ONE EXORCIST S EXPERIENCE by Sergius Wroblewski, OFM Exorcist in Johannesburg diocese

Transcription

1 101 ONE EXORCIST S EXPERIENCE Exorcist in Johannesburg diocese Introduction I ve been asked to narrate my experiences as an exorcist in the Diocese of Johannesburg. I ve been in this ministry since 1988 at the Bishop s request. I spent the next dozen years or so learning to perform this ministry effectively with so-so results.. What have I learned in the course of little more than a decade? I. Anyone undertaking this ministry of exorcism must see it in the context of God s plan. Without that perspective the ministry appears to be separated from pastoral care. What is this plan of God which Paul called the mystery --hidden? God s plan was succinctly expressed by St. Paul in Ephesians: to bring all things in the heavens and on the earth into One under Christ s headship. (Eph 1:9) The centerpiece of the plan is God s own Son sent into the world by the Father through the Incarnation in order to achieve the world s redemption. It was precisely this plan that met with deadly opposition from some of the angels with Lucifer as its leader. (There is no biblical account of this rebellion; only allusions to this revolt). According to Suarez, the fall of the angels was due to jealousy and envy, triggered by the Incarnation. Lucifer and those who followed him knew they would have to adore the God-man according to the divine plan, and they refused to have any part in it. The centrality of Christ the Incarnation was and is the casus belli. Christ is the center of the universe. Everything was created for Him (Col 1:17-19). He is the Light, whom the powers of darkness hate and they try to draw all people into their own realm of darkness. Ever since apostolic times the Church has exercised the power she received from Christ to cast out demons and demonic

2 102 influence (Ac 5,6). Vatican II observed, a monumental struggle against the powers of darkness pervades the whole history of man. The battle was joined from the very origins of the world (GS 37) St. Paul expressed the same thought, Our battle is not against human forces but against principalities and powers, the rulers of the world of darkness (Eph 6,12). All this means that the ministry of exorcism should be taken seriously, as an integral part of pastoral care. There was only one Pope to my knowledge who took this to heart, Pius VII Napoleon s prisoner. He was an exorcist and continued the ministry even as Pope, because, as he explained, the starting point of pastoral care is exorcism (He had in mind baptism). As yet, we do not treat exorcism as a normal practise of pastoral care. The exorcist is generally regarded as odd, a little crazy. To look down upon this ministry is to forget that it was pre-eminent in Christ s public ministry. The second thing I learned was that demons are behind all occult activity; they have made it a religion in competition with christianity Whether it s witchcraft, black magic, white magic, tarot cards, ouija board, fortune telling, palm reading, crystals, horoscopes, --all these are the demonic tools, intended to distract and divert from Christ and His Church. As we know, Deut. 18 warns against all the above precisely because they are sacraments of demonic influence. influence: They must never be anyone among you...who practises divination, who is a soothsayer, augur or sorcerer, weaver of spells, consultor of ghosts or mediums or necromancer...for anyone who does these things is detestable to Yahweh your God(Dt 18:10-12). Because in all this activity demons are the invisible agents to enslave as many as possible and enlist them in the Kingdom of darkness.

3 103 The most serious problem in Africa on this score is communication with the deceased. Here we have a traditional cosmology that is very different from the biblical. Is communication with the deceased, with the spirits of the deceased or with demons representing them? The biblical teaching is different from the traditional. My concern here is not with the whole subject of ancestors, but only with one aspect of it because it has a bearing on exorcism, namely: when someone claims to have been in contact with the deceased (ancestors) does that happen directly with the deceased or through the agency of a spirit (good angel or fallen (demons)? According to African tradition, ancestors are believed to have survived death. So far so good. The majority of spirits are thought by most people to be the spirits of deceased human beings.--traditionally called ancestors ancestral spirits dead ancestors or the Living-Dead (recently deceased ancestors). Many however believe in spirits which are not ghosts of former human beings; they are spirits that bring disease, the plague, they are spirits of mighty forces of nature. Ancestral ghosts are held to be beneficent as long as they receive the attentions they need. All the living-dead good and bad live together in the world of spirits. Sometimes the spirits of the deceased enter into people and possess them; they enter individuals and use them as mediums of communication with the living. Usually ancestral spirits commune with the living through dreams. A diviner is consulted when the living dead reveals himself through dream (Gehman 2000: ). Spiritualism which is about communicating with the dead (souls of ancestors) is practised among all peoples. Is it truly impossible to evoke the dead? Is it always and only demons who appear in seances? The only occurrence in the Bible is Saul s use of a medium to bring up for him the soul of Samuel. I follow Amorth who clearly states that there are no good spirits other than angels; and no evil spirits other than demons. The souls of the dead who are present during seances or the souls of the dead who are present in living bodies are none other than demons. Amorth, however, after taking this position admits that this subject

