Print friendly
Italy’s biggest Catholic diocese, the archdiocese of Milan, has boosted its number of exorcists and set up an exorcism hotline so troubled people can telephone to set up an appointment.
To cope with a doubling in the number of requests for help over the past 15 years, the archdiocese has also doubled to 12 the number of priests authorised to act as exorcists.
Auxiliary Bishop Angelo Mascheroni, the archdiocese’s chief exorcist since 1995, said he knew of one exorcist who had been seeing up to 120 people a day.
“But with so little time per client he was only able to offer a quick blessing. That’s not enough,” he said. “There should be two to four appointments a day, no more, otherwise it’s too much.”
Bishop Mascheroni did not know why the number of cases had risen so sharply, but he said part of the increase might be explained by the rising numbers of parents having difficulty controlling disobedient teenagers.
“Usually the parents call [because they are] concerned about a child who won’t go to school or who’s taking drugs or rebelling. In reality it’s not a demon, but when they’re 18 years old young people don’t want to be told what to do.”
All who sought help were welcomed, he said. “When they come to me, I say the Our Father, the most beautiful prayer that Jesus taught us, and that is the first real exorcism because we say, ‘Deliver us from evil’.”
But, he added, real diabolical phenomena were very rare in his experience and mental and psychiatric disorders were often to blame for unusual behaviour.
Sources:
Image: Archdiocese of Palermo
Related Posts:
News category: World.
