Exorcisms

[SAVINGRACE]

I recently attended a Faith on Tap event where the guest speaker was a Priest who is the official exorcist for the area.

He gave a very informative and interesting presentation of his experiences. During question time he answered that “any Christian can perform an exorcism”.

I was under the impression that lay Catholics were not allowed to perform exorcisms.

 

[TheHolyTrinity]

I recently attended a Faith on Tap event where the guest speaker was a Priest who is the official exorcist for the area.

He gave a very informative and interesting presentation of his experiences. During question time he answered that “any Christian can perform an exorcism”.

I was under the impression that lay Catholics were not allowed to perform exorcisms.

Solemn exorcisms, according to the Canon law of the Church, can be exercised only by an ordained priest or higher prelate, with the express permission of the local bishop, and only after a careful medical examination to exclude the possibility of mental illness

 

[GRATEFULONEjim]

I am really surprised that the Diocese allowed the priest to reveal his identity as the exorcist for the Diocese. This is highly unusual to be revealed publicly.

 

[ChadS]

Isn’t a lay person saying something simple like “Dear Lord, please bless my house,” considered an exorcism of sorts?

Perhaps what the priest meant, without being entirely clear is that there are different types of exorcisms:

1. The simple ones mentioned above performed by lay people and not needing any special authority and…
2. Those officially sanctioned by the local Bishop and carried out by an ordained man specially trained for the task after much examination, prayer and fasting.

ChadS

 

[GRATEFULONEjim]

Isn’t a lay person saying something simple like “Dear Lord, please bless my house,” considered an exorcism of sorts?

Perhaps what the priest meant, without being entirely clear is that there are different types of exorcisms:

1. The simple ones mentioned above performed by lay people and not needing any special authority and…
2. Those officially sanctioned by the local Bishop and carried out by an ordained man specially trained for the task after much examination, prayer and fasting.

ChadS

A house blessing, house cleansing and exorcism are three completely different things.

 

[MtnDwellar]

I am really surprised that the Diocese allowed the priest to reveal his identity as the exorcist for the Diocese. This is highly unusual to be revealed publicly.

Most exorcists are fairly secretive. A few are very public with their ministry ie Fr. Fortea, Fr. Amorth, and Fr. Ripperger.

Christ told us that all who believe in him have the power to expel demons.

 

[landon13]

I think it makes sense that lay are allowed to exorcise. I am not speaking on a Canon Law basis but if someone is possessed or a place needs exorcising from evil spirits you can pray to St. Michael the Archangel, make the sign of the cross a few times with a crucifix, and bless with holy water. I don’t see any problem with that. If the spirits are further disturbed because of this to a point that you can’t handle it anymore on your own then it would be time to seek the professionals.

 

[thistle]

I think it makes sense that lay are allowed to exorcise. I am not speaking on a Canon Law basis but if someone is possessed or a place needs exorcising from evil spirits you can pray to St. Michael the Archangel, make the sign of the cross a few times with a crucifix, and bless with holy water. I don’t see any problem with that. If the spirits are further disturbed because of this to a point that you can’t handle it anymore on your own then it would be time to seek the professionals.

A lay person is not able to exorcise the possessed and nor are they allowed to.

Canon law is very clear on this.

Can. 1172 §1 No one may lawfully exorcise the possessed without the special and express permission of the local Ordinary.

§2 This permission is to be granted by the local Ordinary only to a priest who is endowed with piety, knowledge, prudence and integrity of life.

 

[Aussieman88]

I don’t know how good making the sign of the cross would be. The power comes with the words we speak. The word of God. The armour of God consists of all defensive weapons bar one which is the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God. We need to know what the bible says.

There are 3 types of exorcism. The first is at baptism. The second which lay people can become involved in is with praying for healings, hauntings and such. The third is a major exorcism which involves a demon fully manifesting by taking over a humans control over his body. This one needs to be done by the priests unless you have authority from the Bishop which some of our lay ministers have. Usually only ones who have been approved and satisfy the criteria under cannon law 300, 301, by the catholic church. Also this authority would usually only apply for exorcisms where the demon manifests in front of the minister not for him/her to go looking for them.