4 104 is still full of the unknown and encourages more research (Amorth 1999: 30-31). What convinces me that I m dealing with demons when a person tells me that deceased appeared in a dream, is that only spirits (angels and demons) can manipulate psychic phenomena and produce psychic states like a dream. You have an instance of a good angel doing that in St. Joseph s case (Mt 1:21). Spirits, good or bad, after all, have been around before creation of this universe (some say, that creation of the angels and of the universe was simultaneous) and have been involved, not in its creation but in its unfolding from the time of the Big Bang. The angels have had and do have a cosmic function. And they have the knowledge and capacity to manipulate the human psyche and organs, but the souls of the deceased do not. Moreover, the deceased, according to Revelation, are limited to a state or space (hell, purgatory, heaven). An exorcist has to be clear about this. Again, the biblical teaching from popular belief. The third thing I learned is that there are various dimensions of demonic influence. I distinguish three such aspects. First, local infestation. People speak of haunted houses in which occur sounds and noises, the sound of footsteps, groans, unpleasant odors, gusts of cold air and appearances of ghostly figures. I have dealt with quite a few haunted houses Usually, it s a house where a suicide occurred or murder and where witchcraft was practised. Innocent people may move into such a house and find themselves quite disturbed. The Church s ritual has no exorcism for haunted houses. I usually command demons to leave and then bless the house. The second aspect is personal infestation. The person experiences violent and tenacious temptations, provocative embraces, disturbances in the heart or stomach, seizures of anger, diabolical nightmares, etc. Even devout persons may suffer such turmoil or distress. E.g. St. Paul 2 Cor 12,7. Padre Pio, John Vianney, etc. Usually, persons living in grave sin such as abortion, or indiscriminate sex, etc. may be assaulted in this way by demons. I deal mostly with local and personal infestation, which I consider

5 105 partial possession. The third is possession. This is the presence of the demon in the human body which is used as an instrument of the demon. The demon may take full possession of the body, speak or act through it without the victim s knowledge or consent. There may be one or many demons. The possession may be occasional or permanent. Possession is rare. Amorth claims that in nine years time he had performed 30,000 exorcisms and only 93 were actually possessed. How do people fall prey to satanic activity? The most common situation goes something like this. The person has an illness that won t go away; doctors can do nothing. They turn to a healer who tells them that someone,put a spell on them. He/she offers to cure them but for a substantial sum of money. They experience some improvement but in the long run the illness persists. Finally they may go to an exorcist, but by that time the person s susceptibility to demonic activity is aggravated. The second situation is association with occult groups or practises. Participation in seances, recourse to sorcerers such as sangomas or fortune tellers or playing the ouija board game exposes the person to demonic influence. The third situation has to do with teenagers who come from dysfunctional families. I recall a 16 year old girl who had telepathic power to which she was introduced by a satanic group at school. Her parents divorced; the father married another. And the girl found herself unwanted by her biological mother and the step-mother. She started to look for support and power and found it in the demonic. When such persons come to me, having been referred to me by a parish priest or the diocesan office or a friend or relative, this is the procedure I follow. First I meet with the troubled person who may be accompanied by a parent or spouse or friend, I have a long private interview with the person and its purpose is diagnosis: to determine as much as possible whether the person has a pathological condition or experiences demonic activity. If it s clear that the person has an emotional problem I refer him/her to a psychotherapist. In

6 106 one week recently I had four such cases. Each one claimed to be harassed by a demon, when in fact it was not so. Like the young lady who kept saying I m lost. Her mother was certain that an exorcism was in order. But I found nothing to indicate that. Or like the married man in his 30's who literally went berserk after taking the drug they call ecstasy. He was unable to shake off the side effects. He did go to a doctor but did not mention that he took the drug. I urged him to go back to the doctor and tell him about the drug. What signs of demonic presence does one look for? First I ask if the person had been to a medical doctor and what he/she found. Then I ask what has been happening and when did it start and what triggered it off. If there are signs such as voices, apparitions, levitation, negative reaction to signs, symbols and sight of religious objects, places, ceremonies, inexplicable stench, freezing temperatures, telepathic powers, speaking in tongues, extraordinary strength, the revelation of the unknown, then I try to ascertain how all this began. If there are sufficient signs at least for personal infestation or oppression, I will go through the Rite of Exorcism even though there is no possession in the strict sense. Like Amorth who was an full-time exorcist at Rome for 50 years, I use the Rite whenever demonic activity is apparent. The purpose of an exorcism is two-fold: first, diagnostic. By that I mean that I use the Rite to discern the presence of the demon. Demons try to disguise themselves. And according to Amorth it is only through an exorcism itself that one can determine with certainty that the source of the activity is demonic. A sangoma who had abandoned that way of life and service was still troubled by a strange illness. That was some kind of indication that the illness had a demonic source. When the exorcism started she fell to the floor writhing, then it became certain that a demon(s) were in her. On that occasion only some came out but not all. Even a few and uncertain signs are sufficient to proceed with exorcism. The Ritual never harmed anyone, Amorth wrote. At times I am perplexed, uncertain. I recall a 17year old girl, and mentally

