Deliverance
ministry was a huge thing for my family when I was growing up and has
been important in my life in many ways. Thus, when I felt led to
become Catholic, the first thing I started researching was
deliverance ministry and exorcism. There is no information on this
offered on our RCIA classes, so I have been investigating on my own.
I can't help comparing things to what I knew growing up. Since most
of this blog series is about ecumenism, I feel I should include those
thoughts here as well, so I did.
In
"An Exorcist Tells His Story," Fr Gabriel Amorth, a Vatican
exorcist, mentioned several things that struck me.
His
opening chapter was "The Centrality of Christ." He said
before beginning any discussion on how to handle demon power it was
important. The deliverance ministers from Protestant Communities that
I know would find this a positive and promising way to introduce the
topic. It is the center of everything we do as deliverance ministers.
He
quotes Mark 16:17 "These signs shall follow them that believe,
in my name, they shall cast out demons." Fr. Amorth states that
this power is still alive and active and acknowledges that it was
given to all those who believe in Jesus. This is
what I was taught in Protestantism, too. Fr. Amorth calls this
"Prayers of Deliverance."
He
places the Exorcisms, rites performed by designated Vatican
exorcists, in a different category. It is something the Catholic
Church specifically wrote out as a sacramental and it has a specific
ritual. This can only be performed by priests, and even then only by
those specifically appointed for the job by their Bishops. The
written ritual for exorcisms is described as fairly short, a series
of required and some merely suggested prayers and some general
guidelines. It involves holy water, anointing oil and sanctified
salt.
He
warned that there were many people, going around claiming to be
exorcists and claiming to perform Exorcisms when they do not do so.
He said that, at best they offer prayers of deliverance, at worst
they go completely outside of Christian practices, practicing
witchcraft instead! I can believe this. In protestant communities,
there are sometimes similar problems with people doing unscriptural
things that could cross the line into witchcraft.
He
said most of the books on demon power and how Christians should deal
with it were written by protestants, and that a lot of them are good.
He said there was a desperate need throughout Christianity for more
education and teaching on this topic. I and every Protestant
deliverance minister I have ever had any exposure to completely agree
with that. He said the Catholic community was hurting the most for
more information on the topic, and that this applies to the Bishops
and the priesthood, not just among the laity. Most protestant
ministers have little or no knowledge how to handle the demonic
either, so who is in the worst shape is debatable, though not worth
debating.
Fr.
Amorth did say that Protestant deliverance ministries, and similar
ministries among the laity in the Catholic church are, indeed
Christian and effective. He grieved that Catholics had to go to
Protestants, who at least could usually help them, or resorted to
witch doctors, who ultimately made them worse, because no help was
offered by their local Church pastors who were actually responsible
for the job. He said never to go to witch doctors or mediums or such
for help, but there was no problem with Protestants and Charismatic
(a.k.a. "Renewal") lay Catholics, the latter of whom he
says usually learn from protestant teaching materials anyway.
Fr.
Amorth has witnessed, as have I, that many Protestant deliverance
ministries have very powerful effects. Personally, I have also
seen very poor examples of deliverance practice, along with the very
good and fruitful deliverance ministries in the various Protestant
Communities I have been in. The signs of what I would label a very
bad deliverance ministry are as follows:
*
Ordering the demon to manifest (e.g. to speak, to shake the person,
to do something blatantly supernatural and/or frightening/evil to
make it really obvious that it is there)
*
Trying to get the demon to tell them its name, or to receive
communication from the demon about anything. (Jesus only did that
once, just as he only spit on the ground and made mud to put on a
blind man's eyes for healing once. It was not typical of his
deliverance practices).
* Trying to
get people to throw up, as if they need to puke disincarnate,
non-physical entities physically out of their mouth like an offending
piece of food. THAT is ridiculous, unscriptural, and revolting.
*
Thinking that (almost) everybody has a demon and needs it cast out.
*
That use terms like "submit to deliverance" or telling you
to "submit" to whatever they are calling the specific
practice they think gets rid of a demon - especially if you must
submit the the authority/leadership of their pastor or someone he
appoints thereafter, lest it should return otherwise. Run from that,
fast.
*
Teachings that involve creating fear (e.g. of
sleeping or of having anesthesia for surgery, lest a demon might
possess one while in that unvigilant state; or a fear of being
touched by or near people from other cultures or who look different
or do not believe in God, lest one might catch demons from them like
catching colds or the flu; or etc.).
*
Associating demonic activity with anything outwardly different about
a person - different language or culture, different style of dress,
handicap, scaring or deformity, or etc. That is not discernment, that
is prejudice.
The
first two of these do, unfortunately, occur in Fr. Amorth's and
the theologian Malachi Martin, author of Hostage to the
Devil, descriptions of Catholic Exorcisms. However, I infer
that the ritual does not require communication with
demons because Fr. Amorth's says that his late mentor, Fr. Candido
Amantini, often did not communicate with the demons at all; this had
happened gradually, with much experience and time in prayer. Martins'
book says that exorcists have a lot of individual control over how
they conduct an exorcism. Fr. Amorth discourages people doing
prayers of deliverance (exercising their power as believers according
to Mark 16:17) from communicating at all with the demons, as it is
dangerous in numerous ways. This is the practice most powerful
deliverance ministries I have ever known use "Have no fellowship
or communication with demons." Period.
Malachi
Martins' book says that Vatican exorcists, and their priestly or lay
assistants, suffer enormous torments during Exorcisms. They must be
prepared to suffer horrendous verbal abuse, supernatural
emotional/mental torment, have their darkest secrets screeched out
for all to hear, or their fondest memories mocked and attacked in
singularly impactful ways, etc. They must prepare the room where it
is to be done, and remove most anything in it and sometimes board the
windows, as objects can go flying. Martin's informants, all Vatican
exorcists, report that they are sometimes hurt by things flying at
them ore attacked physically, and this is part of what they must
endure in their position, so they just submit to it. So does anyone
who assists them. Martin's informants said Exorcisms take several
hours at the very least, and can take days, weeks or sometimes years.
The effective deliverance ministries I brought up with, including
what was classified by Protestants as exorcisms, never take
that long. If it is taking that long, then something is wrong and
your supposed to stop. Demons are not permitted to speak or do harm.
In
Protestantism, people say "possession" whether the
demon/demons possess an inanimate object, an animal, or a human.
Catholics call it "infested" except in human cases. Fr.
Amorth reported that when dealing with a house that is infested with
demons because witchcraft was practiced in it, then he has often had
to recommend that the residents just move out of it instead.
Official
Exorcisms are supposed to be for extreme cases only. He included, at
the back of the book, several prayers of deliverance, which I have
copied and will probably copy down in the next blog on this subject.
I
appreciate the work of Fr. Amorth's mentor, and the testimonies of
people who indeed were eventually delivered completely through both
these men's ministries. However, I think that if I discerned some
need for deliverance ministry, I expect that what the Catholic church
calls "prayers of deliverance" would work fine. The
deliverance ministry I was brought up in had no testimonies of
failure, no communication with devils, and no
need to batten down the hatches. A max of 3 days fasting and major
prayer was the most that would be needed, and that would be if you
dealing with a demon prince such as those mentioned in Ephesians
6:12.
Since
it is sanctioned by experts at the Vatican, and need for this is
asserted to be so great, here is a bit from my parents deliverance
class from when I was a baby. Notice how brief of time it takes, how
safe it is, and that no communication with the devil is ever used.
Jesus' words when casting out demons were normally along the lines of
"Shut up, and go." That's pretty much what you will be
learning to say here. "In the name of Jesus shut up and go."
Godspeed.
~M. S.