 

[landon13]

Still, I understand the whole Canon Law thing that lay people are not allowed to exorcise but if you pray over someone that is possessed or in a room that is possessed for God to cleanse it and remove whatever evil and to make the sign of the cross a few times in the room and bless the room or person with Holy Water it is worth a try.

I found this website that says that lay people are allowed to do a simple exorcism with one of the following:

exorcismus.org/simple-exorcisms

It also says that:

When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism

and:

No one can perform exorcisms legitimately upon the possessed unless he has obtained special and express permission from the local ordinary. The local ordinary is to give this permission only to a presbyter who has piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life.

Blessings!

 

[clem456]

Prayer is always good, but if I entered the presence of evil with intent to engage that evil against the Church’s laws or procedures, that might be bad. I would frankly be afraid of the consequences.

Still, I understand the whole Canon Law thing that lay people are not allowed to exorcise but if you pray over someone that is possessed or in a room that is possessed for God to cleanse it and remove whatever evil and to make the sign of the cross a few times in the room and bless the room or person with Holy Water it is worth a try.

I found this website that says that lay people are allowed to do a simple exorcism with one of the following:

exorcismus.org/simple-exorcisms

It also says that:

and:

Blessings!

 

[ThisEbenezer]

In my readings on this subject, I have found that most of the time prior to an exorcism being conducted, the Priest spends a lot of time evaluating the situation. There are simple blessings and prayers performed over the individual believed to be possessed and the effects evaluated after many meetings. The goal is to make sure that it is not some underlying medical condition or psychological issue.

Only when the Priest has a clear impression that a demonic spirit resides in the person does the Priest seek permission for a full exorcism. From what I have read of the rite it can be a long and arduous rite and not generally conducted in just one session.

There is quite a bit of reading material on this subject out there written by Catholics, some of the authors noted earlier in this thread.

God Bless

 

[TheHolyTrinity]

but if you pray over someone that is possessed or in a room that is possessed for God to cleanse it and remove whatever evil and to make the sign of the cross a few times in the room and bless the room or person with Holy Water it is worth a try.

Simple Exorcism are used on locations or situations where the activity of the diabolical is suspected. It is often used to identify if diabolical activity is the actual problem.

You may have heard that people who have had prayers or blessings in the home will find that worsens the problem otherwise known as backlash. Simple Exorcisms are often included in prayers, blessings and sacraments.

For laity the Simple Exorcism should be used with extreme caution when it comes to people, as it includes not only petitions for intervention but commands to the evil to depart. A Simple exorcism should never be used on a person. It should also never be used as a test of whether a person is possessed.

I found this website that says that lay people are allowed to do a simple exorcism with one of the following:

Demons are a very dangerous reality that must be approached with a deep and solid spiritual basis. You simply will not understand this unless you encounter a demon, whether in a person or disembodied. Once you do encounter one your world view will be forced to accommodate the presence of evil as an objective reality.

It is not uncommon for the demonic to seek direct and personal revenge for intervention against them. Demons commonly attack people later in various ways.

 

[Porter_Disciple]

I would take note
“any Christian can perform an exorcism”

First, I would simply re-iterate what has already been distinguished between a simple exorcism, prayer of deliverance, and solemn exorcism of a possessed individual.

Second, Any Christian CAN. But not all may lawfully do so, as denoted in the Canons.

In addition to rebuking, there are always:
deprecations, invocations, supplications, exsufflation, laying on of hands, use of the sign of the cross, use of blessed/exorcised salt, oil, water, and the use of other sacramentals, or having a Holy Mass said as a petition to God Almighty.

 

[BluesPicker]

Hi,

    We, the Catholic faithful, are all soldiers in the war against Satan & his apostate host.  A good soldier is obedient and learns to fight so that he may fight another day.  The Church is Apostolic which means for us laity  our local Ordinary, which for the most of us is a diocesan Bishop.   There is an old saying where the Bishop is so is the Holy Spirit.

