2014
A conference of priests specializing in exorcisms met in Rome last week with the express approval of Pope Francis, who has recently been lauded in the press for his support of progressive issues. Demonic possessions, the International Association of Exorcists says, are on the rise due to a waning interest in religion and an increased interest in the occult. The Telegraph reports:
In April, Pope Francis urged the faithful to “learn to fight the Devil…who exists even in the twenty-first century.”
Last month, during a homily in the chapel of his residence in the Vatican, the South American pontiff said that angels are constantly battling Satan for the destiny of mankind.
“From the very beginning, the Bible speaks to us of…Satan’s [use of] seduction to destroy—maybe out of envy,” he said during a Mass marking the Feast of the Holy Archangels Michael, Gabriel and Raphael.
Last year there was speculation that the Pope had performed what appeared to be an exorcism in St Peter’s Square when he laid his hands on a young man’s head and recited a prayer.
1487
Written by a Catholic clergyman and published in Germany in 1487, the Malleus Maleficarum is a practical guide to the dangers of Satan and sorcery. It detailed the ways in which holy men might cast out demons from the less righteous. Still, even the most pious were not exempt from demonic possesssion, as the story of one priest makes clear:
We may mention an example which is said to have happened in Hesse, in the diocese of Marburg. A certain priest was possessed, and during an exorcism the devil was asked for how long he had inhabited that priest. He answered, for seven years. And when the exorcist objected, But you have tormented him for hardly three years; where were you for the rest of the time? He answered, I was hiding in his body. And when he asked in what part of the body, he answered, Generally in his head. And when he was again asked where he was when the priest was celebrating the Sacrament, he said, I hid myself under his tongue. And the other said: Wretch! How were you so bold as not to flee from the presence of your Creator? Then the devil said: Anyone may hide under a bridge while a holy man is crossing, as long as he does not pause in his walk. But with the help of Divine grace the priest was delivered, whether he told the truth or not; for both he and his father are liars.