chology or philosophy, or a very sophisticated personal culture. . . . Though, of course, there are many excep- tions, the usual reasons for a priest’s being chosen are his qualities of moral judgment, personal behavior, and religious beliefs—qualities that are not sophisticated or laboriously acquired, but that somehow seem always to have been an easy and natural part of such a man.
Priests do not become exorcists by choice. They are called to their duty by receiving the chrism of the Holy Spirit, which gives them discernment of demons and their presences. The discernment is of the utmost importance in determining whether or not a person is possessed and whether demonic infl uences such as infestation and op- pression are present. Some demons are skilled at hiding within a possessed person, and an inexperienced exorcist might be tricked into thinking a person is not possessed or the demons have been expelled.
Priests who are new exorcists receive special personal training from more experienced exorcists. They work in teams to discern POSSESSION, perform the EXORCISM
rites, and work with laypersons who assist in the rites. Formal training is offered at the Regina Apostolorum Pontifi cal Athenaenum, a Vatican-affi liated university in Rome. Students learn the differences between posses- sion and psychological and physical traumas and hear lectures by exorcists, medical professionals, priests, so- ciologists, law enforcement representatives, and other experts.
Exorcists must develop profound spiritual and in- ner strength, for they are subjected to demonic attacks designed to interfere in their work or persuade them to leave the work. Some exorcists suffer physical and mental health problems resulting from demonic infl uences and in a few cases may even become possessed themselves. Martin underscored the dangers of exorcism:
Every exorcist must engage in a one-to-one confronta- tion, personal and bitter, with pure evil. Once engaged, the exorcism cannot be called off. There will and must always be a victor and a vanquished. And no matter what the outcome, the contact is in part fatal for the exorcist. He must consent to a dreadful and irreparable pillage of his deepest self. Something dies in him. Some part of his humanness will wither from such close contact with the opposite of all humanness—the essence of evil; and it is rarely if ever revitalized. No return will be made to him for his loss.
In other denominations, ministers sometimes perform exorcisms, and sometimes entire congregations partici- pate in expelling demons, as in Pentecostal churches. In other religions and spiritual traditions and shamanic so- cieties, exorcists are the members of the priestly castes, adepts, and specially trained persons. Members of magi- cal traditions also can be exorcists.
See AMORTH, FATHER GABRIELE; FORTEA, FATHER JOSÉ
ANTONIO; INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF EXORCISTS.
FURTHERREADING:
Fortea, Fr. José Antonio. Interview with an Exorcist: An Insid- er’s Look at the Devil, Diabolic Possession, and the Path to Deliverance. West Chester, Pa.: Ascension Press, 2006. MacNutt, Francis. Deliverance from Evil Spirits: A Practical
Manual. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Chosen Books, 1995. Martin, Malachi. Hostage to the Devil. New York: Harper &
Row, 1976.
Wilkinson, Tracy. The Vatican’s Exorcists: Driving Out the Devil in the 21st Century. New York: Warner Books, 2007.
Exorcist, The (1971) Novel by William Peter Blatty
based on the true story of the ST. LOUIS POSSESSION case. The novel veers away substantially from the real case, but it introduced the horrors of demonic POSSESSION and
EXORCISM to a mass audience.
The prologue describes a brief encounter in Iraq, where an archaeologist and cleric are fi nishing a dig of ancient As- syrian ruins. No names are given, but the reader receives a teaser of evil to come: The cleric, apparently familiar with the ways of the DEVIL, senses that the DEMON PAZUZU has been disturbed by the digging and plans revenge.
Then begins the real story, which opens in a town- house in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C., where the divorced actress Chris McNeil and her 11-year- old daughter, Regan, are staying while Chris fi nishes fi lm- ing a movie. Strange noises and incidents, most of them in Regan’s room, annoy Chris, but she does not pay much attention to them. She asks the servant, Karl, to check the windows and catch the rats she believes are making the scratching noises, but he fi nds none. Her best friend and the fi lm’s director, Burke Dennings, visits often; he is sar- castically funny, self-centered, an alcoholic, and given to obscenities. Other people in the house are Karl’s wife the housekeeper, Willie, and Chris’ secretary, Sharon, who also tutors Regan.
Portrayed as a bright, happy, affectionate young girl, Regan succumbs slowly to her possession. Alone at home, Regan plays more and more with a OUIJA™ board, talking to a Captain Howdy. At fi rst, the house suffers from an
INFESTATION: attack by the demons through the victim’s
surroundings. Chris hears rapping noises on the ceiling, Regan’s room is always cold, the girl’s clothing often ends up in a wadded pile on the fl oor, someone moves her fur- niture, and there is a foul, burning smell in her room. Other petty incidents occur: Books and objects disappear, and a stuffed mouse is found in the rat traps.
Now Captain Howdy not only talks to Regan but also tells her awful, horrible things, threatening pain and ill- ness. Her bed shakes violently. Then Regan’s personal- ity changes; she becomes introverted and argumentative and eventually becomes hostile, disgusting, and obscene. She begins to exhibit superhuman strength, contorting her body in jerking, twisting movements. Strange voices emerge from her body, which is distended and unrecog- nizable. She slithers like a snake. Her conversations cen- ter around sexual and bodily functions.
Frantic to fi nd out what torments her daughter, Chris takes Regan from one doctor to another, abandoning her career. The doctors test Regan for everything but fi nd no physical reason for her troubles. Under hypnosis, one psychiatrist tries to talk to what he sees as Regan’s other personality. The personality—or demon—identifi es him- self as Nowonmai, from Dogmorfmocion. Although an agnostic, perhaps an atheist, Chris believes more fi rmly that her daughter has become possessed and needs a Catholic exorcism.
Meanwhile, in a parallel plot, the psychiatrist priest Father Damien Karras also lives in Washington, D.C., at Georgetown University, counseling the seminarians. Someone has desecrated the nearby Catholic Church; there is excrement on the altar cloth, a huge clay phallus has been attached to the statue of Christ, the statue of the Virgin Mary has been painted to resemble a harlot, and a Latin text describing Mary Magdalene as a lesbian is left on the altar. Father Karras suspects SATANISM—sexual
gratifi cation through blasphemous acts—but his training as a doctor prevents him from fully believing the Devil is about.
Besides, Father Karras has become mentally exhausted with his work, burdened not only with the troubles of his patients but with his own overwhelming guilt. He fears he does not love his fellow man as he should, scorning those who are poor or ignorant. He anguishes over his mother, who died poor and alone in a New York slum ten- ement. Through the movie company, Father Karras meets Chris and Regan. He is tantalized by the evil present in Regan and agrees to help rid her of her demons.
Before Father Karras can obtain permission for an exorcism, Burke Dennings, left alone in the house with Regan, dies mysteriously by falling out the girl’s second- story bedroom window and over a steep cliff below. His head is turned completely around, an injury that is prac- tically impossible, even in a severe fall. The demons in Regan eventually admit killing Dennings, explaining that turning his head around was common practice in the murder of witches.
As Regan’s condition worsens, she exhibits all the clas- sic signs of true possession. Besides the terrible contor- tions, foul smells, horrible voices, obscene behavior, and poltergeist phenomena (shaking bed, moving furniture,
Linda Blair, as the demonically possessed Regan, suffers at the hands of demons in The Exorcist (1973). (AUTHOR’S COLLECTION)