Category Archives: exorcism

As G.K. Chesterton had it: “It isn’t that they can’t see the solution. It’s that they can’t see the problem.”

As Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen said:

This is how things often happen with those who are harassed by the devil. They don’t quite realize it until they are already in such depths of despair that they think that they cannot be helped. Quite the trick of the devil.

Another trick of the devil is to make exorcism seem inaccessible, inhuman. The lives of those harassed seem to them to have been made into a joke from hell. They don’t realize that the joke is on Satan, and they don’t know that any exorcist worth his title knows that any such joke is to be at the expense of hell, not the person who is suffering in anguish.

Any decent exorcist wants, on the one hand, to be entirely understanding of the suffering that the person is undergoing, even while, on the other hand, he will also want to be lighthearted at every opportunity, that is, balanced, a normal human being. This is most helpful to those who suffer. It breaks the suffering up a bit. Light hearted joking is not at the expense of the one who suffers, but helps them immensely.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen had great advice for visiting patients in the hospital, which, in this case, is much like speaking with exorcism candidates. He said that a major aim of the visit is to get the person to laugh, for that breaks the human tendency to notice altogether too much the suffering of the present, and then remember all the suffering of the past and drag that into the present, and then project all that into the future, and then drag that back into the present. When one laughs, all this is broken up.

I’ve been a patient myself, always smiling, always trying to joke. My worst penance was not, for instance, to have my heel drilled right through with what looked to be a construction site drill (which ground to a halt I don’t know how many times)… no, my worst penance was to have some visitors, from layman to Cardinal, who were just way, way too glum, as if that would make me think that they cared. Not.

The same dour, cheerless, morose attitude is very unfortunately to be found with various and sundry new-agers and occultists and spiritists and charlatans of all sorts. “A Catholic priest-exorcist must always be melodramatically serious!” is the cry that goes up. How I have battled against the damage such as these have caused! It is this sort of thing which makes those who are suffering think that exorcists are, in fact, inhuman, humorless, all-too-serious, taking themselves too seriously, so much so that they would never but ever have the time to look at the joke that Satan has made out of their lives. Too bad, that. Really.

Humor is not directed at the candidate for exorcism, but one can hopefully bring the candidate for exorcism to such a point that one will be able to laugh with such a person.

What?! Laugh at the all too sick joke of Satan?! Why, yes! How’s that?

By, again, helping the person come to realize that the joke is on Satan.

The purpose of exorcism is not merely to free one from Satan (as was noted in the previous post of this series), but to introduce someone more to our Lord’s goodness and kindness and irony! How’s that?

Again, after original sin, after mankind’s fall from grace in which obedience was rendered unto Satan, the purpose of our lives here on this earth, in view now of our redemption in Christ Jesus, is to wake up and realize the evil situation that we’ve gotten ourselves into, that the fires of hell are much hotter than we might think… … much as – in the story above – it would behoove the frog to get to know that the fires of the stove are hotter than it might think. One of the consequences of having been obedient to Satan is that, in justice, God will permit Satan to harass us. And this speeds up the process of our getting to know how much trouble we’ve gotten ourselves into. The Lord can draw good from evil, which is the only reason why He permits this. What’s the good? That we can know how to thank the Lord for having come into this world to take on the worst that Satan had to give out, and this so as to have the right in justice to have mercy on us, He being innocent and having the right to suffer vicariously for us, taking on what we deserve and having the right to forgive us. And with exorcism, the Lord does manifest His powerful mercy, He having conquered Satan’s worst.

And this is where humor comes full force into the situation. It is here that the all too sick joke has been turned on Satan, so that the joke is on his expense. It is here that one can exult in the irony of our Lord, who uses Satan for the work of the Lord. Hah! “Lord, wow, this is how far you had to reach to get us, right into hell, and you paid the price for that, for us… you love us so much!” This is the Lord’s humor. This is what Chesterton, way up top of this post, thought about Christianity and humor, having it that the humorless person can’t be Christian. They can’t see that the problem is that they have no humor at all. The Christian not only sees the solution, but also the problem. One cannot but rejoice. Being humorous is all about knowing the Lord already has the victory in hand. You remember that hand, the one with the spike piercing it? The Lord is just that good and that kind… and that humorous, the joke being on Satan. Hah!

There are many ways in which an exorcist can fail.

Sin can be confessed, if one knows about it. Pride is more elusive from being recognized the more rooted it is in someone. Lord, save me from the sin I do not recognize as sin! If an exorcist is filled with pride, he will not succeed with an exorcism.

One can also fail in the very methods of discernment. Believe it or not, there are a few exorcists, mostly over in Italy, who use the ways of old world divining in order to judge whether or not someone is being harassed by Satan. Here are some of those ways (perhaps you can think of other silliness): (1) Tie a rock to a string and see if, while holding your hand still, it will swing in this direction, or, “significantly”, that way (whatever way that is… Sigh); (2) put drops of oil in the glass of water and see if the oil separates or stays together or mixes with the water; (3) … I could think of others, I suppose – like the misuse of “charismatic gifts” – but I get impatient with such things.

A word needs to be said about exorcisms which fail, not because of any egregious mistake on the part of the exorcist or the unwillingness of the candidate for exorcism, but just because “it doesn’t seem to work.” Days go by. Weeks. Even months or more. Exasperation. People are praying and fasting and keeping up with the sacraments. But no success.

What to do? Give up so that Satan has a victory, at least in the eyes of the exorcist and in the eyes of the candidate for exorcism? That’s not an option.

How about calling in more exorcists so that it’s not so much about the rite as about the “power group”? Nope. Not for that reason, at any rate. Maybe for solidarity and a watchful eye. Two heads are better than one. But as far as the exorcism goes, that may be of no help.

How about reexamining – before weeks and months go by – whether or not the discernment about demonic possession was accurate? Yep. Hurts the ol’ pride, but that would be it. I would give examples, one in particular being catastrophic, but I don’t know enough about that case to comment accurately. So I won’t. There are things, however, that would point to an incorrect discernment: the exorcist agrees with the political/ecclesial outlook of the exceptionally good candidate and all too easily looks upon the would-be possession as a martyrdom, a punishment for being good. Are doctors or psychiatrists held at bay? Is there any disobedience or trying to skirt around the authority of the bishop? Does the exorcist have a need to be important, needed? Although an exorcist may realize that there are no real signs of possession, these can be overlooked in favor of exorcizing that which can’t be exorcized if such things not coming from Satan’s minions, such as voices in one’s head. One might hear the candidate for exorcism having conversations or even arguments between what might be possibly multiple partial personalities created under great duress. But that doesn’t say anything one way or another regarding discernment, does it?

