He is happy to see the growth in the ministry of exorcists in the U. It may actually fracture and break them even further. He said the growth also could be from the openness of speaking about this ministry, which he has done around the world. The devil is still a creature. Auxiliary Bishop Jeffrey S. Grob of Chicago was appointed exorcist for his archdiocese in He and Father Lampert have known each other for decades, having been seminarians together before they were ordained in the early s.
Father Lampert is a very solidly grounded guy in his faith, his practice of the faith and his teaching of the faith. Therefore, experts in the medical and psychiatric sciences are always consulted. Before performing any exorcism ritual, Bryan goes through a check list of questions to assess the mental health of his client.
Bryan says between 70 to 85 per cent of his clients have mental conditions better served by pastoral care and traditional therapy. Dr Christine Simmonds-Moore, a professor in psychology at the University of West Georgia, says the pandemic has led to heightened feelings of anxiety and depression.
The country has been marred by violence and division. She believes that there is a therapeutic value to religion and spirituality, providing people with a sense of control in what has been a turbulent year for Americans.
In Los Angeles, one foodbank is feeding , people a month, around three times more than prior to the pandemic. Without work for a year, she has been relying on these handouts.
Two experts on exorcism -- religious studies professor Andrew Chesnut of Virginia Commonwealth University and the Rev. Pius Pietrzyk of St. Chesnut noted that in Mexico, some high-ranking Catholic clergy performed an exorcism in seeking to expel demons nationwide.
Participants said they were responding to high levels of violence, the practice of abortion and the crimes of the drug cartels. More broadly, Chesnut said exorcism, in its traditional form as a demon-chaser, is increasingly widespread around the world, though there are no official statistics. He says the driving force behind the surge since the s has been the spread of Pentecostal churches that highlight the conflict between demons and the Holy Spirit, especially in Latin America, Africa and parts of Asia, including the Philippines.
Brazil is a particular hot spot for exorcisms, sometimes featured on televised broadcasts of church services. The Vatican has opened its doors for its annual exorcism course amid increasing demand among some of the world's Catholic communities. As many as priests from 50 countries have arrived in Rome to learn how to identify demonic possession, to hear personal accounts from other priests and to find out more about the rituals behind expelling demons.
Exorcism remains controversial, in part due to its depiction in popular culture and horror films. But there have also been some cases of abuse linked to exorcisms in a range of religious sects. The week-long Vatican course is described as the only international series of lectures of its kind. Entitled Exorcism and the Prayer of Liberation, it first opened its doors in and the number of priests attending has more than doubled since then. Catholic priests in several countries have told the press there has been an increase in the numbers of people reporting signs of demonic possession.
Last year Pope Francis told priests that they "must not hesitate" to refer parishioners to exorcists if they suffer from "genuine spiritual disturbances". Half a million people reportedly seek exorcisms every year in Italy, while a report by Christian think-tank Theos in said that the practice was also on the rise in the UK, in part due to the spread of Pentecostal churches. Some dioceses have developed their own courses to meet the growing demand, including in Sicily and the US city of Chicago.
Father Gary Thomas, an American priest who has practised exorcisms for 12 years, says that one reason for the increase is that as society has begun to rely more heavily on social sciences, fewer churches have trained exorcists. The decline of Christianity has also led to an increase in superstitious practices, he believes.
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