The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist (5 page)

A
T THE COURSE
, Father Gary also benefited from being introduced to other novice exorcists like himself. Most were from Italy and didn't speak English. One priest, however, a Franciscan from America, proved extremely helpful.

Father Daniel, originally from the New England area, had recently been stationed at the shrines in Jerusalem. His brown robe bore the symbol—a red cross surrounded by four smaller ones—of his order. With his robe, close-cropped hair, and beard, he appeared to be from another era. And yet, upon closer inspection, the subtle hints of his New England background rose to the surface—a sliver of blue jeans below his robe, Birkenstock sandals, the frayed collar of a green button-down shirt.

During one of the breaks, Father Daniel explained to Father Gary what compelled him to take the course. That summer he'd been at a shrine in Abruzzo, east of Rome, where he'd had a terrifying experience. One day, while he listened to confessions at the shrine, a woman approached him and asked if he believed in demonic possession. Despite his lack of firsthand knowledge in the matter, he told her that he did. The woman responded, “Good, because I suffer from it and I want to confess.” Unsure what she meant, he nonetheless began with his blessing and continued to hear her confession. He could see immediately that something was amiss; she began to twitch and clear her throat repeatedly. Then things got worse. All of a sudden she began to grunt and the word
zitto
, shut up, escaped involuntarily from her pursed lips. Then, when it came time for him to say his final blessings and absolve her of her sins, to his utter shock, all the muscles in her face contorted to such a degree that he could no longer recognize her. Next, her jaw completely unhinged and, dropping down, shifted over to one side of her face, giving the impression that her mouth had become nine inches wide. At this point, Father Daniel nearly panicked but kept calm long enough to bless the woman in the name of Jesus Christ, after which she got up and bolted from the church.

After he had recovered and his fears subsided, he became curious about what he had just witnessed. In order to get answers, he volunteered to help the local exorcist who worked at the shrine. It didn't take long for him to realize that he had seen only the tip of the iceberg—there was a whole world out there that he never knew existed. As a result, when he was transferred to Rome in the fall to begin his doctoral studies, he petitioned his superior for permission to apprentice with an exorcist. Father Tommaso at the Scala Santa, a church that has been long associated with exorcism, took him on shortly thereafter.

As he listened to Father Daniel, Father Gary had no reason to doubt the Franciscan's sincerity. Far from boastful, Father Daniel had been incredibly humble, even self-deprecating—almost as if even he couldn't believe what had happened. Father Daniel's story only made Father Gary realize just how little he knew about demonic possession. Before he could ever perform an exorcism himself, he would need to learn more about who or what he was going up against.

CHAPTER FOUR

KNOW YOUR ENEMY

If God the Father almighty, the Creator of the ordered and good world, cares for all his creatures, why does evil exist? To this question, as pressing as it is unavoidable and as painful as it is mysterious, no quick answer will suffice. Only Christian faith as a whole constitutes the answer to this question: the goodness of creation, the drama of sin, and the patient love of God who comes to meet man by his covenants, the redemptive Incarnation of his Son, his gift of the Spirit, his gathering of the Church, the power of the sacraments, and his call to a blessed life to which free creatures are invited to consent in advance, but from which, by terrible mystery, they can also turn away in advance. There is not a single aspect of the Christian message that is not in part an answer to the question of evil.

—Catechism of the Catholic Church
309

The capacity to love has been annihilated from the psychology of a demon. A demon knows but does not love. The pleasure achieved in doing an evil act is the same as that which a human being feels when he gets revenge on an enemy—it is a pleasure filled with hate.

—
Father José Antonio Fortea
, Interview with an Exorcist

T
he idea of the Devil has evolved over time, primarily as a way to explain the existence of evil in a world created by an all-powerful and loving God.

The word
devil
comes from the Greek
diabolos
, which means “adversary slanderer, opposer.” When the Hebrew Bible was translated in 200 B.C.E. into Greek (known as the Septuagint version), the Greeks commonly used this word in place of the Hebrew word
satan
, which meant “accuser.”

In the Old Testament, which was written between 1000 and 100 B.C.E., the Devil is only mentioned a few times, and even then he is far from a coherent, personified being. Some theologians, such as Thomas Aquinas, have speculated that this is because Moses was “addressing uncultured people” and didn't want to promote any beliefs that might tempt them to worship false idols. Other theologians have suggested that the lack of a coherent demonology in the Old Testament might be because the Israelites had a strict law in place that prohibited magic. Satan's most prominent appearance is in the book of Job; but as some scholars have pointed out, here his name is really just a title. He still has access to the heavenly court and appears to be acting as God's agent, a kind of “prosecuting attorney.” In this role, he convinces God to give him the power to torment Job to test Job's loyally (Job 1:6-12).

In the New Testament, however, the Devil plays a much bigger role. At the time of Christ's coming—thanks to original sin—”the whole world lies under the power of the Evil One” (1 John 5:19). To heal this rift, God sends his only Son. The Synoptic Gospels address this concept directly and repeatedly. “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

The New Testament is full of the battles that these two sides wage. Satan tempts Christ directly in the desert (Matthew 4:1-11; Mark 1:13; Luke 4:1-13) and attacks him indirectly through his followers by temptation (Matthew 13:19); by inflicting bodily harm (Luke 13:11); and by possession (Mark 1:23-28). Jesus teaches his disciples the Lord's Prayer, and confronts the Devil head-on by performing exorcisms.