When I was a young and stupid exorcist, I did record part of an exorcism, the horrific, weird groaning and freakish, monstrous noises coming out of the mouth of such a frail young person. Listening to this, it reminded me of hearing magnetic tape recordings played backward. So, I tried that. Yikes! Many voices were going on at the same time, with some in Biblical Hebrew, saying that [...] is coming to judge, or that it’s not time yet, or similar things. But even this, even with the ghastly appearance of the candidate, doesn’t necessarily point to possession, as the human mind can be extraordinarly adept at creating such scenarios as part of a reason to exist in this world. Discernment involves something other than this, or alongside this, doesn’t it?

The failure of the exorcist in any way can mean the failure of the exorcism, and sometimes it can mean that which is worse than a failed exorcism. A prime example:

If exorcists fail to exhort those over whom they’ve done a successful exorcism, so that they might keep up with frequenting the sacraments, and giving themselves to prayer and works of charity, will not Satan return to find the house (i.e., the person) swept clean and in good order, and then get seven other demons to join him in harassing such a person who failed to fill up his house, his own self, with God’s grace and good works? Yep.

That would count as worse than a failed exorcism, wouldn’t it?

Why would an exorcist fail to exhort a person in this way? Because, unfortunately, unless he is very humble, he will be so intent on praising himself for a successful exorcism, that the end of the exorcism, helping someone to have fuller liberty to live their lives before God and man in all goodness and kindness, will be last on the list of things to do, or will not even have made it on the list. Exorcists are urgently called upon to be humble, and to be always in the mode of humble thanksgiving before God. We are never to rejoice that the unclean spirits are subject to us, but that our names are written in heaven, as Jesus said, in His extraordinary goodness and kindness.

One of the criteria that the prudence of the exorcist will take into account when discerning whether or not someone is being harassed by Satan is the ability of the candidate for exorcism to discover the reality behind known unknowns or even of unknown unknowns.

You just can’t beat the absolute logic of Donny Rumsfeld as United States Secretary of Defense during a press conference at NATO Headquarters in Brussels back on June 6, 2002 (bracketed numbers added):

Now what is the message there? The message is that there are no “knowns.” [1] There are things we know that we know. [2] There are known unknowns. That is to say there are things that we now know we don’t know. [3] But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don’t know. So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that’s basically what we see as the situation, that is really only [1] the known knowns and [2] the known unknowns. [3] And each year, we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns.

Some points to take into consideration:

(A) The human spirit is amazing for its sensitivity to others. It is not terribly uncommon that a mother of a son just killed in battle on the other side of the world will immediately know this has happened, even if it takes weeks for the visit to the front door. She is not surprised at the visit, and can speak of the day and time before she is told anything. Similarly, twins are amazing, so tied are they into each other. And when I was a little kid, I could get pretty much anyone in the school library, however far away, to turn around to see who was looking at the back of his or her head. It would only take about ten seconds. What a distraction for those around me, laughing at my shenanigans. I could go on, but you get the idea. This kind of thing is not the interest of the exorcist. These are the kinds of things that we know that we know about the human spirit. Nothing spooky here.

(B) The human spirit can sometimes be despicable for its insensitivity to others. I once lived in a town with a multitude of “charismatic” prayer groups which would pray for others in town. I was told by I don’t know how many people on how many different occasions that, during such “prayer” sessions, one after the other, this or that individual would have a “word of knowledge”, a “prophesy”, which would then be voiced in the form of a petition for which others were to pray. For instance, a word of knowledge might be that so-and-so was right now in the act of adultery. Sigh. So-and-so was not in the act of adultery, but with this voiced (and many other dozens like this about people all over town), people’s good names were continuously being destroyed, even while the “prophets” congratulated themselves for being such great “prayer warriors”. Idiots. This kind of thing is not the interest of the exorcist, except that he might want to slap such people for being such idiots. Yeah, maybe Satan manipulates some of them into such idiocy. More on that a bit further below…

(C) Satan can’t know the future, but can guess at it, just like we can. Surprisingly accurate predictions are not the interest of exorcist, unless there are extenuating circumstances. For instance, Satan’s been around a long time, and knows about the course, say, of cancer in a person of any given stamina, and could easily predict the day on which that person will die. Many people also have a sense of when they are going to die, and can even see the signs in others. So, no big deal. It might be a bit odd, however, if someone were to predict the precise number of deaths – to a man – in an earthquake of whatever metropolitan area around the world five minutes before it happens, again and again and again, with no wrong guesses being made. Satan could make an excellent guess. A human being couldn’t begin to do such a thing. This kind of discovery of unknown unknowns might put an exorcist on guard. But this would only possibly be one item to consider.

(D) Just because we can discover the reality of otherwise known unknowns by way of the human spirit (see “A” above), this does not mean that particularly sensitive people are not being harassed by Satan. Here’s an anedote to illustrate this, with details changed: A young man, an orphan, institutionalized his whole life, now in his early twenties, rather retarded, was recently used a number of times by a certain police unit of a certain country to aid in their investigations as to where the bodies of murder victims might be found. It must have been the volunteers at this institution who brought the news of his “talents” to the police. The head physician responsible for the young man was happy enough to let him be used by the police, thinking that it might do him some good to be involved in anything whatsoever. The young man successfully helped them with their more recent cases, so they gave him their most difficult file, one which was many years old, but still open for political reasons. They only had a picture of the murder victim taken by the murderer, who left the picture in the place of the murder, but then removed the body and went into hiding himself. They thought that if they could find the body, they might also find the murderer. Possible life insurance payouts were at stake. A couple of detectives got in a police cruiser with the young man and brought him out on the highways. This was his first time out of the institution. He told them to go here, then there, it all seeming to be a wild goose chase. But then he cried out for them to stop. They had been driving by untold miles of marshland, every section of which looked like every other section, with no landmarks. They followed him on foot into the marsh, thigh deep in brackish water, wending their way though reeds that towered over their heads. They got out about half a mile into such territory and truly began to fear that they themselves would have a hard time finding their way out. They insisted they turn around, but the young man forged ahead, saying that there was more than one body. They gave him another couple of minutes, at which point the young man reached below the water and pulled up a body part. Then another. They left the marsh by way of a pontooned helicopter, which had carried forensic specialists and equipment to the scene.

