This former Catholic priest left the priesthood in the 1970s. In the following interview, he shares a story of demonic possession and the subsequent exorcism.
What are the Restrictions when it Comes to Sharing Information about Demonic Cases Dealt with by the Church?
“There really aren’t restrictions. It’s more that the people who are involved in them [exorcisms] are so disturbed by them… that they’re so personal. They are reluctant to really talk about it very much except in certain circumstances where they feel the need or can help someone understand the reality of demonic possession…
There are only a few people that really have a first hand knowledge of it [exorcisms]. They are chosen to be exorcists, to perform ceremonies to drive out the demons that may possess someone.
They’re usually people that are chosen because they have backgrounds that are without any question – they’re usually pretty moral and holy people.
“In demonic possession, one of the things an exorcist faces is a spirit that knows… all of their secrets and will openly attack them on that basis. So you don’t want to go into a situation like that facing a demon and have all of your sins… exposed – so, they’re usually kind of special people to begin with. It becomes almost like a personal confrontation.
All the students slept in one large dormitory area and this one student, just in the middle of the night would have this deep demonic sounding voice come out of him and laugh insanely.
He would fly out of the bed and go into the aisle and when he brushed his teeth the tube would explode and shoot all over the place. It got to be worse and worse over a period of months and it came to fruition when they were in the Benediction ceremony in the chapel.
When they held up this golden holder and blessed the congregation with it, the priest and everybody in the room was locked in slow motion as this demonic laughter rang out throughout the chapel, like mocking the presence of God. They did an exorcism on the whole school and chapel.
Did the Exorcism Work?
“Yes, they didn’t have any more cases of it in the school except that the demon harassed this priest for a period of months to the point of when he was sleeping at night the bed would fly up six feet off the floor, come crashing back down.
He would get blankets pulled off the bed, he would have demonic laughter in his room. When he would try to eat, he [the demon] would throw the food on the floor.
He wasn’t possessed; he was what they call obsessed. Possession is when the demon internalizes in the person and demonic obsession is when he doesn’t go within the person but he harasses the person externally.
It’s like the devil becomes obsessed with the person or gets angry at them.
“He was talking about not underestimating the power of the devil and the importance of your faith and trust in God in difficult times and somebody asked him “we’ve heard that you dealt with cases of possession and yet you never talk about it.” He didn’t bring it up on his own.
He reluctantly went through all these details and said that he didn’t talk about it very much because it wasn’t a pleasant experience but that people tend to not think these things are real but through his experience he learned they were… told us that if we ever came into contact with anything like this, to be careful.
It’s an area that you don’t go into lightly and only those with honest spirits or lives that are on a strong moral path, like church leaders, for example, can be put in a situation where you’re challenging Satan – because Satan doesn’t play fair.You kind of have to be prepared for… demonic revenge. When he talked about it you could see how difficult it was for him to discuss these things.
Did this Priest Say How the Demonic Obsession Ended?
It basically went on for couple of months and he told it to go away and prayed over it. It tapered off and went away. The student had to be removed from the seminary and I don’t know that he ever really got rid of it.
Interview with Anonymous Former Catholic Priest. Interviewer: Emily Jeanne Eppig
