Published Saturday, September 30, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News
BY NANCY HAUGHT Religion News Service
Michael W. Cuneo would be happy to answer a few questions about exorcism, but first the Fordham University sociologist wants to know what's going on. He's been out of town and returned to his office to find his answering machine clogged with questions about exorcism.
A surge in demonic possessions? Possibly. More likely it's a surge in media interest sparked by the re-release this week of ``The Exorcist,'' William Friedkin's 1973 film inspired by a real-life exorcism of a 13-year-old boy.
The re-release of the movie comes on the heels of news reports that Pope John Paul II performed an exorcism on a 19-year-old Italian woman earlier this month. The Rev. Gabriele Amorth, official exorcist of the Rome diocese, told Catholic News Service that the pope had spent 30 minutes praying with the woman, whom Amorth has tried to exorcise twice. So far, Amorth said, the woman has experienced only temporary relief from ``a terrible case of demonic possession.''
After years in which the official church didn't speak much about demons, possession or the centuries-old rite of exorcism -- the process of expelling demons from a person, place or thing -- John Paul II has been forthright about the practice. He has publicly denounced the devil as a ``cosmic liar and murderer,'' overseen the first revisions in the church's official rite of exorcism in nearly four centuries, and taken part in exorcisms himself. Now, the re-release of ``The Exorcist'' promises to revive popular interest in the relatively obscure practice and raise concerns about its misuse.
This might explain all the messages on Cuneo's answering machine. Cuneo is emerging as an expert on exorcism in the United States. In the past two years, he has attended about 50 exorcisms, conducted in a variety of circumstances and settings. He witnessed both officially sanctioned and ``underground'' exorcisms conducted by Catholics and Protestants. Earlier this month, he delivered a manuscript containing his findings to Doubleday, which plans to publish ``American Exorcism'' in fall 2001.
``I did not see any spinning heads or levitating bodies,'' Cuneo said. ``But there were times when I was the only person in the room who didn't see these things.'' Pressed for details, he refused to elaborate. No trespassing on his book, he insisted. But he's more than happy to talk about ``The Exorcist.''
Cuneo expects the film to increase popular demand for exorcisms, just as it did the first time it hit movie theaters. But he sees no reliable way to measure that demand.
``The kind of exorcism in hottest demand is an official Catholic one,'' he said, ``but they are hard to get.'' Most dioceses do not have designated exorcists, and church law requires an extensive investigation before a bishop can authorize an exorcism.
Underground industry
The result, Cuneo says, is a growing demand for unofficial, or underground, exorcisms. ``It's impossible to know precisely how many have been performed.''
In a new introduction to his 1976 book, ``Hostage to the Devil,'' Malachi Martin estimates the number of exorcisms performed rose 750 percent from the early 1960s to the middle 1970s. In the 1990s, the late Jesuit scholar wrote, 800 to 1,300 major exorcisms were performed each year, along with thousands of minor exorcisms. Martin did not distinguish between official and unofficial exorcisms.
``In North America and Europe, the official rite of exorcism is uncommon,'' said the Rev. Richard Berg, a priest who is pastor of Downtown Chapel in Portland, Ore., and a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Portland.
He differentiates between formal exorcism and ``deliverance ministry.'' The latter involves praying for protection and safety of people from evil spirits and is common, especially among charismatic groups, he said.
``Before anyone would qualify for an exorcism, it would be mandatory to rule out physical and emotional or mental causes of the problems,'' he said.
In 95 percent of cases, Berg said, the problems prove to be the result of an illness or environmental factors.
``I had a case where some people were having their house haunted,'' he said. ``When they prayed, the house was filled with scary noises. We had a contractor check the house, and it turned out to be that the problem was focused where the cold water comes into the hot water system.''
In January 1999, the Vatican released the first revisions in the rite of exorcism since 1614. The new rite stresses that evil is a powerful reality but warns exorcists not to mistake psychiatric illness for demonic possession.
It is a warning the Rev. Joseph Mahoney hopes all priests will heed. Mahoney, a chaplain of the Archdiocese of Detroit, admits there may be times when exorcism is warranted. But he worries that, to the inexperienced eye, symptoms of mental illness might look like demonic possession.
