The Boom in Exorcism in Italy

Father Vincenzo points to a figure on the church wall and says: “Do you see that woman? Evil spirits have possessed her soul. The priests held her hands and feet and opened her mouth. Little demons are coming out of her body. She will be freed from their evil.”

Father Vincenzo is 79 years old. As he describes it, he has been performing exorcisms for 27 years—driving out malevolent spirits from people’s bodies according to Catholic tradition.

He says he got involved in this work by accident. Another priest who was performing exorcisms asked him for help. He says: “I had no idea what I was doing, I had never studied it. He taught me what to do. I was completely ignorant.”

Many years have passed since that day. He is now one of Rome’s most renowned exorcists. He is busy. Finding younger priests to help him is not easy.

Father Vincenzo performs exorcisms three days a week in a windowless room behind his church. The church is near the Vatican. Sometimes he sees 30 people in a single day.

He says: “I tell people who want to come that they should first go to a psychologist or psychiatrist and bring me a professional diagnosis. I also stay in contact personally with the psychologists who send me their patients.”

One side of the room has a shelf filled with small statues of various angels—perhaps hundreds of them. In a drawer of the shelf he keeps candy and offers it to visitors. On the wall there is also a framed certificate confirming that Vincenzo Taraborrelli knows how to perform exorcisms.

On the priest’s desk are papers, photographs, and prayer books. There are two ordinary chairs behind and beside the desk—one for him and one for the visitor.

He describes the steps of his work to me: “First I prepare the room. If the person who comes is in bad condition, I try to calm them. We pray together. But it often happens that when they arrive here they are in very poor condition.”

Father glances at a book he has picked up—it is the Catholic Church’s book of exorcism prayers. The back is taped so it doesn’t fall apart. Among the papers on his desk lies a crucifix that he uses to drive out evil spirits.

He has many memories. He tells the story of a man and woman whose problem lasted 13 years.

“The man was a Satan worshipper. He had fallen in love with the woman. The woman said no. The man said ‘You will see what happens to her.’ Then he cursed her twice a week so that she would be drawn to him. Eventually they came to me, in this very room. As soon as I started praying, the woman went into convulsions. Then she started cursing and blaspheming. I realized the devil had possessed her body. I continued praying. The worse her condition became, the more we proceeded, so that when I said to the devil ‘In the name of Jesus, I command you to leave,’ the woman vomited up—needles and hair and small stones and wood chips. It seems unreal, doesn’t it? But it is completely real.”

Exorcism—and essentially the possession of a human body by Satan—is an accepted concept in the Catholic Church.

Sometimes criminal behavior is even explained by it, such as the attack on Father Jacques Hamel, an 85-year-old French priest, in July. Two killers who claimed to be affiliated with ISIS entered Father Jacques’s church in the city of Rouen, France and killed him with knife wounds. The elderly priest, during the attackers’ assault, said “Satan, go away!”—which suggests he believed the work was the devil’s doing.

But there are many who do not accept the discussion of evil spirits and Satan’s possession of human bodies at all. They say it is medieval superstition, it is a myth. And someone who claims that evil spirits have possessed their soul actually has a mental illness that is easily explained by modern science.

But Father Vincenzo rejects such doubts.

He says: “Someone who does not believe will not accept Satan either. But someone who has faith knows that Satan exists. It is written in the Holy Book. Moreover, look around you. The world has never been this bad. These acts of violence that we see every day are not the work of mankind. It is horrifying. Take ISIS for example.”

Father’s cell phone rings constantly. It does not seem that he intended to—or is able to—give up his work.

But young priests are less inclined to take up exorcism. Hours in a windowless room, and praying for demon-possessed believers, is not an appealing job.

Father Vincenzo says: “I told our bishop that no one is willing to help. Most of them are afraid. Even priests are afraid. It is not easy work.”

Source: BBC