Exorcists on Front Lines of Fighting the Devil: Inside Their Struggles, Demonic Battles By Billy Hallowell for Faith Wire
Catholic exorcists are reportedly overwhelmed and overworked, with requests for spiritual healing continuing to ramp up and surpass capabilities, according to a new survey of priests.
Exorcists attending the Vatican’s annual conference reportedly shared several needs, including more help from psychologists to properly delineate between those suffering from mental versus spiritual afflictions.
Possession is generally seen as the overtaking of one’s body and abilities by a demonic entity. Numerous examples of possession — and healing — are shown throughout Scripture.
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Though controversy surrounds the finer details of the spiritual warfare battle as it plays out today, experts rely on mental health providers to determine between physical and spiritual distress.
People suffering from possession often have supernatural or intensified physical strength and can sometimes speak in languages unfamiliar to the host. Mark 5:1-10 (NIV) showcases just one such example:
They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.
When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”
Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”
“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.
That story, of course, ends with the man’s healing and with the demons being sent into a herd of pigs.
