Catholic exorcists complain they face long lines of possessed people
- A Vatican-approved religious university in Rome held an exorcism
course with 120 participants.
- They said they needed more help distinguishing being possessed
from mental illness, per The Times.
- Pope Francis has given speeches about helping "those possessed
by evil," the report said.
A survey from a Vatican-approved religious university in Rome found
that Catholic exorcists feel overworked and undersupported by
bishops, according to The Times of London (
https://bit.ly/3MjbkSX).
Italian exorcists spoke to researchers at Regina Apostolorum's 16th
annual exorcism course in Rome, attended by 120 participants, The
Times reported.
The course attracted a significant crowd thanks to Pope Francis's
support of exorcism, the paper said. He has previously spoken about
helping those who are "possessed by evil," per The Times, and made
exorcism an official Catholic practice, according to the Independent.
The conference's exorcists said that they needed more support from
psychologists to determine whether people are mentally unstable
or demonically possessed, The Times reported.
Father Giuseppe Bernardi claimed to have performed a nine-hour
exorcism on a woman who hurled abuse in Latin and assaulted
monks, the newspaper said.
The woman's father thought she was suffering from "a psychiatric
problem," reported the Journal of Vicenza. But the mother, and later
Bernardi, believed she was possessed by a "demonic influence."
Bernardi said he had to seek help from psychologists to determine
whether she was disturbed or possessed but did so without the help
of the church, per The Times.
The lack of support from bishops is a grievance echoed by other
surveyed exorcists, The Times said. They complained about receiving
little help in exorcising the long lines of Catholics claiming satanic
possession.
Participants at the conference claimed that demonic possession could
be recognized by unusual physical strength, vomiting, or a sudden
ability to speak Latin, Hebrew, or Aramaic.
Italy has 290 exorcists, and there were 37 in Spain, the survey
found. "Many of the potentially possessed people they see in Spain
have spent time with New Age, spiritual or meditation groups,"
researchers said. In the UK and Ireland, there were 28 working
exorcists, and in Manila, the Philippines, there was a "dedicated
office and team."