     You want to fight Satan, obey your Bishop who is a vicar of Christ.  Even when Padre Pio was treated unjustly he obeyed his Bishop's mandates or orders.   The same is true for the pastors of our local Church parishes where we attend Mass.

     In the past certain groups of Catholics began associating with Protestant Groups.  I am speaking of a period of time prior to September 29, 1985 and even now.   Simple exorcisms as compared to a public exorcism said by a priest with the Bishop's permission is not a REAL EXORCISM. 

     Canon 1172 in Latin reads:

"1 - Nemo Exorcismus in obsessos proferre legitime potest, nisi ab Ordinary lotuses peculiarem et expressam licentiam obtinuerit.

“2 - Haec ab licentia Ordinary lotuses concedatur tantummodo presbytero pity, scientia, prudentia ac vitae integritate praedito.”

     Father Pellegrino Ernetti OSB who died in 1992 wrote an article called "We  Are All Exorcists."   I have an imperfect translation of this document from the original in Italian using the Google Translator.  Fr. Pellegrino explains:

"We know that the push to evil comes to us from three causes: from our nature, wounded by original sin, the world and the devil. Unfortunately Satan “awakening glia” in us continually with the three lusts pressing temptations of pride-pride, lust, greed at all levels and in all categories, from the individual, the family, the society, the political, economic , diplomat etc., so Jesus rightly said, “Totus mundus positus east in malignant: the whole world is in the hands of the evil one” no one can escape!

Extraordinary activity of the devil: consists of a gradation of increasingly serious demonic activity that is now well known by the best theologians-exorcists:

1. Awe diabolical (Who makes a pact with the devil express or implied, voluntarily gives himself to the devil);
2. External noise (Physical suffering, beatings, punching, flogging by the devil);
3. diabolic infestations (Assaults demonic to the possessions, to places, to Objects);
4. Harassment evil (More or less serious events, evil, which can affect people or families in health, feelings etc.).
5. Invasioni diabolical (Syndrome intellectuals and intellectual split, but not volitional);
6. Possessions evil (Serious forms of diabolic presence with the possession of the body, not of ANI but, for which the individual does and says things that do not would ever say if it were in a normal state);
7. OBSESSION DIABOLICA (Permanent involves the presence of the demon in a human body, and involves the mental block intellectual, volitional and emotional).
   

   Now the new Code of Canon Law was concerned only with this last form of extraordinary activities of the devil, the OBSESSION "No one can pronounce exorcisms legitimately upon the possessed, if not from the local Ordinary has obtained special and express permission".

b) Please note carefully: the Code speaks of “exorcism” only, and only in this canon, and never again. In addition, this fee if you do not speak of “madmen”. In the third place not sort at all to the Bishop of “appoint” of the exorcists, as unfortunately today insistently they say and they want to certain themselves exorcists poorly prepared in Canon Law, and will even allow you might blame an Bishops of “being in mortal sin” whenever is not appoint exorcists in his own diocese. No, no bishop “must appoint exorcists” under Canon Law. Instead, it is the individual priest who “must ask for the special and express permission Ordinary” if he were dealing with a madman to be exorcised. Al Vescovo, instead, it is incumbent discern if the priest applicant has or less all the due and debite quality “of piety, of science, of prudence and integrity of life” for being able to fight against the devil existing into a creature in the form obsessive.

First, a question: why the code says that the priest requires the permission of the bishop only when it is “obsessed” and not to other forms of ordinary and extraordinary activities of the devil? - The answer is this: only the madman is totally and permanently at the mercy of the devil, with the total “mental block intellectual, volitional and emotional.” In this case, the obsessed no longer thinks, does not want to, no longer loves itself, but rather only manipulated and directed by the devil, which knows everything and knows the priest and present; said too many times and also revealed hidden facts of the inner life and sinful. Here then is the need for “higher” authority of one who has the fullness of the priesthood and who embodies the “Church” in the diocesan community: the priest acts in virtue of this “fullness of the priesthood” of the bishop, the successor of the Apostles on which Christ founded his Church, with all the divine powers.