Now, such things might seem nice, helpful even. Why would Satan bother. Surely this is all just another bit of the human spirit. Maybe. However, in this case, the young man began to feel oppressed by all this, terribly oppressed, maddingly oppressed. When he was told that it was a “gift”, that he was “gifted”, that he was doing so much good for people with his gift, he cried out that it wasn’t a gift. He hated it. He wanted them away from him. After many other criteria of discernment were considered, an exorcism was done, and he felt absolutely at peace, liberated, and looked it. I’m free, I’m free! he kept repeating. I feel so light! Thank you! It seems some of his clouded mind was cleared up as well. He was just so happy not be have such a “gift”.

Remember the account of the Python Lady? Acts 16,14-40 (NAB)

One of them, a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, listened, and the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. After she and her household had been baptized, she offered us an invitation, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my home,” and she prevailed on us. As we were going to the place of prayer, we met a slave girl with an oracular spirit, who used to bring a large profit to her owners through her fortune-telling. She began to follow Paul and us, shouting, “These people are slaves of the Most High God, who proclaim to you a way of salvation.” She did this for many days. Paul became annoyed, turned, and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” Then it came out at that moment. When her owners saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them to the public square before the local authorities. They brought them before the magistrates and said, “These people are Jews and are disturbing our city and are advocating customs that are not lawful for us Romans to adopt or practice.” The crowd joined in the attack on them, and the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be beaten with rods. After inflicting many blows on them, they threw them into prison and instructed the jailer to guard them securely. When he received these instructions, he put them in the innermost cell and secured their feet to a stake. About midnight, while Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God as the prisoners listened, there was suddenly such a severe earthquake that the foundations of the jail shook; all the doors flew open, and the chains of all were pulled loose. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew (his) sword and was about to kill himself, thinking that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted out in a loud voice, “Do no harm to yourself; we are all here.” He asked for a light and rushed in and, trembling with fear, he fell down before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And they said, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you and your household will be saved.” So they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to everyone in his house. He took them in at that hour of the night and bathed their wounds; then he and all his family were baptized at once. He brought them up into his house and provided a meal and with his household rejoiced at having come to faith in God. But when it was day, the magistrates sent the lictors with the order, “Release those men.” The jailer reported the (se) words to Paul, “The magistrates have sent orders that you be released. Now, then, come out and go in peace.” But Paul said to them, “They have beaten us publicly, even though we are Roman citizens and have not been tried, and have thrown us into prison. And now, are they going to release us secretly? By no means. Let them come themselves and lead us out.” The lictors reported these words to the magistrates, and they became alarmed when they heard that they were Roman citizens. So they came and placated them, and led them out and asked that they leave the city. When they had come out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house where they saw and encouraged the brothers, and then they left.

The Lord always wins these sort of things. We only have to remain faithful. Winning might mean being a martyr, but that is really winning, isn’t it? Yep. That’s when we discover the greatest unknown unknown, that is, that which eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it entered the heart of man the great joys that await us in heaven.

Ooooooo! Hexed objects, spells and curses offered for break-the-bank money, wrought by arrogant, spiteful occultists. And the more one says “Ooooooo!” the more money one has to pay. Of course, such a person paying all that money, and handing over the deed of his house, etc., will soon be saying “No! Aaarrgh!” for it only gets worse, and you will only have to pay more, and you will only end up with nothing but the sight of hell coming at you so fast that you will freeze in fear.

But then there is exorcism for free, offered by the Church in the goodness and kindness of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Instead of “Ooooooo!” and then “Aaarrgh!”, one is put into humble reverence and thanksgiving for abounding union in love with our Lord. Much better. Really.

Yet, people run to the occultists, afraid, I suppose, of the goodness and kindness of our Lord, because, after all, that would actually change one’s life for the better. People are afraid of true goodness because they don’t want to change their own selfish, arrogant ways. Carrying the cross, dying to one’s egoism, living for our Lord, living to manifest His goodness and kindness to others, is not something we of ourselves, under our own power, can do. In our weakness, we have to depend on Him. But people, in all hubris, want to depend on themselves, to be ‘in control’. We’re not very good at realism with ourselves, are we? But it is such a joy to live for the Lord, in good friendship with Him!

Now, to the point: since there are enough people in every age who run to occultists and get themselves into trouble – even today, of course – the new Ordinary Form of Exorcism ritual, that is, the first couple of sentences of Paragraph 15 of the General Premisses, speak to result of the phenomenon of people running after hexed objects, spells and curses. However, those first couple of sentences, because of the odd syntax and grammar and the scare-you-off-from-thinking-further digging sarcasm about the stupidity of human beings who run after such things even among the faithful , there are a great number of exorcists who have been thrown off as to what is intended by those sentences, including those who are internationally known and respected. These exorcists come away with the opposite meaning, which is catastrophic for so many among those who suffer harassment from Satan’s minions.

Since I have been used to using the Latin, I never bothered even to find out if there is presently an adequate English translation of this new form of Exorcism. Also, I tend to use the Extraordinary Form of Exorcism current in 1962 (whose form mostly comes from the version promulgated back in 1614), having become used to its wonderful rhythm of deprecation and imprecation occasioning humble reverence before Christ Jesus, Son of the Immaculate Conception. With the advent of Summorum Pontificum, there is no need any longer for the local bishop to seek permission for his exorcists to use the 1614 ritual from the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. At any rate, here are those first couple of sentences of paragraph 15 in my quick paraphrase, just to get the idea of the content. They are an admonition to the exorcist:

Know how to distinguish well cases of diabolical aggression from those deriving from a certain credulity, which pushes some, even among the faithful, to hold oneself to be the target of hexed objects, spells [sortilegi] or curses made by others to come upon oneself, one’s kin or goods. Don’t deny them spiritual help, but absolutely avoid proceeding to an exorcism; one may pray with them and for them some appropriate prayers so that they might find the peace of God.

Most exorcists I’ve know understand all this to say that any mention of such curses or methods of cursing automatically means that it is absolutely impossible that a would-be candidate for exorcism is harassed by the devil. That kind of reasoning is illogical, but there it is. The way the paragraph is phrased might just lead one, if one is not careful, to such a faulty conclusion. In fact, the opposite of such a faulty conclusion is true.

The existence of such a paragraph averts to the fact that such curses or methods of curses take place frequently, as well as to the unstated because obvious fact that such curses or methods of curses have nothing to do with the discernment of whether or not Satan is bothering someone. It is superstition that is condemned here, not true diabolical aggression.

