Exorcism

National Catholic Reporter, Sept 1, 2000 by John L. Jr. Allen

Ancient ministry attracts new practitioners

At 73, Rome's Fr. Gabriele Amorth, bald and with a face whose deep crevices suggest wisdom, looks a bit like Yoda, the diminutive sage who trained Luke Skywalker to be a Jedi Knight in the popular "Star Wars" trilogy. Amorth, too, is keeper of an ancient craft in a cosmic battle against evil.

Amorth's apprentices, however, wield prayer books and holy water rather than light sabers. "Don Gabriele," as the priest is known in Rome, is the official exorcist for the pope's diocese, and the leading apostle for what he and others say is a revival in the practice of exorcism in the Western church.

The resurgence was evident at a weeklong mid-July conference in Rome of the International Association of Exorcists, a group Amorth cofounded in 1993. Their first meeting seven years ago brought together just six Catholic exorcists. This summer more than 200 exorcists and their lay assistants showed up from all parts of the globe.

"When I started this work, I could name most of the other official exorcists in the Western church on my hands," said Fr. Rufus Perea, a priest and exorcist of the Bombay, India, archdiocese who travels the globe healing and praying over people for deliverance from demons. "Now there are hundreds of us."

The conference was off-limits to journalists, but several participants agreed to sit down afterward with NCR. The conversations provided a rare glimpse under this corner of the church's big tent.

The practice of exorcism reaches deep into Catholic tradition. The word comes from a Greek term meaning "to pray or ask deeply," and originally it had nothing to do with expelling demons. Jesus himself is "exorcised" twice in the New Testament, once by the high priest (Matthew 26:63) and once by the Gerasene demoniac (Luke 8:26-40). Both urge him to do something using the Greek word exorkizo. In the early Christian church, however, this term came to mean the practice of casting out evil spirits. The practice has waxed and waned throughout Christian history. (See accompanying stories, "A bit of exorcist history" and "Revised rite.")

Polls show that surprising numbers of people remain open to the practice. A 1999 Atlanta Journal-Constitution survey concluded that almost 50 percent of Americans believe people are sometimes inhabited by the devil.

Fr. James Moroney, chief liturgist for the U.S. bishops' conference, told NCR it is impossible to verify whether there has been growth in the number of exorcists in the United States, since the church does not track how many exorcists local bishops appoint.

Team handled 25 cases last

The most renowned American exorcist, Fr. James LaBar of the New York archdiocese, believes the movement is gathering steam. LaBar, appointed by the late Cardinal John J. O'Connor of New York, is part of a five-person team from that archdiocese that travels the country responding to exorcism requests. The group handled more than 25 cases last year.

"People know Cardinal O'Connor has exorcists, and so they call and we go," LaBar said on a 1999 radio program. LaBar, who was unavailable for comment for this article, first came to prominence in 1991, when he took part in a Palm Beach, Fla., exorcism that was videotaped and later broadcast on ABC's "20/20."

LaBar said last year that his caseload is heavy in part because so few other American bishops have named exorcists. "Today if there are a half-dozen dioceses that have an officially appointed exorcist that would be a lot," he said. "There's a growing demand, and we don't have the manpower to meet it."

Rome's Amorth told NCR that when he began working as an exorcist in 1986, there were fewer than 20 official exorcists in Italy. Now, he said, there are more than 300 in the country. Fueling the growth, observers here said, are two broad trends. The first is a rebirth of traditional forms of belief and devotion within Catholicism inspired by John Paul's papacy. The other is the Catholic charismatic movement.

Perea, whose background is in the charismatic movement, told NCR that the two impulses generally reinforce each other, but there are tensions.

The first meeting of exorcists in 1990, he said, was composed almost entirely of traditional exorcists wary of lay collaboration. "They didn't want to hear about any lay people practicing the ministry of deliverance," he said, "especially enthusiasts coming out of the charismatic renewal."

Perea pushed for expanded lay involvement and for a detente between the traditional exorcists and the charismatics. Today he heads a companion association, in partnership with the exorcists' group, for priests and lay people who lack an official commission from a bishop but who nevertheless offer informal prayers for deliverance.

Such practices cause some uneasiness in official circles. A 1985 letter to bishops from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith specifies, that certain functions that are part of the exorcism rite are restristricted to priests. Those include ordering the demon out or inquiring about its identity.