The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist (31 page)

C
HAPTER SIXTEEN: ORGANIZING THE MINISTRY

213: fourteen officially appointed exorcists: This number is based on estimates taken as of April 2006.

213: the old titular houses, original house churches: Up until the fourth century, when Christianity was officially recognized, secret Christians worshiped privately. Wealthy Roman citizens often turned their private residences into places of worship. Later these houses became known as “titular churches,” and each took the name of its owner. Paul mentions the
Titulus Priscae
in his letter to the Romans (Romans 16:3-5).

216: the two agreed to stay in touch: Father Daniel continued his graduate studies in Rome. In 2006 he performed exorcisms for two years at a church in Rome before finally being relocated out of the country in 2008. They met once more in Rome in the fall of 2007 as Father Daniel was preparing to leave for his new post.

C
HAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE EXORCIST

223: The woman, Stephanie … the man, Chris: Any identifying traits have been changed to protect the couple's anonymity.

225: he was allowed to do it in English: Any translation for the revised rite of exorcism must be officially approved by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. So far the only versions that have been approved are Latin and Italian. It would also fall to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops to request that such a translation be undertaken, which hasn't yet happened.

226: one of the unused offices: I have purposely changed die location of the exorcism.

227: rosary beads turned the color of gold: This is one of the miracles that has been associated with Medjugorje, in Bosnia-Hercegovina.

227: run by a group of Charismatic laypeople: The “charismatic renewal” is the name commonly given to Pentecostal-style groups, both Catholic and Protestant, that promote the belief that special “charismatic” gifts, such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, discernment of spirits, and healing, are imparted directly to those believers who are baptized in the Holy Spirit. Chief among these gifts is the power to cast out evil spirits, a power held by all baptized individuals according to early Christians. Adherents practice a watered-down form of exorcism known as “deliverance.” By the 1980s the movement had come to dominate the deliverance scene in America.

For more on the charismatic approach to deliverance see: Francis MacNutt,
Deliverance from Evil Spints
(Grand Rapids, MI: Chosen Books, 2005); and Michael Scanlan, T.O.R., and Randall Cirner's
Deliverance from Evil Spints
(Ann Arbor, MI: Servant Books, 1980).

In the 1980s the Catholic hierarchy took steps to rein in the practice of deliverance. Most notably, in 1983, Cardinal Leon-Joseph Suenens of Belgium, a charismatic himself, wrote a report entitled
Renewal and the Powers of Darkness
in which he decried, among other things, the tendency of some charismatics to ascribe a majority of everyday problems to a demon—demon of impulsivity, demon of depression, demon of anxiety, and so on. In 1985, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, at that time headed by Cardinal Ratzinger, issued “Instruction on Prayers for Healing,” reminding bishops and laypeople alike that solemn exorcism should be left to those priests nominated by the bishop.

231: originally from Honduras: I have removed identifying details in these cases to protect the identity of the individuals.

A
UTHOR'S NOTE

238: therapists who practice “spirit releasement”: For more on spirit releasement, see William J. Baldwin, D.D.S., Ph.D.,
Spint Releasement Therapy: A Technique Manual
, 1992.

238: to give people some sort of standards: Numerous misguided individuals have turned the concept of casting out demons into murder. Among the most recent, in 1997, a five-year-old girl from the Bronx was killed when she was forced to drink a mixture of ammonia, pepper, olive oil, and vinegar by her mother and grandmother, who then bound and gagged her with duct tape in an attempt, they said, to “poison” the demon out of her. Michael Cooper, “Mother and Grandmother Charged with Fatally Poisoning Girl,” New
York Times
, May 19, 1997.

Then in November 2007, in a ceremony involving nearly forty people, a woman in New Zealand was drowned during an Anglican exorcism ceremony when a member of her “healing group” held her under water in an attempt to drive out an evil spirit. Simon Winter, “Exorcism Death Shocks Archdeacon,”
The
New
Zealand Herald
, November 12, 2007.

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