``Things that are not considered `an ordinary part of human life' or `part of the natural order' may simply be outside the experience of the evaluator,'' Mahoney said.
By DAVID VAN BIEMA
The story hangs on the testimony of an interested party. But according to Father Gabriele Amorth, exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, the heir to the throne of St. Peter recently spent half an hour struggling-literally-with a demon from hell. Pope John Paul III was conducting his regular Wednesday audience on Sept. 6 when there was reportedly a disturbance in the front row. A 19-year-old woman began screaming insults in what Italian newspapers called "a cavernous voice." Struggling with guards, she displayed "a superhuman strength." The frail Pontiff did not hesitate. After the apparent demoniac was hurried to a secluded area, he prayed over her, hugged her and promised to celebrate a Mass for her the next day.
The possessed woman is one of Amorth's tougher patients (he says he didn't witness the incident but was told about it later); and the Pope, he claims, had no better luck in dislodging the demon. After the Pontiff left, a voice was heard to speak through her: "Not even [the] head {of the church] can send me away." Odd as the story may sound, it is the third reported instance of john Paul's attempting to cast out a demon (the others took place in 1978 and 1982). At a time when official exorcists are being added by several American dioceses, it suggests a remarkable comeback for an all-but-abandoned church rite. As if to illustrate the trend, the 1973 film Tie. Exorcist has just been rereleased in theaters.
Most religions acknowledge that humans can be possessed by what exorcism chronicler Malachi Martin called "personal and intelligent evil." and most prescribe measures to win back the victim. Jesus cast out demons on six occasions; a transdenominational echo of the rite is found in Christian godparents' promise that their godchild will renounce the devil and all his works and ways. For centuries every Roman Catholic priest's ordination included an explicit introduction into the Order of the Exorcist.
In 1972, however, that order (although not the job) was eliminated. A century of Freudian psychology and medical progress was harsh on exorcism. Conditions previously thought diabolical, such as Tourette's syndrome, proved medically treatable. In the wake of Vatican II, many American Catholics "wanted to restrict things to only a scientific way of knowing" and shied away from the rite's supernatural literalism, says the Rev. Kazimierz Kowalski, an exorcist in Manhattan. Notes the Rev. James LeBar, who took up the work in 1989: "The whole thing kind of went down to embers: "
But there are sparks of life once again. In 1991 LeBar and some underemployed colleagues performed a television exorcism on ABC's 20/20. So many viewers called in to request similar aid that the late John Cardinal O'Connor of New York appointed four archdiocesan exorcists. In an average year, they investigate some 350 cases and perform 10 to 15 exorcisms. Last year Chicago's Francis Cardinal George appointed the first official exorcist in his diocese's I60 year history.
Several months earlier, the Vatican had revised the Rite of Exorcism. It eliminated physical descriptions of Satan and such honorifics as the "Father of lies," but it also vigorously affirmed the church's power to banish him using God's name, holy water, the sign of the cross and readings from Scripture. An exorcists' convention in Rome in July attracted 230 participants; LeBar says at least 18 specifically delegated priests now work in the U.S.
Most do other work as well. LeBar is chaplain at a psychiatric hospital and is well aware of the danger of mistaking psychological symptoms for spiritual ones. He calls in a psychiatrist and medical doctor before any exorcism but, he notes, "there comes a point when somebody is climbing up the wall or floating on the ceiling or talking language they've never studied, when it's harder to put it in the `psychological problem' bin." The highest levitation he witnessed, he says, was of a woman who "rose up above pew level and stayed there a little bit and went back down." Some cases of possession, he says, can take decades to resolve.
Many exorcists think their job prospects are looking up because the need has grown. The culture's lack of a moral anchor, its acceptance of abortion and an increased flirtation with paganism, says Kowalski, can lead the susceptible to "put themselves proximate to darkness." Many exorcists praise The Exorcist for its realism. Kowalski, for one, is looking forward to seeing the movie, which has been reedited to add 11 min. of footage. "How could I not go," he asks, "and root for the home team?
-with reporting by Greg Burke/Rome