Just as surprising to Father Gary, however, were the times Father Carmine was unable to discern the cause of possession. In one such case involving a devout woman in her early thirties, she was neither a victim of the occult nor a curse. In the end he surmised that her possession must be for the “expiation of sin.”

B
EYOND THE DIFFERENT REACTIONS
of the victims, Father Gary thought that something about the relationship between the demon and the
Ritual
itself was peculiar. It seemed as if the demon were somehow “stimulated” by the prayers. When Father Carmine began the prayers, he and the victim entered into their own little world, as if surrounded by a bubble. Then, at the end of each exorcism, Father Carmine would either tap the person's forehead with his finger, or give a little pat, at which point the bubble would burst. Father Daniel would later explain to Father Gary that when Father Carmine tapped people, he was essentially bringing them out of a trance.

Rather than being a continuous thing, demonic possession alternates between periods of calm and “moments of crisis,” when the demon manifests its presence—that is, takes over the person's body and speaks and acts through it. Between crisis moments, however, during periods of calm, it is possible for a victim to carry on as if nothing is out of the ordinary.

Typically, in hearing the word
possession
, one imagines an evil spirit as dwelling “inside” a person. The Bible says: “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting place, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ When it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings along seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there” (Matthew 12:43-45). While the primary purpose of this verse is to show that once liberated, demons may return, it nonetheless illustrates the popular concept that demons reside inside a person, almost as if the body were a physical home. However, as Thomas Aquinas points out, pure spirits do not occupy space. Therefore when a demon “possesses” a person, he is merely acting on that person. According to Father Nanni, “During a possession the demon is not present; it is connected like a pipe, and so he sends inputs into that person that the person can perceive.” Typically these “inputs” can be a variety of things that the person can experience, such as voices or noises, or even thoughts. “In this way, [the demon] tries to solicit the permission of our free will to evil, with the purpose of causing and reinforcing in us a growing dependence on him.” The goal is always the same: to drive the person to desperation and isolation, to make him a willing “slave” to the demon and sin.

“In the moment of the crisis, however, the demon is not only connected but he comes, he is there; and the prayer of exorcism forces him to be present because it provokes him and forces him to reveal himself,” says Father Nanni. “The majority of people can resolve their crisis state with a prayer of thirty to forty minutes. I say ‘resolve’ but I mean temporarily. When the state of crisis begins, you keep performing the exorcism until the demon gets tired and detaches himself, and so the person comes back.”

During an exorcism the demon suffers and causes suffering. “Every exorcism is like hitting the demon with a bat. He suffers greatly; at the same time he also causes pain and weakness to the person he possesses. He even admits that he is better off in hell than during an exorcism,” relates Father Amorth.

Just how a spiritual being might feel pain by being touched with material sacred objects is somewhat of a mystery. “There is some kind of relationship between the matter and the spirit. When they enter into a human body they are not in one place but all over the body. It is as if they somehow penetrate into the matter and so they also suffer the consequences of it. Saint Augustine talks about spirits as having some kind of matter to them; Saint Paul talks about spirits of the air, and the air is ethereal but it is still matter. However we can't say for sure,” Father Nanni admits.

For the Church, these sacred objects (holy water, blessed oil, a crucifix) possess a kind of “power” because they carry the blessing of the Church. “Of course the object itself has no power; rather the power lies in that of Christ Himself which has been placed upon the particular object,” writes Spanish exorcist Father José Antonio Fortea.

Most exorcists are affected by the intense suffering that they see during their ministries. As Father Amorth wrote, “The strongest and most lasting impression, for a beginner-exorcist, is coming in contact with a world where suffering of the soul—more than of the body—is the norm.”

Father Gary was particularly moved by just how personal this pain could be. Not only did it touch the individuals, but it affected the lives of their family, loved ones, and friends as well.