So does not exist an “office-munus” who has the name of “EXORCIST” in the Code of Canon Law. Therefore the Bishop shall not appoint at all no “Exorcist”, almost it were a “official” of Curia ie diocesan. The bishop as said must only able to give allowed a priest, for bless a ossesso, and you just. In fact the exorcism not is Other, as already said, than a blessing ie a sacramental to be recited on the poor and poorly capitata creature."

to be continued hopefully

 

[BluesPicker]

Unfortunately, in there exists no uniform definitions about the extraordinary attacks of the devil in books about exorcism and deliverance by Catholic priests and laity such as Neal Lorenzo. Fr. José Antonio Fortea Cucurull (born in Barbastro, Spain, 1968), priest and specialized theologian in Demonology. He studied Theology for his priesthood in the University of Navarre. He received the degree of licentiate (licenza) in the field of History of the Church at the faculty of Theology of Comillas. In 1998 he defended his thesis (tesina) entitled Exorcism in the Present Age under the direction of the Secretary of the Comission for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Spain Conference of Catholic Bishops.He is a member of the clergy in the diocese of Alcalá de Henares (Madrid). Until 2009 he has combined his work as a theologian with his activity as pastor in his diocese. (He left for Rome to work on his dissertation which deals with the history of exorcism. He is now back at his old Church parish & is again the appointed exorcist for his diocese.)

    Fr. Fortea uses four terms for the extraordinary attacks of the devil.  I assure you that we have many exorcist priests here in the USA, even some who have the Charism of  Deliverance and Healing.

    Padre Pio never once had the Bishop's permission to say an exorcism; so technically he was not an exorcist.  He was a priest though.  Rev. Dominic Szymanski writes from his notes published under the title "The Truth About the Devil":

"To curb the influence of Satan, Christ has given priests necessary powers – the powers of exorcism, but in our days they are buried deep in the ground for fear that sometime they may be used. The servant who buried his talent in the parable of the gospel was called a “wicked and slothful servant” by the Master, and he ordered him to be caste into “the Darkness outside where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Every priest is an exorcist by virtue of his ordination. This power must be used, and used very extensively, with firmness and authority, otherwise the enemy creates havoc among the sheep of God, unmolested even by those who have the duty and the obligation to guard the flock of Christ. Priests should exclude the infernal wolves, not by meekly begging them to depart, but by a firm command. “I command you to depart in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ Crucified.” The Church does not ordain priests with the power of forgiving sins only, but she gives them the power to exclude the assassin who is the cause of all sin. The civil government maintains a police force and the Church of God also has the authority to cast into the abyss even the prices and powers of hell who are the prime perpetrators of crime against God. "

Rev. Dominic Szymanski (1899 - 1951), O.M.C., D.D., J.U.D… Co-Founder of Marytown, was a Franciscan Abbot. Abbots are the local Ordinary of their monasteries. He also brought to the USA a religious movement founded by his friend St. Kolbe: The Army of the Immaculata. So he was under the 1917 Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law. The Canon 1151 deals with exorcisms:

Can 1151 §1. Nemo, potestate exorcizandi praeditus, exorcismos in obsessos proferre legitime potest, nisi ab Ordinario peculiarem et expressam licentiam obtinuerit.
§2. Haec licentia ab Ordinario concedatur tantummodo sacerdoti pietate, prudentia ac vitae integritate praedito; qui ad exorcismos ne procedat, nisi postquam diligenti prudentique investigatione compererit exorcizandum esse revera a daemone obsessum.

In English:

Canon 1151 § 1. No one, endowed with the power of exorcizing, to bring forward may lawfully exorcise the possessed, except by the Ordinary, special and express permission has been obtained.
§ 2. This permission may be granted only by the Ordinary, the priest, piety, prudence and integrity of life: he that is not to proceed to the exorcisms, until after it has determined that a diligent search for ways of exorcizing with prudence and wisdom is in fact obsessed by a demon.

Here is Canon 1172:

Can. 1172 §1 No one may lawfully exorcise the possessed without the special and express permission of the local Ordinary.