Let’s make some distinctions:

• Just because some knucklehead gets paid to curse someone, that doesn’t mean that someone is, in fact, cursed, or that Satan is bothering such a person. Satan is free to do what he wants, and is not bound by the stupidities of whatever occultist. It is these occultists who are in line for being the most punished by Satan in hell, even just for being so stupid, but surely because they thought they could command Satan around. Wrong!
• Just because someone comes to you so as to enquire about an exorcism, and carries with them a story about curses and occultists and such as all that, that doesn’t mean that they are not being harassed by Satan! People can be cursed and harassed by Satan at the same time!
• Just because some arrogant occultist takes money to curse someone, and just because Satan despises that occultist more than anyone else, doesn’t mean that Satan won’t do the will of that occultist to the letter of the curse. Why? Not because he’s bound to do this, but because he wants to make that occultist, and the one who paid him, and the one(s) to be harassed, go to hell in all despair. Don’t think that Satan doesn’t want people to go to hell! Don’t think that Satan all of a sudden becomes charitable and says: “Oh! Since an occultist cursed someone, I surely won’t bother such a person, since that would be uncharitable!” Sigh…
• Just because there is a bit of biting sarcasm in those couple of sentenses of paragraph 15 doesn’t mean that those who are faithful are to be despised for thinking that they are in need of an exorcism. Bad things happen to good people, and not infrequently in this way. They are just enquiring. They are being prudent. Satan is not someone to ignore if stupid people do stupid things with curses.

Of course, just as bad as any exorcism done for no good reason is any exorcist taking the advice that “one may pray with them and for them some appropriate prayers so that they might find the peace of God,” that is, if one doesn’t explain that the prayers are not at all intended to do away with any threat of any hexed objects, spells or curses, it having been decided that they are not possessed if that is truly the case.

O.K. So! There we are! Curses schmursches! Well, almost… A few more thoughts come to mind as I type as fast as I can…

I would bet that if you have before you any member of the faithful who has been cursed and is, in fact, suffering from Satan, and set out to explain to them that Satan has no obligation to follow any curse of any occultist, that that member of the faithful will just about jump out of his skin on the spot, interrupting your condescension so as to inform you that your words couldn’t be more obvious, but that, nevertheless, Satan can still freely choose to harass whomever he wants, even someone who has been cursed by Satan. I mean, how ironic would that be: an occultist can guarantee that no exorcism will be done over someone as long as that person knows that they have been cursed!

There are mean spirited people who will go to an occultist to pay extremely exorbitant amounts of money in order to have the occultist do his thing in having people cursed to the end of having those people harassed by Satan in a variety of ways, having them lose their jobs, their homes, their spouses, their children, their friends, their peace…

The Lord did not curse Adam and the woman in Genesis. The Lord cursed the ground and the Oracle-”Serpent”. That’s it.

People are said to curse themselves or others, as is reported in Scripture. But that doesn’t mean they can curse themselves or others. Who are we to do that? We don’t have that capacity. We can’t do that. We can the words, but the words mean nothing. We are not so significant anymore, not after original sin.

What I say in this post about Ouija boards by way of anecdote is analogously applicable to fortune tellers of all sorts, those who work with cards, crystal balls, who are chiromancers, tea-leaf readers, or whatever. There are plenty of such people.

In this post, I’m going to give you a little anecdote about my own childhood, when I was only 3 1/2 years old. Some might think it is not possible, according to the best of pediatric psychology, that an infant might remember anything of such early years. But I remember pretty much everything, even back to the time when I was only 1 1/2 years old (and very many months before this). Our family moved to a different house when I was 1 1/2 years old. About the time I was 4 years old, my older sister asked me if I remembered the other house. I said that I did, and proceeded to describe the inside of my crib, what was hanging above my crib, the ceiling, the living room where my crib was usually set, the couch to the right, the ranch doors to the left, how those doors led to the dining room and kitchen, the back porch, and the back yard. I recounted what that back yard was like, with the kinds of trees and bushes, and the kind of games played in that back yard. She was shocked, almost frightened by this, arguing that I couldn’t know anything since I was only 1 1/2 years old at the time, and was still too young at four years old. I guess I was a pretty intense little kid.

Now, in the Summer of 1963, when I was just 3 1/2 years old, a good sized crowd of the neighborhood kids, aged mostly from about 5 to 9 years old, came over to our house and tumbled down the steps into our little basement, all excited about something they had with them. It was a Ouija board with a planchette, not that I knew what that was. I followed them down to the coolness of the basement, but stood back a bit from the group as they fell to the cool tile floor, sitting as close as they could to the board. Some of the kids knew how to spell and others knew how to put their fingers on the planchette. I guess I’ve always been put off by hyperventilating yet breathless superficiality of the gnostic kind, however eager such superficiality is to let others know the secrets possessed: “I know something you don’t! Nyeah, nyeah, nyeah, nyeah, nyeah! But let me show you what I know!”

I didn’t know how to spell at the time, but they made me sit down and put my hands on the planchette, and I moved it around with a rather conscious determination. They all complained that I wasn’t doing it right, that I had to let it move itself. I moved it around with even more conscious determination, right off the board, and they took the planchette back, afraid that I would break its castors. I thought it was all stupid and said as much, getting back up to watch them from a few feet back. Had I known the word ideomotor for such a thing as they were trying to force, I would have called it idiotmotor.

“It’s working! It’s working!” one of them squealed prematurely. Others said, “No, it’s not!” Soon, however, they spelled something but didn’t know what it meant, and tried it a few more times, asking the piece of wood their questions. Where the planchette went depended on who was stronger, since many sets of hands were on the little pointing device. A couple of others complained that it wasn’t the same as they had experienced in their own basement (being in basements being an unspoken rule), where they had felt the strength of an unseen hand drag the planchette, along with their own hands, around the board.

Their being so mesmerized over a chunk of wood, a smaller chunk of wood, and some creepy ink on the board put a bit of a fright in me. I wasn’t scared of the Ouija board, but of their creepy enthusiasm of being so caught up in themselves. I was happy enough that, because of the fact that there is nothing more boring than being caught up in oneself, before they knew it, they were soon on to other things.

I wonder how much this was formative of their world-view, if there was a proportionality between the superficiality of their enthusiasm and just how far-reaching was their being open to be led to “answers” by an unseen force other than God. The Ouija board is nothing in itself, but it is, by definition, an occasion for people to let themselves be drawn into a superstitious attitude. However much ideomotor / idiotmotor activity goes on, it is, nevertheless, an invitation to Satan to possess people, to be, with more new-agey type language, “channeled” by people. That channeling bit is being possessed, by the way, if it is not also just another example of ideomotor / idiotmotor activity of the incredibly complex human psyche.

There are people who have gotten themselves into trouble using a Ouija board. The example everyone knows is the case of the little boy who was possessed, and was part of the inspiration for the original exorcist film of the mid-1970s, though his part was played by a little girl who liked pea soup a little too much.

