Exorcism in the Modern Day

Father Vince Lampert, an exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, said, “There has been a greater demand for people to call and talk to exorcists. From a faith perspective it may seem like the devil has upped his game, so to speak. I don’t think the devil has upped his game, but more people are inclined to play that game… Demonic possession is a possibility. It could happen but it’s extremely rare.”

William Bigelow at Breitbart

____________

First, I intensely dislike Breitbart the website. If I don't have plug-ins and javascript turned off, you get ads, pop-ups, and all kinds of clutter which my poor old WinXP box can barely handle. That said, it's because I had js and plug-ins turned on when I loaded this page that I discovered there was a video; without js and plug-ins, there is no clue of a video. Also, the video is auto-play and starts with an ad. So, horrible website all around. But, I didn't miss the video.

The video is a Fox News report. Much of it is tedious or sensationalistic, but worth watching for the parts with Father Vince Lampert, an exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

I've long known about, and greatly appreciate, the approach described in the article and video, regarding the Church's approach to possession. Eminently reasonable to assume what seems like possession is a chemical or psychological problem, but never ruling out the possibility of the real thing. And knowing how to tell the difference.

There was a time in my yoot I would probably have dismissed the whole concept of Devil and demons, at least as popularly conceived. Fortunately, that stage didn't last long. My realization (reading them ol' Gospels in the KJV) of the reality of Jesus, and the reality of his declaring himself the Son of God demanded that I choose whether he was a mostly cool teacher with a nutty streak, or the sanest man ever. Evidence favored the latter. Likewise, after reading about Jesus dealing with the Devil and with possession, and realizing, this was history, not myth, and not legend tipped in with the truth, but the real thing, I began to try to understand more about that aspect, too.

[As sometimes happens when I'm writing here, I rambled on for 'way too many subsequent paragraphs for a comment, so I cut the whole thing. Pasted to a file, though. Might be useful. ]