§2 This permission is to be granted by the local Ordinary only to a priest who is endowed with piety, knowledge, prudence and integrity of life.

    Clearly, the newer 1983 Canon 1172 that pertains to exorcism is less restrictive than the old 1917 Canon a sense.  But essentially they are the same in meaning and are very similar even using the same words.   

     And by ALL accounts the laying of hands on the possessed can result, and most probably will result,  in the possession of any lay person attempting to perform an exorcism of the possessed.   Unfortunately unless one has made a diligent study under a  trained exorcist priest a lay person may get possessed.

    Even a whole group of people laying hands and attempting to cast demons out of a possessed person will result most probably (God is Merciful) in possession.

    There is something that is never discussed in most texts about exorcism.  It deals with what  Padre Fortea calls "Canaliculus" : In anatomy, a canaliculus is a small passageway. Examples include: Canaliculus (bone), a small channel found in ossified bone;  but, in Fortea's usage refers to God's Graces flowing through a saintly person giving  the blessing of release to a demonized, not necessarily possessed, person.

to be continued:

the old 1983

 

[BluesPicker]

Padre Pio, St. Gemma, & St. Catherine of Siena were “victim souls.” They made up daily in suffering what was lacking in Christ as St. Paul describes in 2 Corinthians 11:16-33:

"24Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church: 25Whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation of God, which is given me towards you, that I may fulfil the word of God: 26The mystery which hath been hidden from ages and generations, but now is manifested to his saints, 27To whom God would make known the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ, in you the hope of glory. 28Whom we preach, admonishing every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29Wherein also I labour, striving according to his working which he worketh in me in power. "

   Satan will send some type of affliction  to a person who prays diligently and efficaciously for some suffering from an extraordinary attack of the devil.   This may be just some scary sign or as in Padre Pio, a beating.  This signals that one's prayer's have been answered.   We should rejoice in suffering even our deaths because our earthly lives are but a moment in eternity.

    Even though the Church permits rites of deliverance (simple exorcisms) doing so may not be necessarily  the best idea.   Stuff happens many times even just praying indirectly where the person is not present, not aware you are praying for them, and they are far away.    Things like all sorts of trouble with the computer.  For example, something happened and  I lost a great part of my data concerning my prayer group.  The devil does not want one to pray for the afflicted nor even pray for the clergy particularly those devoted to the ministry of exorcism.

        I actually helped assist a friend who was a webmaster for a exorcist priest in Spain.  His father  was in the last stages of brain cancer.   We had been emailing a number of years.  We discussed things in regards to phenomena associated with the devil.  One example was the so-called Indian rope trick where an occult magician makes a rope stand up, then his assistance climbs the rope etc.etc.  Mircea Eliade was a Romanian historian of religion, fiction writer, philosopher, and professor at the University of Chicago.  He discusses in his work "Shamanism

A shaman performing a ceremonial in Tuva.

Eliade’s scholarly work on shamanism, “Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy”, a survey of shamanistic practices in different areas. Eliade cites someone who witnessed and filmed the Indian Rope Trick. I studied this in college I am an Anthropologist. All I can say this person what everyone in the audience saw, like a miracle of sorts, was nothing like what was recorded on the film. It was a collective hallucination that fooled the observers & was a fake. I believe this occult magician was possessed in league with Satan and like Hitler he had extraordinary powers to influence people.

   Satan is a cheat and a liar.   This is just one example why lay people should only assist an exorcist priest in regards to praying directly any prayer of deliverance i.e. simple exorcism of a person.   Leave it to the properly trained Church authority endowed with the sacramental graces that come with the sacrament of  Holy Orders.

    However if we are moved by Christian love we can pray of others prayers of deliverance  for people who are not present.   We can say prayers of deliverance for ourselves & we should in this regards.

     I know  I have been rambling on and on; but I hope you can see that this is a difficult and hard to understand even.    If one wants to help others I suggest becoming part of a deliverance team of an appointed exorcist priest or a priest who is devoted to the ministry of deliverance.  We should not fear but have a healthy respect of the enemy.

