Thursday, June 16, 2016

Luke, Chapter 8, Verse 35-37

³⁵ People came out to see what had happened and, when they approached Jesus, they discovered the man from whom the demons had come out sitting at his feet. He was clothed and in his right mind, and they were seized with fear. ³⁶ Those who witnessed it told them how the possessed man had been saved. ³⁷ The entire population of the region of the Gerasenes asked Jesus to leave them because they were seized with great fear. So he got into a boat and returned.

The population was more Greek than they were Jews; thus Jesus scared them really bad, with the exorcism and all. Christ understood their fear and got in the boat and left. The Church today still has the power of exorcism.

The Latin Church Bishops of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops approved the English translation of De Exorcismis et Supplicationibus Quibusdam, editio typica in November 2014, and the final text of Exorcisms and Related Supplications (ERS) is being sent to the Holy See for the requisite confirmation. In the course of the approval process, a list of frequently asked questions on exorcism and its use in the Church's liturgical life was developed by the Secretariat of Divine Worship. Answers were provided by specialists in this ministry and by experts in canon law.

Since so much of the common perception of the nature and application of exorcism is shaped by the exaggerations of movie scripts and television programs, the Committee on Divine Worship has approved dissemination of these basic questions and answers, in hopes that clear information is brought to bear on a topic that is often shrouded in mystery or misinformation.