T
HE BELIEF IN SPIRITS
or intermediaries between God and man exists in just about every religion. The Assyrians, for instance, had numerous books (written on clay tablets) dedicated to incantations and conjurations to ward off evil spirits.

According to the Greeks, “demons,” or
daimones
, were thought to be either good or evil. Socrates, for instance, famously credited a
daimon
as being the source of his inspiration.

For Catholics, the belief in angels is an article of faith, based on divine revelation and the teachings of the Church. “The Apostles’ Creed professes that God is ‘Creator of heaven and earth.’ The Nicene Creed makes it explicit that this profession includes ‘all that is seen and unseen.’“

The creation of the angels is affirmed in numerous passages of the Bible. Saint Paul writes to the Colossians: “For in him [Christ] all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16).

The angels occupy a natural order, or hierarchy of beings, whose purpose is to reflect the glory of God. As thirteenth-century theologian Thomas Aquinas explains in
Summa Theologies
, his great tome on angels, “There must be some incorporeal creatures, for what is principally intended by God in creatures is good, and this consists in assimilation to God Himself […] hence the perfection of the universe requires that there should be intellectual creatures.”

To many theologians it seems only natural to believe in higher intelligences superior to our own, especially when one considers the ordered nature and varying degrees of intelligence that exist in the world, from single-cell organisms right up to man. “It would be most extraordinary if (man) formed the last link,” writes Pie-Raymond Régamey O.P.

T
HE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
teaches that Satan was a good angel created by God: “The devil and the other demons were indeed created naturally good by God, but they became evil by their own doing.”

As an expression of his love, God created the angels with free will so that they could love him back and “render [themselves] similar to God who ‘is love’” (1 John 4:16). In simple terms, according to the Christian tradition, love is a metaphysical necessity for created beings since it is only through love that such beings can realize their full potential. And since love not freely given is not really love at all, this meant that the angels (along with man) needed to have the ability to choose. However, God knew that once he gave this freedom, it could be used either for evil or for good. “By creating the pure spirits as free beings, God in his Providence could not but foresee also
the possibility of the angels’ sin,”
said Pope John Paul II.

After their creation, God tested the angels before admitting them to the beatific vision (the direct experience of God in heaven). Many angels remained faithful to God while a smaller number, led by Satan, “rebelled,” choosing to place themselves before God.

After their sin, the angels were immediately stripped of their everlasting grace and condemned to an “eternal punishment” (Matthew 25:46). Theologians call this punishment the “pain of loss.” The fallen angels were cut off from the only source that could have given them happiness: God. In this “hell,” the demons are forever tormented and remain obstinate in their hate, a hate that has deformed their very nature.

According to Christian tradition, Satan was the principal fallen angel, the brightest and most perfect of all God's creations. The Bible makes it clear that he holds a higher rank than the other fallen angels: “the Devil and his angels” (Matthew 25:41), “the ruler of the demons” (Luke 11:15), “the dragon and his angels” (Revelation 12:7-9).

Ever since Origen attributed the fall to pride, Satan's name has been interchangeable with Lucifer. The name, taken from a verse in Isaiah, is used metaphorically to describe the king of Babylon. “How art thou fallen from heaven, Lucifer, son of Dawn! How are you cut down to the ground, you who laid nations low! You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend into heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God’” (Isaiah 14:12-13). Some theologians have argued against this association. Indeed, some exorcists like Father Amorth say that Lucifer and Satan are two distinct demons. Despite this, however, the tradition of associating Lucifer with the Devil continues, even as the Catholic Church maintains that the name “Lucifer” symbolizes the state from which the Devil has fallen and is not a proper name.

After the angels “fell,” God created the material world, including the first humans. When this happened, Satan turned his rage on mankind, and, as described by John Paul II, “transplanted] into man the insubordination, rivalry and opposition to God, which had become the motivation for his existence.” The book of Genesis relates how Satan, taking the form of the serpent, tempted Adam and Eve to sin.

As a result of this sin and humanity's turning its back on God, Satan has been given some degree of dominion over man. In the Bible he is called “the ruler of this world” (John 12:31) and “the god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

I
N THE EARLY DAYS OF THE CHURCH
, the nature of angels caused some confusion. Writing in the second century, Justin Martyr thought that fallen angels had denser bodies than the good angels, and that they actually ate a special kind of food (Psalm 78:25; Psalm 105:40). The word
angel
is also deceiving. Deriving from the Hebrew
mal'ak
or the Greek
angelos
, it signifies “messenger,” or “envoy,” which indicates more of a function than a nature.

Today, the Church teaches that angels are incorporeal spiritual beings. Saint Augustine says: “‘Angel’ is the name of their office, not of their nature. If you seek the name of their nature, it is ‘spirit’; if you seek the name of their office, it is ‘angel’: from what they are, ‘spirit,’ from what they do, ‘angel.’“

There has been much speculation over the years about what might constitute the nature of a pure spirit. And while his writings on the subject are not a part of official Church doctrine, a majority of Catholic theologians follow the teachings of Thomas Aquinas, also known as the Angelic Doctor. Aquinas explains that pure spirits are not composed of matter and form, but of essence and existence, act and potentiality. Where the early Church Fathers fell short, Aquinas suggests, was in not according enough importance to intelligence. Because of their wholly spiritual nature, angels are complete beings and occupy “the first and highest place in the scale of created things,” nearer to the likeness of God, who is pure spirit, rather than man, who is a mix of the spiritual (soul) and material (body).