Exorcist Director Invited to The Vatican
Earlier this month at the Cannes Film Festival, 80-year old filmmaker, William Friedkin, the director of the horror classic The Exorcist, revealed he was allowed to film a real exorcism at the Vatican earlier this month and that the rite was creepily similar to the one portrayed in the movie. While the Vatican denies the event occurred on its premises since it doesn’t actually have an exorcist, it appears Friedkin was invited to observe the rite by the chief exorcist of Rome.
Despite a lengthy list of movies related to the genre (including two sequels by the same name and one prequel), more than 40 years after The Exorcist made its debut, the film still packs a punch. Pea soup projectile vomiting aside—the movie explores some of the darkest terrors in our human psyche, fueled by the fact that it was based on a real and very well-documented incident in 1949 involving a 14-year old boy in Washington, D.C. If a human being can indeed be possessed and manipulated by malevolent spirits, what else is possible and what falls from this? It stands to reason if the devil exists, so does God. To some these days, the latter proposition generates even greater fear.
But there is another element in the film that carries a certain mystique: the rite itself. How can simple words eradicate evil? There are no magical incantations, no bizarre, erratic gesticulations. Putting your right foot in, out, and shaking it all about won’t cause the demon to shriek in pain and vacate its cozy new nest. The rite is simply a series of prayers read from the Rituale Romanum, offered by an ordained priest of the Catholic Church with the permission of his bishop, said with faith and in the name of The Holy Trinity. And yet, time and again, the “formula” has proven true and effective. How do I know this with any certainty? Blame it on the extensive research I did for my first book of The Magnum Opus Trilogy. Am I an expert now? Hardly—nor would I want to be—since it’s never a good idea to dwell on these things for too long! However, in the event I should ever be a spectator to such an event, I have learned a few helpful tips.
First and foremost, never go to an exorcism without having all your sins (especially the embarrassing ones) forgiven through sacramental confession. Demons can and will, through the possessed, blurt out any black marks still on your soul. The good part is they are powerless to do so after you have repented and been forgiven. Whew! Second, never engage an evil spirit in any type of discourse or conversation other than the words prescribed in the Rituale Romanum. In other words—follow the formula to the letter. Demons are nothing more or less than fallen angels. Since they are pure spirit, the dumbest fallen angel will always outsmart the brightest human (BTW, the same applies for our own guardian angels). By ourselves, a human being CANNOT fight a fallen angel and win. We simply don’t have what it takes. This is why the exorcist invokes God, Whose name above all has the power to liberate.
So why was the director of The Exorcist invited to film an actual exorcism after all this time? Perhaps it was because incidents of possession, oppression, obsession and infestation have multiplied dramatically in recent years and this was one way to give a blind, unsuspecting humanity a heads up. Or to quote from another popular movie, The Exorcism of Emily Rose (also based on real events), Emily expresses it this way:
“I awoke a few hours later, hearing a voice calling out my name. It was the Blessed Holy Mother of God. And when I looked at her she smiled at me and said: ‘Emily, heaven is not blind to your pain. You can come with me in peace, free of your bodily form or you can choose to continue this. You will suffer greatly. But through you, many will come to see that the realm of the spirit is real. The choice is yours.’
“I choose to stay. In the end, good will triumph over evil. Through my experience people will know that demons are real. People say that God is dead. But how can they think that if I show them the devil?”