F
ROM THE TIME SHE WAS A LITTLE GIRL
, Anna, now thirty-five, felt that something was not completely right:

I had problems but I didn't know they were connected. When I was a little girl I heard noises that people around me couldn't hear, like the ticking of a watch. It bothered me a lot, and I used to cry and ask my mom what it was, but she would only tell me that she couldn't hear anything. So ¡started to think I was going crazy. I could also sense a presence in my room, and so I used to hide myself under the covers. My mom thought I was just “acting out,” but I was very scared.

Around the age of seven or eight, I started to feel a choking sensation when I was lying down in bed and I had to stand up just so
that I could breathe. Several times I almost choked to death and my mom had to pull my tongue out. I went to many doctors who told me I was perfectly fine, that all these things were just a kid's fantasies.

When I turned twelve, I became very interested in sex. My interest was very extreme, exaggerated. It was wrong, of course, but back then I didn't know. When I was fourteen I started to have intercourse, also in a very dirty way. For me it was normal, but at the same time I had an immense amount of suffering going on inside. I had very low self-esteem and as a result I began to suffer from anorexia and even thought about committing suicide many times. I felt terrible and became addicted to some drops that were supposed to help me sleep.

Meanwhile on the outside I always looked fine. I always had perfect makeup on, and I was well dressed. When I started working, all my salary went to buying clothes, drinks, going out to the clubs.

When I became addicted to the drops I was sixteen and my mom started to pray for me, but I found that out only later on. As a result, whenever I saw her I felt this intense hatred for her; I mean I really hated her. Now I know why, but back then I didn't know anything. Another thing was that whenever I saw Pope John Paul II on TV, I used to run away or turn the channel immediately. And I never so much as put afoot inside a church, which was strange because even as a little girl I loved to attend mass.

This went on for some time until finally, when I was twenty-eight, a friend told me, “Let's go to Saint John Lateran to get a blessing. “I was bad at the time. I couldn't sleep without the drops. I was anorexic. I was bulimic. I also had this weird sensation of a hand pressing on the small of my back, as if somebody kept his hand on me the whole time. A few days before going for the blessing, I started to say, “No, I'm not going. Why should I go? I'm totally fine; all I need is to meet a guy and then I'll be fine.” Instead my friend made mego.

When I got to the church my head was pounding. I couldn't understand what people were telling me. I didn't have any reactions until I got in front of the priest, and then I burst into tears, sobbing and
crying so much that I wasn't able to stop. The priest just let me go on. Afterward, when I went home, I was no longer addicted to the drops—from one day to the next
—
and the weird sensation of the hand on my back disappeared. Even after this reaction, I didn't change my lifestyle at all until the day that I went to confess my sins. When the priest blessed me, I fell on the floor and started to scream, after which I didn't remember anything. The priest told my girlfriend to take me to Father Tommaso at the Scala Santa. I went and he blessed me and nothing weird happened. Later I met Father Alberto from Saint Anastasia, and he helped me to return to a spiritual path, to praying and belonging to a community of prayer.

When I started praying again, I began to feel a little better on the inside, but outside I got worse and worse. During the night sometimes all of a sudden I could not move, as if something was blocking me. I cried a lot during this time and I said to myself that I must be crazy. I told Father Alberto and he said, “When this happens, start to pray.” It was very hard for me to pray because in those moments I couldn't remember the words of the prayers. At the beginning I remember saying simply, “Help, help, help, Mary, Mary, Mary!” Then I started with the Hail Mary, and gradually those episodes went away.

One day Father Alberto prayed Psalm 90 over me and I began to vomit and feel really bad. As I was doing it I kept thinking, “Why am I vomiting?” I felt like I was choking but I didn't know why. I abo saw a strange vision of some kind of ritual in which people were chanting. Father Alberto told me that maybe I needed an exorcism. I said to myself, “Who me? I'm fine.” I told myself that I was just doing all this so that I could get attention.

About this time I met my husband and things got really bad, especially when we blessed the engagement rings. In that moment I lost consciousness and the demon manifested for the first time and told my husband that if he were to marry me I would kill him.