Exorcizo Te

I have come across an interesting new drama production just broadcast on the BBC. It is called Apparitions and you can watch it on BBC iPlayer (but this may only be for a limited period.) Before this 2-part had even been televised, there were already plans for a whole series.

I have only watched part of the first episode so far, but it seems very promising. I can't say how accurate it is with regards to the subject of demonic possession, but the performances are certainly compelling, and it doesn't take a liberal stance as far as I have seen. The central character is Father Jacob, a Catholic priest who works for the Cause for the Canonisation of Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (although at one point his nun colleague suggests he 'shelve Mother Teresa' and work on Newman instead!)

I think it is interesting that the BBC has chosen to commission this sort of thing. I hope that an interest in this area will encourage people who watch this to find out more about the Catholic Faith. It is quite well known that exorcists still use the old rite of exorcism because the new one doesn't work! These things really are important.

But the first kind of exorcism there is for someone is Baptism, which in the old rite (still freely in use today) contains prayers specifically designed to exorcise the soul of the catechumen and prepare it for the abundant grace of Baptism, or new birth in Christ.

A good verse was quoted by the character of Father Jacob:

When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest; and not finding, he saith: "I will return into my house whence I came out." And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.

St Luke 11:24-26

He used this verse to show that Baptism without faith is efficacious, but the soul will easily be susceptible to further attack by worse forces if Christ is not rooted there.

The topic of demonic possession has already been the popular subject of movies. The 1973 film The Exorcist receives criticism, and rightly, for glorifying the whole issue and making it more horrific and scary than it really is. This film has many saving graces in my opinion. The central story is not really about the little girl possessed (which has lost its sting now due to countless parodies) but rather the young priest who is having a crisis in faith. Notice that he says Mass for the first time and understands it, having been exposed to the horrors of evil.

A better film is the Exorcism of Emily Rose, which portrays the real life story of Anneliese Michel, who was a 16 year old German girl who became possessed in 1968. Although the film is dramatised, there are interesting aspects of the true story that deserve note. Firstly there is controversy surrounding whether the girl was, in fact, possessed at all; the parents and exorcists were charged with negligence after the girl died following a protracted illness with pneumonia and starvation. But also there is a supernatural character quite extraordinary: the fact that the girl was previously devout in her faith, and was comforted during her trials by apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary. She was allegedly given the option of divine deliverance, but opted for her special 'mission' of showing the world the power of evil.

Nowadays the Devil's greatest triumph is that noone believes in him (not even many so-called Christians). Secondly, that many people do not even believe in Sin, but that in the relativistic culture of ours, values are fleeting and built on sand. Perhaps if people are faced with the tangible power of evil, they will come to realise the subtle influence that the devil has over our lives. When I came to conversion, I realised that most of my mental block towards the Faith was related to this, rather than a sort of 'enlightened reasoning' which I thought I had.