Rite and Reason: Exorcism, like limbo, should be consigned forever to the dustbin of history, writes Fr James Good
Up to quite recently most people would have acclaimed Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code as one of the great hoaxes of our time. Now it seems that we have a revival of a rival: exorcism.
We all remember the 70s film The Exorcist and now, apparently, we have a repeat of sorts in a more recent film, The Exorcism of Emily Rose. It is the story of a German girl who, supposed to be possessed, was exorcised by two priests. After her death the two exorcists and her parents were convicted in connection with her death. Quite rightly, I believe.
And here in Ireland, over recent months, we have had high-profile exorcists making the news in the media.
Over 30 years ago, on November 15th, 1974, I wrote an article in The Irish Times on exorcism, pointing out that the Catholic Church seemed at long last to be bringing a little common sense to the area.
The church abolished the Order of Exorcist in 1972. (I wonder did that undo my ordination as an exorcist in 1946?) Around the same time it cancelled the dreadful exorcism which formed part of the rite of baptism. Imagine parents of today hearing (no longer in Latin) the form of exorcism used on their new-born baby:
"I exorcise you, unclean spirit...Come forth, depart from this servant of God...accursed Devil, acknowledge your condemnation...You, O Devil, depart: for the judgment of God has come..."
We can thank God that our generation has seen the last of that barbaric rite, along with the equally barbaric ritual of "churching" a woman after the birth of a baby - the theory being that she had to be "purified" after the event.
The card authorising a mother to be churched contained only one Latin word - purificetur - "let her be purified. Churching, like limbo, is gone forever to the dustbin of history.
I wish we could say the same for exorcism. We believe today that human personality is incommunicable - that it cannot be shared or "possessed" by any other being, whether human, demonic, or even by God himself. Psychiatry has made, and continues to make, great strides in identifying many forms of mental illness which in former times would have been labelled demonic possession.
My own 24 years in Africa may be of interest here. I can claim to have been in some of the most remote parts of so-called "darkest Africa" - possibly the first priest to have visited them - and I never met anything to suggest demonic possession.
In fact in 57 years of priesthood, my only brushes with the supposed "preternatural" occurred at midnight in the Lough church in Cork. In the first case I walked across the sanctuary in the dark and literally fell over a coffin. (I fled).
On the other and similar occasion, I heard ghostly footsteps approaching up the centre of the church. After an initial temptation to run, I confronted the "footsteps" and found that they belonged to an over-pious individual who had locked himself into a confessional in the hope of collecting some old prayer books at his leisure.
One of my prized possessions is a Roman Ritual, printed in 1938, which gives instructions for exorcists and long lists of psalms and prayers to be recited by them. It is difficult to believe that medieval fantasies about demons could have survived for so long into the modern era.
The 21 instructions are childish in their credulity. Among the signs of demonic possession given are the following: the demon may be expected to speak many words in an unknown language, or to understand someone speaking this; to reveal faraway or hidden things; to show strength above the level of his age or condition; other things of this type, when very many occur together, are stronger indications of possession.
Incidentally, the "possessed" person is to be "tied up" (ligatum) if there is danger involved.
The exorcist is then warned of many tricks that the demon may play: he may give false answers to questions asked; he may prove difficult in the hope of tiring the exorcist and thus persuade him to give up; the demon might even take a break and allow the subject to receive Holy Communion to deceive the exorcist into believing the demon had gone.
Rule 19 gives special directions in the case of exorcism of a female, the purpose here being to preserve modesty and avoid giving bad habits to the exorcist or to others who may be present. There is much else along these lines.
May I at this stage say to would-be exorcists out there: "Stop, in God's name. Call in a psychiatrist."
Fr James Good is a retired missionary priest and emeritus professor of theology and lecturer in medical ethics at UCC