Satan is not bound to help the marketing strategies of those who copyright such rubbish by harassing a few people who use such things, but I’m sure he’s happy to do this on occasion, as a tool to get people to be more stupid than ever, turning to superstition and to Satan instead of to reason, common sense and God.

Here’s the NAB translation of 18,9-14 of the book of Deuteronomy. Surely you remember this from you bible reading…

When you come into the land which the LORD, your God, is giving you, you shall not learn to imitate the abominations of the peoples there. Let there not be found among you anyone who immolates his son or daughter in the fire, nor a fortune-teller, soothsayer, charmer, diviner, or caster of spells, nor one who consults ghosts and spirits or seeks oracles from the dead. Anyone who does such things is an abomination to the LORD, and because of such abominations the LORD, your God, is driving these nations out of your way. You, however, must be altogether sincere toward the LORD, your God. Though these nations whom you are to dispossess listen to their soothsayers and fortune-tellers, the LORD, your God, will not permit you to do so.

Such a lust to know the future comes from insecurity. Insecurity comes from a lack of love of others, from being caught up with oneself. One cannot find security hiding in oneself. One can only find security – amidst all the dangers in this world and amidst our own sickness and death – only with a love that is stronger than political correctness, stronger than danger, stronger than sickness and even death, a love that is eternal, a love that is living, a love that is God Himself, a love that will manifest love in all truth to others, even if that love is rejected, mocked, even to the point that the one who is showing that love will be put to death, as was Christ our God.

I remember being called in by the Diocese of Rockville Center many years ago to go to give a conference at a Catholic highschool at the far Eastern end of Long Island. Lots of creepy idiocy goes on at the far end of Long Island. Quite a good number of the teenagers were given over to superstitious idiocy, making of themselves the planchettes of political correctness, of each other, even of the devil. Those using planchettes are planchettes themselves, no? Are their souls not being nourished with charity in all truth in their parishes? Do they not know Christ and Him crucified? Do they not know how wonderful the sacrament of confession is? Are they bereft of Eucharistic Adoration? Are their lives so empty that they have to turn to the idiocies of fortune telling, having become so bored with themselves and with life? Young people are thirsty for the reality of the in-your-face love unto death of Christ and Him crucified for us. They are so eager to live the life of His resurrection, manifesting His life changing love already in this world. Who is there to invite them? If you haven’t heard such things from your parish priests, challenge them about this. If you are a priest, do you offer opportunities in the faith to those of your parish? Do you preach up the joys of going to confession?

When I was a little kid, our own parish had some pretty serious problems. Already back then. Times don’t change too much. But we can have an effect on our own corner of the world for the good, should we ourselves be given over in humble thanksgiving to our Lord, participating in the sacraments, knowing His friendship, encouraging others.

The alternative of atheism/cynical skepticism doesn’t work. It is empty, a life filled with distraction from the boringness of self, a life of mocking others so as to test the veracity of their love, much like the soldier who pierced the heart of Christ with his sword, only then to say, having pushed that love to death, that truly this was the Son of God. One hopes that the cowardliness of atheists/cynical skeptics will be changed to know the greatness of love unto death so that they don’t continue to foist their weak selves on others as the soldier did with Christ. Perhaps their being bored with themselves even amidst their multitudinous distractions and mockeries (which can include, oxymoronically, Ouija boards and all sorts of Satanism), will be an occasion for them to look for that love which is consonant with a non-relativistic, living Truth, who is the Lord, Christ our God.

Many cynical skeptics would be quick to point out that fortune telling is the thing they mock the most (rightfully, of course), but they can be sadly unaware that they have made of their own lives a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy of lonely individuality, of insecurity seeking distraction, at least the distraction of merely filling their days with the mockery of others (instead of providing something positive). They have friends, a like-minded lot, congratulating each other, rationalizing cowardice by taking refuge in numbers. But how many profound friendships are to be enjoyed by cynical skeptics when they are too cynically skeptical to let themselves be in such friendships? Ironically, they are wide open to being played like a planchette by the ideomotor / idiotmotor manipulation of others, the prestidigitations which are so easily accepted by the insecure, the cowardly, those who are eagerly politically correct, those who are cynically skeptical of religion. It’s a bit of a fright to see the conscienceless planchette-esque behavior of cynical skeptics, but with Christ’s love, in all truth, we hope they lose their cowardliness before the future, and provide something positive for others in this world with the love of Christ right now. How did they become cynically skeptical? Being hurt? Perhaps. In that case, we need to pray for a spirit of forgiveness as well. Being a planchette is not the answer.

There are certain things that are dead giveaways about what a person is like. For instance, if a priest speaks frequently about the joy he has in going to confession, and encourages others to go to confession, relating how he has himself grown in humble thanksgiving for the goodness and kindness of our Lord and for the increase in friendship with our Lord, and how he, as a priest, wants everyone to know our Lord just so very personally, well then, you know that such a priest is very probably an excellent confessor, perhaps a lion in the pulpit, but surely a lamb in the confessional.

In the same way, you can pretty much tell an exorcist by the kind of assistants he chooses. I’ve met just way too many exorcists or “deliverance persons” with their “power teams” and “core groups” of “specially gifted people.” Blech. Exorcism is not about power, being included or being special. It is about the further establishment of the Kingdom of God by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is between Jesus and Satan, not about special talents put in a power move against Satan. This is about obedience to the authority of the Church through the exorcist expressly, personally mandated by the bishop.

The best assistants are those who are utterly boring as far as special talents are concerned. They don’t get excited or enthralled that they are going to be assisting at any exorcism. They are not the kind who will be talking about it afterward. They will respect the privacy of the individuals concerned and be there to pray and otherwise assist. They might fast a bit. That’s it. Pick those whom you note at Eucharistic adoration, but who don’t flaunt their presence for others to see. Pick those who are to be seen in a line for confession. It’s a good idea to pick those who are not in charge of anything because they have an aversion to drawing attention to themselves, but who do volunteer frequently enough for the lowest jobs – health permitting – like cleaning the toilets. It is essential to have those who are balanced, filled with down to earth common sense. Those who have physically suffered a great deal and those who have quietly suffered much injustice can be the most excellent assistants. Suffering is a great school for the otherwise oxymoronically elusive common sense. Those who have suffered much are not likely to assist at an exorcism with superficiality.

By the way, as an exorcist, you must have assistants, always, every time, and this for a number of reasons.