 

[Brendan_64]

Luke 10:19 - He said to them, “See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you."

 

[BluesPicker]

Pope Leo XIII wrote a prayer of exorcism and he wanted the faithful to pray the Rosary & then recite his prayer. This is a preventative measure. Said privately in this manner it doesn’t violate Canon Law. This is usage is clearly different than those prayers involving those suffering from the extraordinary attacks of the devil.

     I have a copy of the Latin letter of  Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger titled "Inde Ab Aliquot Annis On The Current Norms Governing Exorcisms, Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, September 29, 1985 and the English translation of the same with commentary by Fr. Gabriele Amorth. 

     Personally,  I  thought differently until  I asked about it.  I will post some of my findings:

Thomas Euteneur wrote a book called "Exorcism and the Church Militant. " Appendix E, pages 260-266 of that volume is titled “Commentary on the 1985 Letter of the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith: On the Current Norms Governing Exorcisms.” Euteneur conclusions agree with Fr. Amorth concerning laity & private exorcism or prayer, & the Exorcism Prayer of Pope Leo XIII. Eutenuer goes further citing Fr. Francis Martin in the footnotes on page 263:

"Fr. Francis Martin clarified the cardinal’s (Ratzinger’s) letter in a talk at Mundelein Seminary, and latter through personal correspondence. He stated that it is clear the restrictions in point three of Cardinal Ratzinger’s letter are to be applied to pubic assemblies. He also wrote, “When asked by Fr. Rufus Pereira concerning the third paragraph of [the] statement of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, September 29, 1984 [actually 1985] the then Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Joesph Ratzinger, stated that the restrictions apply to public assemblies. While Cardinal Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) clearly restricts exorcisms and prayers for exorcisms to authorized clergy, there is nothing here to prohibits the laity from using the imperative. “Exorcism” means the Rite of Exorcism not the imperative command.” (page 148)

Fr. Francis Martin is a renowned Scripture scholar and Professor Emeritus of New Testament at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, D.C. He was Senior Fellow at the Intercultural Forum for Faith and Culture at the John Paul II Cultural Center in D.C. and visiting professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. In the past, he has taught at the Gregorian University in Rome, Ecole Biblique in Jerusalem, Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and held the Cardinal Adam Maida Chair in Biblical Studies at Sacred Heart Major Seminary. He has also taught at Franciscan University of Steubenville and the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Washington, D.C. He was ordained at St. Joseph’s Abbey in 1956, received his Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S.T.L.) from St. Thomas Pontifical University in Rome in 1959 and his Doctorate in Sacred Scripture (S.S.D.) from the Pontifical Biblical Institute in 1978, also in Rome. Fr. Martin is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C. where he is also chaplain of the Mother of God Community in Gaithersburg, MD.

Said of Francis Martin:

“I have had the privilege of knowing and working with Fr. Francis Martin for many years. His profound knowledge of and love for the living Word of God continues to inspire me. He continues to help people in all walks of life to open their hearts to Christ, the living Word Incarnate. I warmly recommend Fr. Francis Martin Ministries to one and all.”

Most Rev. William E. Lori
Archbishop of Baltimore

“What a blessing to be a priest in a time such as this! Our world is in such desperate need of the love and truth you can offer. Please know that I pray for you and your priesthood. I am joined in this prayer by my long-time friend Fr. Francis Martin. He has been the main teacher at our priest conferences over the years since their beginning in 1975. I encourage you to… take advantage of his offering. I know you will be blessed by this spiritual resource.”

