The
Catholic Ministry of Deliverance
Influenced by their secular education many
in the Church don’t believe in the existence of the devil or
the reality of evil spirits. Yet with the growth in interest in the occult
in society at large many people, often innocently, are beginning to become affected
by evil spirits and need the Church’s help to deliver them.
Fr Rufus Pereira from
India is an acknowledged expert in the field of
healing and deliverance and is the President of the International Association of
Exorcists, a Vatican
approved body. Below he explains the Catholic understanding of
deliverance and its place in the Church’s ministry.
It is very clear from the Bible that Satan
or the Devil, (the Hebrew and Greek words for the enemy) does exist and
afflicts man. This is also the consistent teaching of the Catholic Church
reflected in its theology and in its official pronouncements.
But above all it is a rediscovery of our
present day pastoral ministry that has shown us that there are many problems
and evils today which are the result not only of one’s own sinfulness (the
flesh), or of the pressures and hurts caused by sinful man (the world), but of
some oppressive preternatural personified evil (the devil), and that such
problems and evils cannot be dealt with adequately simply by personal repentance
and interpersonal reconciliation but need what is called the act of deliverance
or liberation from this spiritual evil power or force (1 Pet 5.8,9: Eph
6.10-13).
Jesus our mighty deliverer
As a result of succumbing to the wiles of
the enemy, man brought disaster upon the whole human race. God so loved the
human race, however, that he did not abandon them, but gave through the
incarnation, his only Son, Jesus, the Saviour, who would crush the hold of
Satan on man’s life, redeem him from his power and restore him back to his
Father God.
When Jesus was 30 years old he would receive
the authority of the Father to proclaim the good news to the captives and
the power of the Holy Spirit to heal and deliver the oppressed. Peter would
later say how God anointed Jesus with the power of the Holy Spirit, and that is
why he went around doing good, healing all those who were under Satan’s power
because God was with him. (Acts 10.38).
And so Jesus went to every town and village
of Galilee, preaching and teaching, healing and casting out demons, for he had
come to establish the kingdom of God by destroying the works of Satan
(1 Jn 3.6).
He further sent his apostles with the
mandate to go out to the whole world and to proclaim the Gospel to all
creation; to cast out devils in His name and to lay their hands on the sick and
heal them (Mk 16:15-18).
Deliverance in the Church
Throughout its history the Church has
carried out the mandate Christ has entrusted to her, through the specific
ministry of exorcism and the general ministry of deliverance.
But it is especially today that through the
Catholic Charismatic Renewal people are
becoming more aware of the existence and the influence of Satan, of the
dangerous folly of seeking help from “wrong” sources and the availability of
the resources of the Church to not only heal them from sickness but to set them
free from such demonic influence and attacks.
But for us in our
Catholic tradition, deliverance is a manifestation of compassion for the
oppressed rather than an exercise of power against the oppressor.
It is also a process of liberation consisting of what
should happen before, during and after the prayer of deliverance rather than a once and
for all act of zeal and “holy violence”.
Before the prayer of Deliverance
One cannot sufficiently emphasise the need
for a minimum of
discernment and of preparation before, if possible, the actual prayer
for deliverance.
Discernment is exercised both through a careful
observation of signs or symptoms and especially through the inner prompting of
the Holy Spirit (since we are dealing with spiritual matters) and is
confirmed both by one’s own previous experience and, if there is need,
through consultation with those more experienced in this ministry.
Discernment is needed to know accurately
which areas of a person’s life are being targeted, the sources or
root causes and the entry points of a particular demonic influence or attack as
well as the channels of such affliction.
Discernment is especially needed to know whether
a person needs medical or psychiatric care rather than deliverance, or
whether we are dealing with some sort of occult control or ancestral
influence, or if there is some connection with a new religious movement, or
a link to a questionable alternative medicine, or even if there may be
some infestation of a building or place etc.
The process of deliverance becomes even
quicker and more certain if there is a possibility of what is called “inner
healing”. This involves finding out the root cause of emotional
disturbances which often open a person to demonic disturbances.
Inner healing also removes the blocks of
a lack of repentance, a lack of forgiveness and a lack of renunciation.
During the prayer of Deliverance
It is obvious that especially in this
ministry there must be both spiritual and practical preparation for
deliverance, which in most cases needs to be done privately and discreetly in a
suitable and proper environment.
The actual prayer of deliverance may be both imprecatory (binding and
casting out) and intercessory. It may also consist of both formal or
official and spontaneous, and even silent parts.
Those in the charismatic renewal have testified to
the great power of the prayer of praise and of praying in tongues in this
ministry.
Many have also testified to the role of the
Sacraments of the
Eucharist and of Reconciliation in deliverance and the added help of the
Sacramentals, especially blessed water, and the intercession of Mary, the
angels and saints.
The need for ongoing discernment as to
whether the person does need deliverance continues during the prayer. This is
mainly verified and confirmed through the person’s reactions to holy objects and to those in
spiritual authority.
There is also need here for discerning the “names of evil spirits”,
“familiar spirits”, “animal spirits”, “words of knowledge”, “resting in the
spirit” etc.
Finally one needs to discern whether the
person has been successfully delivered and to evaluate the reasons for any
failure, in order to know how to proceed later on.
After the prayer of Deliverance
The process of deliverance continues even
after a successful deliverance, in helping the one delivered to close the
door of his soul to the enemy, and to open them to the Paraclete.
Jesus himself warned us that when an evil
spirit leaves a man, he will go in search of another place but if he does not
find a suitable one, he will want to go back “home”. Finding it swept and clean
but empty he will re-enter the man with seven other evil spirits and the
condition of this man will be much worse than before (Lk 11.23-26).
Jesus too went in search of the
paralysed man a second time to caution him not to sin any more lest something
worse would happen to him (Jn 5.14).
It is essential therefore that there is provision
in this ministry for personal and communal aftercare, that will ensure
that a person’s deliverance is maintained, bringing him into the fellowship of
the Church and even motivating him to witness to the Lord (Mk5.20)
Conclusion
Although only priests officially designated
as “exorcists” may deal with cases of “possession”, we can all by virtue of our baptism pray for
deliverance for ourselves and in simple cases for our family members or friends.
But there are those, both priests and lay people, who seem to have a special
charism of praying for deliverance, which can be discerned by the fruits of their success
and by their sober and well balanced approach,
which needs to be
confirmed by the community and the Church.
Because of the nature of this demanding but
necessary ministry those involved need to pray for protection for themselves
and their families. They need to be humble, compassionate, fearless,
prayerful, knowledgeable, prudent and wise, working in teams, even including
psychiatrists [insert:(psychologists)] and be under the authority of the Church.
The promotion of such an ongoing and
systematic ministry
of deliverance within the local church is and should be an integral part of the
New Evangelisation in the New Millennium,
especially today when, as the Vatican’s Obsservatore Romano warns us, Satanism
in all its forms and through all the modern means of communication, is rearing
its ugly head.
This article originally appeared in the
September/October 2002 issue of GoodNews Magazine. To read more in-depth pieces
like this, please subscribe to GoodNews
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