The Pope's Failed Exorcism

A report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.  This week’s item is from the National Catholic Reporter, September 22, 2000.  Pope John Paul II performed an impromptu exorcism at the close of his audience September 6^th, but according to Rome’s chief exorcist, the demon was unmoved.  Father Don Gabriel Amore, head of an International Association of Catholic Exorcists, spoke to the Daily Ilmesijeto about the incident.  He said that a 19 year old woman became agitated during the audience attracting the attention of a bishop standing nearby.  When attempts to calm her with a crucifix and a medal of the Virgin Mary failed, the bishop summoned the papal secretary who informed John Paul.  The Pope met with the woman for a half hour, exorcising her and promising to offer mass for her the following morning.  Amore told Ilmesijeto that he had been working with the woman and met with her again the following day.  Her demon, he said, stayed put despite the papal effort.  If you knew how content the devil was, Amore said, he sent the poor girl to sneer at me; your boss was not able to do anything against me.   The September 6^th incident marks, according to Ilmesijeto, the third exorcism performed by John Paul.  The craft of exorcism after a period of dormancy following the 2^nd Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965, appears to be making a comeback in contemporary Catholicism.

Tom:

Dave, this news article has come out, and we will see more of this because a couple of months ago they just had a reissue of the movie, The Exorcist, and of course now they have added a little things to it, and so on, but it’s supposed to be more exciting than ever.  But this business of exorcism. You know, I’ve read a lot of the material that the Catholic Church has issued on that, and it’s been since the 17^th century they’ve had documents stating how a priest was to go about exorcism.  And they have revised that of late, changing the language but not changing the content.  But you find that in their thrust to do this there is a ritual involved, but that’s not the biblical way, is it?

Dave:

Rituals are of no value.  Rituals work in magic and magic, demonic, witch doctors have certain rituals they go through, sacramentalism is related to the rituals.  The idea that a ritual has some spiritual value and power just is contrary both to common sense and to the Word of God.  For example, it’s closely related to scapulars and medals.  I have a scapular that I keep in the Bible to show people, on one end of it, it says, whosoever dies wearing this scapular shall not suffer eternal fire.  Well, two problems, 1) if you believe Christ paid the penalty for your sins, you don’t need a scapular.  2) What kind of a God delivers you from eternal fire because you wear a scapular.  It’s like the fetishes and so forth in the pagan world.  So, a ritual to exorcise demons is the same.  What is this, impress demons?  Are they impressed that you go through some ritual, or does God’s power depend upon you going through some ritual?  Where in the Bible does it say that God’s power can be released by some ritual?  Now you have the same idea with many of the so-called faith teachers, you know, touch my hand, this is a point of contact and even Oral Roberts had people light candles, you know, he lit the red candle while they lit the green candle, and this starts miracles flowing.  What kind of a God releases his power because you go through some ritual?  So we know, first of all, that the ritual isn’t right.  Secondly—

Tom:

Dave, let me just add one thing to that.  When I was doing research on the apparitions, there was a funny, at least interesting aspect with regard to St Bernadette and Our Lady of Lourdes.  She wanted to test to see if this apparition was really true, and so what she did was, when the apparition appeared she tried to douse it with holy water.  Well, the apparition smiled at her and said this is the way to do it.  So the apparition itself reinforced the ritual which is the problem, isn’t it?

Dave:

Right.  There is no such thing as holy water.  You won’t find it in the Bible, when Jesus said to the woman at the well, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again.  The water that I give will be in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life.  You drink of the water that I give, you will never thirst again.  Jesus is not talking about some kind of H2O that has been blessed. He’s talking about spiritual life and power and truth and reality and it does not come about through physical rituals.  But that is the tragedy that people are trusting in this, the medals they wear, the scapulars.  The Pope has worn a scapular since childhood.  God does not honor those things, and you can wave a crucifix at a demon and they will laugh at you.  And you can throw holy water on the apparition, and as you said, it will smile.

Tom:

Unless they are trying to reinforce this idea, this false idea.

Dave:

Well, but of course they are reinforcing it, but throwing holy water that has been blessed isn’t going to frighten a demon, and waving a crucifix isn’t not going to frighten a demon.  No, it’s what happened on that cross, who Jesus Christ is, and so forth it’s like the seven sons of Sceva the Jew.  They came to the demon possessed man and said, In the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches get out!  And the demon said Jesus I know and Paul I know, who are you?  So, the next question is, What is a demon, how did it get in this person and what is the basis of its power and what good will it do to cast it out?  Now we’ve talked about it before, Jesus said, a demon is cast out unless something is put in its place, it wanders through dry places, Christ said, it comes back and it finds its old house, it’s swept and clean and looks pretty nice.  It brings seven demons, worse than itself, they inhabit, and the end of that person is worse than the beginning.  So, just casting out a demon, even if that were actually done, and that is biblical.  Jesus said, Go into all the world and preach the gospel, make disciples, and so forth.  And you are to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and so forth.  And this can be done if it is God’s will.  1) It must be God’s will; it must be God’s time to do this.  2) I believe a person must be willing.  If you cast a demon out of a person who really wants to be demon possessed, they are only going to bring it back in again.  So it’s not the ritual, it’s not the idea of casting out the demons, but what does this person believe?  Jesus said, for example, if you continue in my Word, then you are my disciples, you will know the truth, the truth will set you free.  So a person is really set free by the truth, it’s the truth of God that destroys the lie of Satan and then sets a person free.  It’s not some ritual, but the Catholic Church is not involved in that truth at all, they just have a ritual.

Tom:

Right, and evangelicals for their part, I’m thinking of individual who go around the country setting up their seminars and how to deliver people from demons, and they are just as much at fault or in error as the Roman Catholic Church in this.

Dave:

Well, I would have to agree with you on that.  If a demon is really cast out, that’s biblical.  If you’ve got some technique for doing it, or you think you are casting demons out of Christians, and I got the demon of lust cast out of  me last week—I mean, I talk to Christians like this and then I lusted again, that demon must have come back in.  So you can begin to blame the works of the flesh on demons, and that’s not good either.