(1) Propriety. Having assistants is not only necessary if minors or women are the subjects of the exorcisms, but for everyone, as all candidates for exorcism can be terribly vulnerable. Fathers: Don’t do an exorcism unless you have a number of balanced, common sense, respectable witnesses. Sometimes, during an exorcism, a person might flail about, however unconscious they are. For their own safety, it’s good for them to be gently restrained, having those of the same sex hold their hands or shoulders or feet. Women for women, men for men. Propriety.

(2) Prayer and fasting. You, as an exorcist, have to fast and pray, but it is wonderful to have assistants who are just normal, good people, who know how to pray and how to fast. If you have such people, instead of those who are showcasing their supposed talents, you will surely see how all present are brought further into humble reverence before our Lord, as He does His work.

Exorcism is not a place for people to showcase their supposed charismatic talents, drawing attention to themselves and imposing their “readings” of the souls of others like watching so many television sets. This is true of the exorcist and the assistants. The discernment of the exorcist is different than considering any supposed “charismatic” input. Judeo-Catholic practice has never recommended “charismatic” discernment, ever. There are reasons for that, such as the unknown provenance of such “readings”. “It has to be the Holy Spirit!” No, it doesn’t. The Holy Spirit is not going to undermine the very different prudential judgment which the exorcist is to have. Really. The Holy Spirit supports His own Church. Really. Surprise. Surprise. The Holy Spirit is not a pet bird that we train to make ourselves look important. Really not. But more on that, please God, in other posts on the proper discernment in all prudential judgment that the exorcist himself is to have.

The purpose of this post is just to say that an exorcist will be well served in choosing utterly boring, non-talented, but prayerful, humble, helpful assistants.

In my younger days, I was a chaplain at the Hudson River Psychiatric Center, a more politically correct name than the one from which it was changed: The New York State Insane Asylum. I think this is where Rose Marie Kennedy (R.I.P.) had her lobotomy done, poor girl. The hospital was doing some pretty horrific downsizing when I was there. It’s set to close up in October 2011. I hope we’re not going to find some of the released-to-the-community patients dead from exposure in the nearby woods down by the Hudson River. This is what happens with the downsizing of such essential facilities. In it’s heyday, there were 9,000 patients and 9,000 staff: 18,000 people, a small self-contained town. They were doing great until some liberal knuckleheads said that having the patients have the joy of getting supplemental therapy by working the farms and powerhouses and laundry of the hospital wasn’t as nicey nice as up-to-date liberals would have things done. Instead of the patients enjoying accomplishments, they now had to stare at the walls. An interesting place, especially the razor-wired facility with quadruple sets of steel doors which the patients could stare at all day and night. In my time as chaplain I had occasion to think about exorcism and psychology / psychiatry.

Skeptics of exorcism have it that psychology and, if there is a doctor in the house, psychiatry, together constitute the answer to everything, including demonic possession, which is then said to be readily explained by multiple personality disorder, schizophrenia, and any number of other possible diagnoses or combinations thereof. However, the presence or lack of presence of such things or others is pretty much irrelevant to whether or not someone is possessed.

The prudence in judgment demanded of the exorcist includes his being as skeptical as he can be without prescinding from the faith. The arrogance of prescinding from the faith is, instead, cynical skepticism, merely self-serving self-righteousness. The exorcist must recommend that an appropriate diagnosis be acquired for someone who is psychologically or psychiatrically ill, or someone who needs to go to an extended rehab for drug addiction or alcoholism.

Moreover, very often people desperately want all their problems to be caused by the devil, so that, in getting an exorcism, they can then be cured of all their problems: a quick and easy fix. However, escapism and exorcisms wrought for no good reason are not going to help anyone, ever.

Also, sometimes, people think they have a psychological need to be victims, and they bring this to an extreme. Perhaps we can think of exorcisms in this past century which were catastrophic failures for the reason that the person wanted to be possessed, but was not. Perhaps the exorcists had their own psychological need to be the saviors in the situation, and fell into the trap of the self-victimized person, thus encouraging such behavior all the more. But these are, perhaps, topics for other posts.

As it is, Judeo-Catholic prudence in these matters has it that although the exorcist will listen to what a person says about himself in regard to being possessed, but that’s about the extent of the importance that should be given to such a report. A possible candidate for exorcism could say he is or is not possessed for a multitude of reasons that no team of psychologists could ever fully explain, so labyrinthine is the lifetime complexity of the human psyche. So… whatever. What a person says in this regard is pretty much irrelevant. One might even listen to how someone belonged to a satanic group which cannibalized people during black Masses or whatever. That’s interesting in a want-to-vomit sort of way, but is not necessarily relevant to whether or not someone is actually possessed.

Does an exorcist have to be psychologist or psychiatrist in order to make distinctions of what is of the devil or not? No. Why not? Because illness of whatever kind, however bizarre, is not that which the exorcist is to base the judgments of his prudence. Discernment is brought to another level. That’s the subject matter of many other posts in the series, please God. Here, I’d just like to make a few general comments.

• The “certainty” that someone is being harrassed by the devil is not perfect, not physically provable, but only adequate. And that’s the jist of the description of perfect in Latin.
• The most that a psychological assessment could provide is that there is no known scientific explanation for the events occuring in such a person’s life. This is same value of what is said by doctors investigating the veracity of any miracle, such as people seeing perfectly with no optic nerves, etc. The only thing that can be said is that the miracle is not explainable.
• It is not necessary to force people to have psychological assessements before doing an exorcism. Some of the criteria for discernment of a true case of possession will otherwise be immediately presented. It depends on the case.
• Some people can be psychologically ill and harassed by Satan at the same time. Satan is not the kind to say that because someone is already suffering a terrible illness that he, Satan, in all his charity[!], will refrain from bothering that person. However, this is precisely what the cynical skeptics have to say about this. Included in this number of cynical skeptics are untold numbers of ecclesiastics, at least in past decades. I think we’re getting over that now. I think we’re moving into a time of a faithfulness which permits a more clear-headed approach. Thinking that Satan is so charitable is simply muddleheaded.
• Being harassed by Satan can exacerbate psychological illnesses, just as any ongoing extremely stressful situation can have an effect on anyone. Those who are psychologically ill are already weak.

Outside of one or two, perhaps three exorcists in France (some years ago), there was no other exorcist who had done or would do an exorcism on anyone for any reason, with the rationalization that all such people were only psychologically ill. There are many aspects of this way of going about things which are tempting to those who have the laziness inherent in the aloofness from suffering of politically correct arrogance. One doesn’t have to bother with the suffering of anyone, farming out these suffering people immediately to others.

