Vatican not collaborating with Discovery Channel’s exorcism series, says spokesman

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The Vatican’s Press Office director Fr. Federico Lombardi has denied claims that there is any official collaboration between the Holy See and the Discovery Channel for a series called “The Exorcist Files.” Publicity for the show was “misleading.”

The network was reputed to be “teaming up with the Vatican” to recreate documented cases of haunting and possession, Inside TV said on Jan. 5. The report included several statements from Discovery Channel president W. Clark Bunting on the difficulty and nature of an apparent agreement with the Vatican.

Bunting claimed that producers were given “access into the Vatican’s case files” and that “the organization’s top exorcists — religious experts who are rarely seen on television” sat for interviews with them.

“The Vatican is an extraordinarily hard place to get access to, but we explained we’re not going to try to tell people what to think," said Bunting.

Fr. Lombardi’s comments, however, suggest the publicity for the show has distorted the reality.

catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-not-collaborating-with-discovery-channels-exorcism-series-says-spokesman/

It appears Clark Bunting has lied, for publicity.
 
Abyssinia said:
It appears Clark Bunting has lied, for publicity.
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I’m not so sure I’d say he lied as much as he either exaggerated or misunderstood. Many times if one person who works at the Vatican says something the press declares, “Vatican says…”
If he worked with several priests and bishops who work at the Vatican he might have mistakenly thought he was officially working with the Vatican as opposed to working with individuals who just happened to work at the Vatican…
 
For most of us, apart from the news, television becomes a form of entertainment.

Unfortunately, with the Discovery Channel covering any type of genuine cases of demonic posession or exorcism, many of the curious would tune in. The Vatican would certainly be aware of that very real possibility.

There is nothing entertaining about either posession or obsession if you’ve ever seen it up close.

Apart from helping people understand that genuine cases of demonic posession do exist, if the program doesn’t lead people to pray for the people and families in these situations, or to help people become encouraged to turn to God in their lives…

…🤷…:doh2:…🤷
 
The Discovery Channel would benefit greatly from promoting the idea that the Vatican has an official connection to this show. In contrast, the Catholic Church has little to gain from cooperating with a producer known for its schlocky, sensationalistic content.

So I think it is good that the Vatican spokesman is getting the word out that it is not formally cooperating with The Discovery Channel. However, that doesn’t mean that individual exorcists haven’t given interviews and opened their files to TDC.

I haven’t seen the TDC press release, but I suspect that it is guilty not of lying so much as misleading (perhaps with intent, but that is hard to say for sure.)
 
Just one more thing to think about : Exorcist’s files would contain a lot of personal information about the parties involved. For this reason, I don’t believe those type of files would be even remotely considered as pertinent to or even leaning towards the public domain. It’s not really information which anyone has the right to see indiscriminately.

… Even with the permission of a person who had been exorcised, those grounds still appear to be somewhat shaky…:hmmm:
 
I believe that NBC owns Discovery, History and Natgeo channels. Anything on any of those stations about the Christian religion is usually full of nonsense, aimed at the sensational, and flat out wrong.
 
This is probably because the film “The Rite” is comming out. Every time a film is released that deals with exorcisms we have a frenzy about the subject. I wouldn’t see the film in the theater because it would be too scary. I probably wouldn’t watch the show either.
 
If the Discovery Channel ever issued a press release about this so called collaboration, it’s been pulled from the Web. No such press release exists on the Discovery Channel’s press release page.

It looks like dissemination of the original story started with an exclusive report on Jan 5 by Entertainment Weekly here:
insidetv.ew.com/2011/01/05/discovery-exorcist-files/

When I read that story, I had doubts about a collaboration between the Vatican and the Discovery Channel. If true, it would be surprising.

I agree with NewEnglandPries who wrote, "Many times if one person who works at the Vatican says something the press declares, “Vatican says…”
If he worked with several priests and bishops who work at the Vatican he might have mistakenly thought he was officially working with the Vatican as opposed to working with individuals who just happened to work at the Vatican…

I also agree that the genesis of this series may be tied with the forthcoming distribution of the motion picture, The Rite.

Along those same lines, day before yesterday, cable TV once again aired the movie, The Exorcist.

That’s a clue. 🙂
 
I honestly believe the Vatican has a communication problem. They need to tell the press who their spokespeople are and at the same time make those spokespeople recognizable to the public to avoid confusion.
 
I too, think there is a communication problem, but it’s understandable considering cultural differences, language differences, the fact that the Church is always being attacked by someone (and thus must be very careful with public statements) and perhaps most important – the sheer size of the Vatican.

Elevating spokespeople to a higher profile (through regular publication, i.e., articles, blogs, interviews) might help to familiarize the media with the “go to” people.

Perhaps this is already underway and I missed it. 🙂
 
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