Cover
story The Exorcist fairly close to the mark
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
NCR Staff Rome
Despite Hollywoods reputation
for sensationalism, some practitioners say the 1973 film The
Exorcist -- scheduled for rerelease Sept. 22 -- is fairly close to the
mark. The film, which was a huge box office success and is largely responsible
for shaping most Americans notion of demonic possession, is actually
fairly close to the mark.
Fr. Rufus Perea, an exorcist from Bombay, India, told NCR
that if anything, The Exorcist pulled some punches. Based on
what Ive seen, the movie is tame, Perea said. Fr. Gabriele Amorth,
Romes chief exorcist, said in an NCR interview that while he
typically dislikes Hollywood treatments of the demonic, this film is something
of an exception.
To Exorcist buffs, its no surprise if the movie
rings true. The novel on which the film was based drew on a real series of
exorcisms that occurred in 1949; details can be found in the 1993 book
Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism (Doubleday). That book
incorporates material from a diary kept by one of the exorcists during the
procedure.
The case centered on a 13-year-old boy living in Mount Rainer,
Md., a suburb of Washington, who shared his aunts affinity for playing
with a Ouija board. The board is believed by some to put the living in contact
with the spirit world.
After the aunt died on Jan. 26, the boys family began to
hear scratching noises in the walls and in the mattress in the boys room.
Objects began to fly around the house, observers said, and the boy would lapse
into long blackouts. One night he sat in a chair that, according to family
members, began to levitate.
Two Jesuit priests examined the boy and, after careful
consideration, decided to perform an exorcism. After five nights the procedure
was called to a halt when the boy managed to pry loose a spring from his bed
and sliced one of the priests arms open.
Stories in the local press attracted the attention of Georgetown
University student William Peter Blatty, who later wrote the novel The
Exorcist based on his research into the case.
When the word Louis appeared in scratches on the boys
body, the family took it as a sign to move to St. Louis where they had
relatives. There, after another round of medical and psychiatric tests, another
team of Jesuits began a series of exorcisms.
In a 1995 interview with The Kansas City Star, two of the
priests recounted their experiences. Arrows and words like Hell or
Go were on his arms, chest, stomach and his legs, one of them
recalled. The image of a winged bat or devil appeared on his
skin.
I believe this was a genuine case of possession, said
Jesuit Fr. Walter Halloran, who assisted with the St. Louis exorcism.
The priests continued to exorcise the boy with little success. At
one point a demon allegedly told them he would not depart until a certain word
was uttered. Then one day just before Easter, a deep voice arose from the boy
identifying itself as the Archangel Michael. It spoke the word Dominus,
Latin for Lord, and according to the priests a thunderous bang rang
through the Alexian Brothers hospital where the exorcism was being
performed.
The boy is said to have awakened after the bang and asked,
Where am I? He was soon discharged from the hospital. Although his
identity has never been made public, one of the Jesuits told the Star
that the boy grew up and married, raised a family and named his first son
Michael.
This is the one case of which we have the best record,
said Jesuit Fr. Francis Cleary, who teaches a course on Evil and the Demonic
Tradition at the Jesuit-run St. Louis University. Cleary noted that the book is
noncommittal as to the presence of the demonic, offering several other possible
explanations for the boys behavior, including sexual abuse.
Cleary told NCR that although he takes the possibility of
possession seriously, it is a mistake to leap from that to belief in a
devil as often portrayed in popular culture.
If by the devil you mean a totally evil power opposite to
God, then no, Cleary said. Pure evil is pure nonbeing. I prefer to
refer, with St. Paul, to principalities and powers, evil forces
seeking to undo Gods good creation. Belief in such evil forces I
understand to be a sine qua non of the Catholic faith.
National Catholic Reporter, September 1,
2000
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