I remember a student at the the Pontifical Gregorian University’s psych institute, two students actually, at different times and places, who said that they would never, ever send someone to an exorcist, for such things are fantasy. I asked them if they would rather keep people locked up in a psych ward for the rest of their lives even if their difficulties did not have a provenance in psychological illness. The answer was, “Yes.” Sad, that. Both were Catholic priests.

It’s high time to take care of the unnecessary and very real suffering that people go through. Cynical skeptics couldn’t care less about the very real hellish suffering of real people. They are only concerned about their self-serving ideology of self-righteousness.

Psychology and psychiatry have their place, also with exorcisms, especially is someone is ill and needs to be followed medically during an exorcism. There are plenty of doctors at the top of their field who will assist if asked. And they should be asked, if necessary.

UPDATE: A reader emailed to mention the provenance of the healing of the family tree thing. A priest, along with the name of his book, was named, along with a lay evangelist. This may be it, since the revised edition of the book came out more than twenty years ago. The reasoning seems to be that “God punishes down to the third and fourth generations,” as we read in so many books of the Pentateuch. However, it looks like we missed that bit in Jeremiah the prophet, who speaks of a new covenant. Here’s the translation of the NAB for 31,29-33…

In those days they shall no longer say, “The fathers ate unripe grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge,” but through his own fault only shall anyone die: the teeth of him who eats the unripe grapes shall be set on edge. The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them forth from the land of Egypt; for they broke my covenant and I had to show myself their master, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD. I will place my law within them, and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Lets be clear about a few things, shall we?

• There are no such things as spiritual genes, genetically speaking, right? Right.
• Original sin is shared by way of pro-creation, not imitation, because God is respecting the spiritual decision of Adam for his own body, from which we come, right? Right.
• The visiting the consequences of sin to the third and fourth generations was an analogous reminder of original sin, right? Right.
• The new covenant in our Lord’s blood is the covenant spoken about by Jeremiah, right? Right.
• We don’t want to reject our Lord’s redemption by insisting on the old covenant, do we?  Nope.

Question:

“But aren’t there a lot of negative environmental influences that we can pray away, especially those which come from, like, an old, dead meany bad guy somewhere back in the line of my family tree, you know, the one I like to blame for all the bad stuff that happens to me, physically, emotionally, spiritually, mentally…? “

Answer (in the form of a quick purview of the spiritual life):

The purpose of redemption is not, not, not to be delivered from the just consequences of original sin, such as weakness of mind, weakness of will, emotions all over the place, the fact that we get sick and die, that we suffer rubbish from others… The Lord respects mercy by way of His justice. He takes on what we deserve for sin in justice, death, and has the right in justice to have mercy on us because He’s taken this on while being innocent, being God. I’m sure we’ve all heard the prayer: “For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world” : justice and mercy together.

Progress in the spiritual life is not getting rid of the just consequences of original sin, which provide the backdrop for us to understand the greatness of the intervention of our Incarnate Lord, but rather, progress in the spiritual life is union with our Lord, praising Him for His mercy, which we see all the more clearly when we don’t run from the cross, the effects of sin, original or otherwise, mentioned above, but rather use those consequences of sin to learn how to depend, in all our weakness, on the strength of the Lord. We stay weak in this world. We boast of our weakness to the praise and glory of the Lord. Sound like Saint Paul?

Escaping the cross is at the root of all the new age rubbish that was alive and well in the pop-psychology heyday of the 1970s and 1980s. Can’t we just leave that behind now, as in “Get behind me, Satan?” It’s time now, as always, to look to and follow Jesus as we pick up and carry the cross as He commanded us.

Carrying the cross is Church Triumphalism at its very best. Those who escape the cross, forever trying to save themselves from the justice of mercy, miss out on the glorious rejoicing to be had as we boast of the Lord’s strength in all our weakness.

Also, again, Satan is not an effect of original sin. He’s not an illness. He’s not a stain that can be scrubbed away with praying. Exorcism is simply an aid to strengthen the faith of the oppressed and those who know them. Healing of disease by way of miracle is the same.

I was once in a parish where people would introduce themselves to me by reciting pretty much their entire family tree. Visiting cemeteries to look for relatives, paying others to do research, going so far as to do DNA detective work, many others have also become fascinated with genealogy as well. Fine.

I must admit that I’m a bit cynical when pretty much everyone who does this kind of thing finds out that their family sported only the most heroic of kings and emperors of bygone millennia. I guess there’s one benefit. One can get a coat of arms. I’d rather make my own, as a simple priest. There would be a donkey, a few pigs, a cross, a few other things, with the saying: ἐσπλαγχνίσθη, in Greek. Probably those in my genealogical tree, surely kings and emperors all, would take umbrage with this. Probably I wouldn’t care. But I digress. And I’m probably making genealogists a bit upset. Sorry! My cynicism might just be fed by my childhood. My family moved around a bit, and we kids knew very little extended family, or even grandparents.

I remember first being annoyed with “possessed” or “infested” (what a word!) genealogical trees in the mid-1990s. Ever since, it seems to have become fashionable to be important by holding one’s family tree to be in dire trouble, so that you yourself become the savior of your ancestors by having them delivered or exorcized. So many people would contact the office, saying that their family tree had to be exorcized, or that there had been an attempt to deliver the family tree from the grip of Satan:

“I must surely be possessed by the devil because I heard stories that my great grandfather was possessed and I think that I’m possessed because surely he was possessed and that’s why I think I must be possessed. I hope I did the right thing. I don’t know if I did, but I went to get prayed over at the deliverance prayer group that’s run by a group of women on the other side of town. They invited that new priest there, you know, Father I’ll-Do-Anything-To-Be-Popular, to pray over me as well. And he did, and they did. I don’t feel right after that. Really bad. And I hear noises and stuff, like from the moment they prayed over me until now. I’m scared I did something wrong, and that now I can’t get out of it, and that I’ve been given over to Satan as well. Can you help me?”

Sigh. These poor people. And so many! Who’s misleading them? I mean, is this kind of thing recommended in magazines popular among some groups of charismatics or what? I mean, if anyone knows how this came about, send me an email. I’m afraid I’m always out of the loop on these kinds of things. I guess I have an aversion to all this, and everything associated with it. I don’t go looking for it. Maybe I should. I do see the result.

At any rate, let’s see the logic of possessed genealogical trees: Satan, an independent person, harasses someone once, and is therefore bound to by law, you know, the famous law of genealogical trees (legislated by whom?), bound to harass others in that family for generations to come, bound to do this even if he would like to go after better prey, better targets?

