The Real Drama of Exorcism| National Catholic Register

In a recent note, the International Association of Exorcists (IAE) offers some important clarifications regarding the practice of exorcism, in light of various errors that have come to affect some priests and even exorcists themselves. 

Few ministries in the Church’s life have captured the popular imagination as much as this solemn act aimed at expelling the influence of evil spirits. There is something profoundly gripping about the drama of diabolical possession that continues to fascinate people.

Hollywood, known for its reliance on tried-and-true formulas, has frequently returned to this theme, beginning with the 1974 horror film The Exorcist. Most recently, the 2024 film The Exorcism, starring Russell Crowe, revisited the subject. Just a year earlier, Crowe played the exorcist for the Diocese of Rome in The Pope’s Exorcist, a movie with only a loose connection to fact. 

Such cinematic portrayals, while at their best offering a thrilling experience to audiences, do little to convey the reality of a vital ministry that carries on an activity that Christ himself performed. 

The excitement aroused by such movies inevitably draws from the alluring power of evil, which is falsely depicted as existing on a level equal to the forces of good.

In The Exorcist, a demon is expelled from the 12-year-old girl Regan MacNeil, but only after causing a heart attack in Father Lankester Merrin and taking possession of Father Damian Karras. The malign spirit leads the latter priest to jump out the window and tumble to his death. In The Pope’s Exorcist and The Exorcism, the priest exorcists are likewise lacking in strength before the power of evil. The demonic influence is removed only when the priests in both movies offer themselves to the evil one. 

Sacred Scripture, on the contrary, does not convey such parity between good and evil. While God’s revelation acknowledges the existence of the devil and evil spirits, such forces never have any strength against the power of God. The Old Testament, with its deep awareness of God’s transcendence, rejected the dualistic idea present in other ancient religions that viewed the world in terms of a battle between good and evil. 

The New Testament reveals to us the powerlessness of demons before the presence of Christ. St. Mark records the anguished cry of an unclean spirit, before being expelled: “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” With Our Lord’s passion, death and resurrection, the devil and his angels have been definitively defeated. 

Hence, Christians must reject the fear of the devil that so often drives cinematic portrayals of exorcism. The note of the IAE reminds exorcists of the frequent biblical exhortation not to be afraid, and urges them to help others resist giving in to trepidation before the reality of demonic activity. 

The Christian, instead of such worldly anxiety, is called to live with serene trust in God’s power and mercy. Such peace can prevail even amid the torment that the devil’s action may inflict. As the note also teaches, the supernatural acceptance of suffering, in union with Christ’s Cross, can turn evil into good.

The genuine reality of exorcism, then, is something far different from the dark and cryptic vision that predominates in popular culture. This ministry is an expression of the Church’s essential mission of bringing God’s mercy to souls. Through this practice, as the note points out, the Church pours out “oil and wine” (Luke 10:34) — like the Good Samaritan — upon the wounds of those persons who are tormented by an extraordinary action of the evil one.

Nonetheless, a genuine Christian perspective on exorcism does not fail to see a compelling and profound real-life story in this ancient liturgical practice. This drama is not that of an intense combat between good and evil in which the outcome is uncertain. The believer is called to live with the assurance that Christ has utterly vanquished the enemy of human salvation and with the hope that, in Christ, he too will overcome the wiles of the devil. Even if the outcome of this story is known, Christ’s victory over the devil inspires us as a revelation of God’s power, mercy and love for mankind who remains afflicted by sin and the evil one’s action. 

God has willed that this triumph takes place through the mediation of the Church. The ecclesial aspect of exorcism is a particular source of confusion in society today, and a principal theme addressed by the note. 

People today might easily wonder: How can an exorcist, a man who is beset with his own weaknesses and sins, confront those evil spirits who can seem to have such sway in our world? Perhaps an incapacity to believe that God’s power works in such a manner results in the common portrayal of these ministers as weak characters.

Such a question can only be answered with reference to the unfathomable mystery of the Church, which film — and, more generally, a purely human perspective — inevitably fails to capture. Beyond the limitations and failings present among its members, the Church is that community of faith, hope and love by which Christ has communicated “truth and grace to all” (Lumen Gentium, 8). 

The priest who acts as minister of exorcism — with the proper delegation from the bishop — has the power to act in the name and the power of Christ. The note reprehends those persons who, instead of turning to the competent Church authority, try their own “arbitrary paths of liberation” or follow other figures whom they consider “more powerful.” 

Such an attitude, the IAE states, necessarily leads to fear, as one seeks to combat the forces of darkness with superstition rather than authentic faith. Belief, on the other hand, leads us to look beyond the human aspects of the Church’s minister and recognize the presence of Christ. 

As the note recalls, Christ is the only one who has, by his own power, authority over demons. Hence, the minister of exorcism should “avoid any form of protagonism.” He is not a person with special powers to expel the influence of evil. He acts, like every priest, as an instrument in the hands of Christ.

The note, then, is a healthy corrective to those exaggerated ideas and the excessive curiosity about exorcisms so common today. The Association laments those persons who, instead of announcing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, fix their attention “exclusively on the presence and on the work of the devil.” 

Instead, the IAE affirms, Christians are urged to keep their hearts fixed on Christ and those means that Christ has established to grant us true peace: a life of charity, nourished by the Word of God, prayer, the sacraments and “an authentic devotion to the Immaculate Virgin.”

Such are the means that Christians are given to rely on in their daily combat against sin and the devil. For all the attention the practice receives, the Church employs exorcism in a small number of cases which require thorough discernment. 

Nevertheless, perhaps the contemporary fascination with the subject can serve to remind us of a wider reality that does indeed penetrate the daily life of the believer: that of Christ’s unequivocal victory over the devil, and his call to men and women to freely open their hearts to this triumph. That moving drama, far surpassing anything Hollywood can offer, truly merits our attention.

National Catholic Register