Fr. Mike Scanlan, CFR

---

Monsignor Andrea Gemma, former bishop of Isernia-Venafro [served 1990-2006] & once the Vatican’s Head Exorcist before being consecrated a Biship, is among the greatest exorcists living. Mons. Gemma was the Head Vatican exorcist prior to becoming a Bishop. He is famous for titles such as “The Gates of Hell Shall Not Prevail” & " I, Bishop Exorcist,"

The link below connects one to a Bishop Gemma interview by Gianluca Barile

Interview With Mons. Andrea Gemma

"My experience daily - says, in fact, the prelate - tells me that the exorcism done by telephone is immediately effective, as evidenced by the reactions on the other side of the wire. Moreover, for those who are spirit local distance does not matter; has the power of prayer and exorcism, as I always say, is nothing more than a prayer that is made in the name of Christ and the Church. The devil then you can fight from a distance. Consider that the great Pius XII exorcised Hitler directly from the Vatican, although, unfortunately, in that case, without effect. " Many lay people, including most ‘charismatic’, is slowing in advancing the ministry of deliverance with the fear of breaking a rule of the Church and of falling into sin. Another legend holds that Monsignor Gemma to debunk. "If everything is done in private, the prayers of deliverance and exorcism also imperative - that of Leo XIII in Latin can be a great example - there is no sin. It is, indeed, an act of fraternal charity, of which I can personally testify to the effectiveness. " An act of charity that does not absolutely require the approval or the mandate of the diocesan bishop. "

 

[BluesPicker]

**By all accounts, Fr. Thomas Euteneur’s Book “Exorcism and the Church Militant” is a good book.

translate.google.com/translate?depth=3&hl=en&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=auto&tl=en&twu=1&u=http://www.aiutonline.org/esorcismo.htm

From the Book of Don Gabriele Amorth
“An Exorcist tells.”
Dehoniane editions, Rome.

Premise

"When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism. Jesus practiced (Mk 1.25 s) is from him that the Church derives the power and the duty to exorcise. In a simple form, exorcism is performed at the celebration of Baptism. The solemn exorcism, called “a major exorcism,” can be performed only by a priest and with the permission of the bishop. In what must proceed with prudence, strictly observing the rules established by the Church. Exorcism is directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which Jesus entrusted to his Church. Very different is the case of illness, especially mental, whose care falls within the scope of medical science. It is important, therefore, ensure, before an exorcism is performed, which is dealing with the presence of the Evil One, and not an illness "(Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1673).

Even this exorcism contained in the Ritual Romanum, is reserved to the bishop and priests expressly authorized by him and can be recited by the faithful only privately. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has drawn the observance of this rule in the letter Inde ab annis aliquot of 29 September 1985. In it is also stated that this recall “in no way away from the faithful pray as Jesus taught us, are delivered from evil (cf. Mt 6:13).”

Pray the exorcism (in this or in any other form) is especially recommended when you feel the action of the devil becomes more intense in us (very strong temptations), families (discord) in public life (when they are trampled rights of God and man), in the relations between states (war) in the persecutions against the Church. You should also recite for diseases.

 I stated several reasons why I don't believe lay people should attempt deliverance or simple exorcisms on people especially if they have not studied in person under an exorcist priest and then undergo examination by their Bishops.

      Praying for oneself or a family reciting the Rosary &  then saying the St. Michaels Exorcism or  Lessor  Exorcism of  Leo XIII in private rites of prayer is another matter though.   Notice  Fr. Amorth's instructions in Red.

     Used this way this prayer would be a preventative method of prayer.  There will not be retaliation by Satan.  God is in charge and this prayer is effective.

     Again though, what if your Bishop thinks otherwise?  You just have to obey your Bishop.   And,  I know  I have just commented and strung together quotes.  I am just presenting my observations.

    Yes,  the Church does allow simple exorcisms on persons by laity in deliverance groups.  And these authors continually say  "in private."   I think it is safer to follow a safe course and only participate helping an exorcist priest in his ministry.

     Some people are what  Fr. Malichi Martin calls "the perfectly possessed."  These people have lost the Holy Spirit which is the "voice" of conscience.  They never experience  the signs of a possessed person.  They are your psychopaths and sociopaths.  There are no conflicts as they completely taken over. 

    The sociopaths are afraid of punishment by  criminal law.  The psychopaths are not afraid of anything.

     I don't think there is enough room in a forum post to  address this topic. It is just too much.   Obey your Bishops.    

     I don't want to repeat myself; so  I am stopping here.**