It is to laugh, followed by grief when one sees the trouble people get themselves into. People like to make themselves more important than Satan, who they imagine to be a kind of long living family pet that no one likes but no one can shoo away. With the same inconsistent illogic, they are important because they are bothered by Satan. Oooooo! Aaaaaahh! I’m impressed. Not. I’m being a bit rough here. Whoever came up with such a fantasy is most at fault. I suppose that would be Satan himself. He presents this lie, knowing that he is not bound by any family tree.

Why would Satan get people to think in this way? There are many reasons, not the least of which are outlined above. Pride is a terrible thing. Satan is willing to look like he’s at the beck and call of men in order to have us turn from God. Then he will turn on such as these.

Also, all this distracts people from original sin, which is, by the way, passed along by generation, not just mere imitation, starting not with merely this family or that, but from Adam onward, the full genealogical tree! However, note well: Original sin, while instigated by Satan’s deception of the woman, is not to be equated with Satan’s harassment of mankind. Of course, Satan does have the right to harass man because of Adam’s obedience to Satan instead of to God. Satan’s harassment is a consequence of sin. His harassment spans generations, from the beginning to the end. Today’s widespread denial of the existence of original sin has to be filled up with something, however non-sensical, in this case, personalized evil, Satan, who is his own person, but is not our original sin.

Again, Satan does what he wants, when he wants, to whomever he wants. He is not bound by genealogical trees. God permits this, for God can draw good out of evil. Satan does have a right to harass us because of sin, original and personal, but does not realize, despite his intelligence, and because of his utter lack of wisdom, that God can turn the tables on him with full irony, using such suffering of men to forge great saints. We can make up all the rules for Satan we want, but Satan couldn’t care less about our little rules and mistaken theology.

Let’s be clear about some things:

(A) Deliverance or exorcism of dead people is not possible. Unless dead people are in hell, they are not possessed. If they are in hell, they want to be there. No exorcism will help them out. If they are in heaven, they are not possessed by Satan. Sometimes I think that this possessed genealogy thing is non-Catholics creating a kind of non-sensical purgatory on earth in order to replace the Scriptural purgatory always held by Judeo-Catholic doctrine and life.

Anyway, if those who have died truly are in purgatory – understood in the Judeo-Catholic sense – then we have to know that such souls are holy, filled with sanctifying grace, and have the presence of the Most Holy Trinity within their souls. Having said that, it is probable that such holy souls are bothered by Satan in purgatory:

That the souls in purgatory awaiting heaven are being harassed by Satan would fittingly be part of God’s justice. We have to come to know just how much our Lord did for us so that we will have the joy of thanking Him in heaven. If we were not generous enough in accepting God’s grace in this life, we have to learn in purgatory what a suffering of hell it cost our Lord to redeem us. All hell broke out on Calvary, and our Lord, lifted on high on the Cross, draws us to Himself through this hell, whether we realize it on this earth or not. Again, if we fill our lives with escapism and don’t really come to know these truths in this life, we will have to go through hell in purgatory to know what it is that the Lord has done for us so as to be able to thank Him in heaven. When we are filled with thanksgiving for our Lord in the midst of such hell in purgatory, we go to heaven to pronounce our thanks to Him in person, with great joy, with great thanksgiving, humble thanksgiving. It is better to do this now, when we can grow in charity. Indeed, having become ready to go straight to heaven in this life, we can still grow more in charity, getting many souls out of purgatory, and helping people in the purgatory of this life. Those in the purgatory of the next life are literally helpless, depending on our prayers to speed them along to their joy of humble thanksgiving in heaven. No exorcism is going to help anyone in purgatory, however harassed those holy souls are in such a place. Prayers will help them get out of purgatory. The reason, again, why no exorcism will help, is that this is part of God’s justice… and His great mercy!

(B) Satan may make it look like he is bound by a genealogical tree, but he may have better things to do, other, better targets.

(C) There is no such thing an “infestation” of a spirit. Either he is there or he is not. He is not an illness, a weakness, a contamination. A family tree cannot be infested.

Now, let’s remember, there is another genealogy, that of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. He’s the Son of God and the Son of Mary, but what of those names? There’s Tamar, Rahab, Bathsheba. Yikes! Not to mention various and sundry other sinners. Jesus redeems His genealogy, but does not exorcize it. He had the right in justice to provide forgiveness and grace to those who preceded Him while they lived, but he did not exorcize them. Making a stretch of all the terms, one could say that the incarnation of our Lord, and His redeeming us, and providing the grace of salvation, was like one huge exorcism, but that sort of stretching of words doesn’t mean that even a duly deputed exorcist could possibly exorcize a family tree. No. Even the rebuke of Satan in hell by our Lord on that first Holy Saturday is an exorcism of a person possessed by Satan.

Jesus exorcized some people during His years upon earth. He wants His priests to do the rest, while they depend on His authority. He wants us to know we are a family of faith. Say a prayer for exorcists! Haily Mary…

The Latin language was the vulgar language of Rome, used by scholar, orator, prostitute and the apocalyptic beast. The Roman Church wanted to use the common, vulgar language, making this the sacred language of the Church, that is, the language into which Scripture would be translated (the Vulgate [from vulgar or common]), and in which the Liturgy would be celebrated, including sacramentals like exorcism.

Some decades before the dumbed-down non-translation of the first ICEL attempt to translate the Mass into English some 40 years ago, translations of the rite of exorcism started to appear. They were clearly translated by someone who either did not know Latin very well, or who just wasn’t worried about how precise he was, perhaps because the “translation” was never meant to be used. It was just an indication of what was happening in the Latin text, which surely would be used.

Texts are important inasmuch as they are used to communicate. Different texts communicate differently. One would want to express that which the Church wants to be expressed, especially with something so sensitive as exorcism, no? This would be the primary benefit of using Latin.

The language itself as a language has nothing to offer more than that. “Is using Latin more powerful in exorcisms?” is a question that is raised frequently enough. Very frequently, in fact. No, it’s not more powerful. One shouldn’t use it superstitiously. And, by the way, I don’t care who you are or what schooling you’ve had, the devil is better at Latin than you are. If you use it out of pride, he will make your head spin. Humility in all things.

Even if an excellent translation of the 1614 ritual were to be used, it is not always a good idea to use it, depending on the circumstances of those present. Not all those assisting might have a stomach strong enough to take even hours of these kinds of texts in English being recited, so dramatically evocative are they.

There are parts of the ritual for which you might want to use a translation, even if you laudably recite the rest in Latin. For instance, the litany of saints.

However, for obvious reasons, it would be good to ask the mandated questions to Satan in Latin or in an obscure language you are certain that the possessed person does not understand, and has probably never seen on TV or heard on the radio.