How common are exorcims and what do they involve? What is the Church`s official stance
Depends on who’s doing it. If by “The Church” you mean the Roman Catholic Church, I’m sure there are a couple dozen or so per year. Maybe more, maybe less. They aren’t publicized, although I do seem to recall reading that the Chicago Archdiocese just hired an official exorcist a year or so ago.
I’m sure other denominations have them on a first-come, first-serve basis, so to speak.
What’s involved? Catholic Rite of Exorcism is, I’m sure, a very long and very involved ritual involving Holy Water, Latin recitations, and a bunch of other stuff that I wouldn’t be able to fathom. You see, I’m not Catholic.
As for non-Catholic exorcisms, I saw one on 20/20 once. Took place in a Baptist church in the South (Tennessee?). It was mostly the preacher screaming at a 20-something woman who thrashed about violently while 7 or so men held her. She was screaming and moaning and basically being a big pain in the ass.
YMMV
I’m Catholic, and I have yet to hear of an official exorcism taking place. I don’t imagine most priests I know going for it-they’d probably laugh.
I’ll ask one of my professors though, who knows alot about the church-he once studied to be a monk. Maybe he knows.
It used to be that all Catholic priests were trained exorcists, and as far as I’m aware they still are, although generally it’s an area of religion that the church keeps quiet about if it can.
In the more evangelical/charasmatic churches (both Catholic and Protestant) exorcisms are still common, and as rastahomie saw on TV, they involve a lot of screaming and shouting as the demon is ‘cast out’.
A minister named Neil Anderson has come up with another method of dealing with those who are ‘possessed’ or demonised that avoids all the screaming. The website is http://www.ficm.org although I don’t think it really goes into details IIRC. The books are an interesting read though.
Not quite correct. In the past, before becoming a priest, every candidate was invested with four minor orders: porter, lector, exorcist, and acolyte. So officially, any priest (or invested candidate) had the power to perform an exorcism.
However, in practice, only a very few priests handle all the exorcisms, and the local bishops must give permission before they can proceed. The only “training” available is to work with an experienced exorcist. The “trainee” would need the permission of his superiors and bishop as well as the approval of the exorcist.
In recent years, I believe the official investiture with the four minor orders has been eliminated.
For more information on the Catholic position on these matters (as of 1908), see http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/.