The document is available only to priests and bishops, although the US bishops did also publish Prayers against the Powers of Darkness as a guide for the public.Īccording to Catholic Online, the prayers said by the exorcist include: “I command you, unclean spirit, whoever you are, along with all your minions now attacking this servant of God, by the mysteries of the incarnation, passion, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the descent of the Holy Spirit, by the coming of our Lord for judgment, that you tell me by some sign your name, and the day and hour of your departure. Holy water is sprinkled on the person and the exorcist also places his hands - and they are always the hands of a man, because exorcists are priests, and the Catholic priesthood is all-male - on the person and breathes on them too, to represent the power of the Holy Spirit working on them.Īnother essential and highly dramatic part of the ritual, familiar to people who have watched films such as The Exorcist, is that a cross is presented to the possessed person, with the words: “See the cross of the Lord begone you hostile powers.”Īccording to the guide to exorcism published by the Bishops’ Conference of the United States, the words are: “Finally, the Lord’s Cross is shown to the afflicted person and the sign of the cross is made over him/her demonstrating the power of Christ over the Devil.”Īt one time, the exorcism ritual was conducted only in Latin but given that even priests nowadays are not so familiar with the church’s ancient language, an English version of the ritual was published by the US bishops in 2017. The ritual includes readings from the Bible and a series of prayers are recited. Major exorcisms are considered an extremely serious ritual, are governed by the Catholic Church’s canon law and require the permission of the diocesan bishop. While the Catholic Church mostly carries out these rituals on its own members, anyone can approach the church for help. An exorcism does not take place based solely on the person claiming they possessed. Major exorcisms are performed on those deemed possessed and can take months or longer for the person to be free from possession.Īn exorcism is carried out only after the person afflicted has undergone medical and psychiatric assessments and the church representative decides that the person is possessed. Minor exorcisms, mainly used in baptisms, call for evil spirits to be driven out. There are two kinds: minor and major exorcisms. Within Catholicism, exorcism is a specific form of prayer against the Devil. It continues to play a significant role within Catholicism today. In the first two centuries of Christianity, it was considered a special gift, but after about 250AD the function was entrusted to a special class of clergy called exorcists. There is scriptural evidence for Jesus casting out devils and Luke’s Gospel says that he gave his apostles the power to cast out demons, something then carried on within the early church. Here the Religion Media Centre takes a closer look at the man behind the character portrayed by the Gladiator star, charts the story of exorcism in the Roman Catholic Church and considers how much truth there is in the movie.Īn exorcism is a rite used in the Roman Catholic Church and sometimes by other Christian denominations, to protect a person against the power of the Devil and force Satan to abandon an object, place or person. Part of the appeal, as distributor Sony Pictures puts it, is the notion that the film is “inspired by the actual files of Father Gabriele Amorth, chief exorcist of the Vatican”.Ī quick look at the seriously creepy trailer, however, suggests that while the Oscar-winning Crowe might pull off the accent, this is far from a documentary about the Italian Catholic priest, who died in 2016 aged 91. Hitting cinemas in April and released on DVD and Blu-ray this month, The Pope’s Exorcist has brought in millions of dollars in ticket sales and continues to draw in viewers of the popular horror sub-genre. Movies about exorcisms are nothing new, but when Russell Crowe took on the role of Gabriele Amorth, the horror sub-genre shifted up a gear.
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