Exorcism in the Catholic Church
According to the Vatican guidelines issued in 1999, “the person who claims to be possessed must be evaluated by doctors to rule out a mental or physical illness.” Most reported cases do not require an exorcism because twentieth-century Catholic officials regard genuine demonic possession as an extremely rare phenomenon that is easily confounded with natural mental disturbances. Despite that fact, every diocese is required to have at least one priest that is an exorcist, or is trained to perform exorcisms (17). As the demand for exorcisms has increased over the past few decades, the number of trained exorcists has also risen. In prior times, exorcists were kept fairly anonymous, and the performance of exorcisms remained a secret. Some exorcists attribute the rise in demand of exorcisms to the rise in drug abuse and violence, which leads to the suggestion that such things might work hand in hand. Many times a person just needs spiritual or medical help, especially if drugs or other addictions are present. The specially trained priest and medical professionals will be able to work together to address the patient, and be able to determine what type of illness the patient is suffering from. After the need of the person has been determined then the appropriate help will be met. In the circumstance of spiritual help, prayers may be offered, or the laying on of hands or a counseling session may be prescribed. The exorcist might not perform an exorcism if he does not know the person.
When the Lights Went Out
Len and his friend, convince the local priest to perform an exorcism on their house, he refused to do it in the beginning, citing lack of permission from the church and that he will be removed from his priesthood for going against the order of the church. Len and his friend then blackmail the priest into performing the exorcism by showing him photos of the priest engaging in illicit affair with his housekeeper. Len threatened the priest that they will release the photos into public if he refused to help the family. The release of photos would have lead to the priest's dismissal. The priest then agrees to do the exorcism and takes them to the church to prepare the articles he needed to do the exorcism. The priest told them that the monk while he was alive, preyed on the young uneducated girls in the neighbourhood and cut off their tongue so that they could not expose him. He killed the young girl as she was educated and could have exposed his deeds by writing about it. After the incident the monk was secretly tried and hanged and buried in secrecy in order to save the honour of the church. After hearing the story from the priest, the three of them proceed to his house, where they start chanting biblical quotes. The spirit, protests their chantings by throwing household items on the trio. After some efforts the priest manages to drive the spirit out of their house.