7 107 handicapped seemed troubled. She could not articulate her condition and that made it difficult to arrive at certainty. But during the exorcism the demon became violent and eventually left her. The second purpose of exorcism is healing the patient by freeing him/her from demonic influences. But that can be a long journey. A young lady came to me with a horrific story about what happened to her. She had renounced christianity at the age of 13. Was living with a man without benefit of marriage... had no faith in Jesus. But one day in the presence of her boyfriend an invisible hand seized her by the throat and raise her up and threw her to the floor some distance. The boyfriend was baffled and helpless. I exorcised her and the exorcism certainly caused great agitation but the demon would not leave. The young lady needs to give up sin and grow in faith. And that will take time. The cooperation of a possessed person is necessary. Instances of rapid healing are rare. Now something about the Revised Ritual which was published in When I began this ministry in 88, there was no Rite of Exorcism in the Ritual put out by the Vatican. I told the Bishop and he advised me to write to the appropriate dicastery. A month later I received through the Bishop an experimental Rite with an introductory treatise on the existence of devils! In 1999 a revised one came out, and it took some doing to get one. What does the Rite comprise: Use of holy water - litany of all saints - Psalm (90) 91 - Gospel reading - laying on of hands - Renewal of the Baptismal promises - Our Father - precative formula in which God is entreated - imperative formula in which demon is adjured to leave-- A Thanksgiving prayer if the demons were cast out. According to the introduction to the Revised rite, there are stipulations for the proper performance of the Rite. An exorcism is reserved to the Bishop or to his delegated agent who must be a priest. It is a sacramental and guarantees the intercession of the Church. Before using it, the exorcist must investigate whether the

8 108 victim s claim to be tormented by a demon is really true. He must correctly distinguish cases of devilish attacks. People are credulous and imagine themselves victims of evil doing, of bad luck or of a curse brought upon them by others. The exorcist should not proceed to celebrate the rite of exorcism unless he has discovered to his moral certainty that the one to be exorcised is in actual fact possessed by demonic power. In cases involving one who is not a catholic, the matter is to be referred to the diocesan bishop. Bishops generally speaking do not appoint an exorcist for the diocese. Evidently, it is not regarded as an integral part of pastoral care. And yet, we live in the age of the diabolical and are experiencing what John wrote in his first letter, The whole world lies under the power of the evil one (1 Jn 5,19). Exorcists are needed because the possessed and the oppressed by demons suffer loss of humanness which impedes moral growth, that is, becoming more like Christ. The exorcist is involved in the battle for the person s humanness and sanctification. Conclusion I work mostly with the partially possessed who rarely get priestly help; They are usually taken to doctors or psychotherapists. I confess that I do not enjoy this ministry. Everytime I have to deal with a persons so afflicted --and that happens nowadays like twice a week on the average I do so out of a sense of duty. It s a nasty, murky and ambiguous business. For you encounter the invisible, and that s like working in the dark, with little to show for it. But Pope Paul VI once said, that demons exert influence on individual persons as well as on communities; that they seek the destruction of human society, beginning with family and nations. There s a war out there, trench warfare we used to say, and somebody has to do it. Is there need of an exorcist in view of the fact that there are so many charismatic groups holding deliverance services? What should the relation be between the exorcist and charismatic groups performing deliverance services? What kind of preparation do those engaged in

9 109 deliverance ministry need?

10 110 BIBLIOGRAPHY Amorth, Gabrielle An Exorcist tells his Story. San Francisco: Ignatius Press. Amorth, Gabrielle Nowe Wyznania Egzorcyscy. Czestochowa, Poland: Edycja Sw. Pawla. Amorth, Gabrielle Egzorcysci i Psychiatrzy. Czestochowa, Poland: Edycja Sw. Pawla. Balducci, Corrado The Devil. New York: Alba House. Gehman, Richard J African Traditional Religion in Biblical Perspective. Nairobi: East African Educational Publications. Hastings, Adrian African Catholocism. London: SCM Press Martin, Malachi Hostage to the Devil: the Possession and Exorcism of Five Living Americans.N. Y.: Reader s Digest Press. Mbiti, John S Introduction to African Religion. Nairobi: East African Educational Publishers Ltd. McDowell, Josh and Stewart, Don Okkultyzm. Lublin, Poland: Pojednanie. Parrinder, E.G African Traditional Religion. London: Sheldon Press. Steffan, Jeffrey J Satanizm Jako Ucieczka w Absurd. Cracow, Poland: WAM Jesuit publication.