The Dark Sacrament (45 page)

The 1641 ritual had been drawn up in a time that had witnessed an outbreak of witchcraft across Europe, one that spared few countries. As we have seen, Irish witches were only rarely executed. Elsewhere, a conviction of witchcraft almost always carried the death penalty. In the few instances where clemency was shown, a priest might perform a ceremony of exorcism to drive out the demon that was supposed to have taken possession of the witch. Or the priest might seek to nullify any “pact” the accused had made with Satan.

Although the notion of pacts with the Devil vanished almost entirely in later centuries, pockets of belief and superstition persisted, especially in remote rural areas. In Germany, such superstition, or
Aberglaube,
relied on “names of power” by which a demon might be brought to heel or warded off. As late as the last century, farmers would nail pieces of cardboard above doors and stables before dawn on January 6, Three Kings' Day. The letters CMB were written on the cards, a reference to the magi: Caspar, Melchior, and Balthazar. The ritual was intended to keep Satan—and his minions—away.

THE EXORCISM OF MARY X

One of the most notorious cases of alleged possession had its roots in the closing decade of the nineteenth century. The victim was a girl of fourteen called Mary who was born and raised in an undisclosed location in the American Midwest. She began hearing voices that made obscene suggestions and developed a distaste for anything religious. She could speak in languages she had never learned and manifested many other signs that could indicate demonic possession.

Strangely enough, however, it was not until 1928, when Mary was forty years of age, that she finally agreed to an exorcism—we do
not know what happened in the intervening twenty-six years. She was taken to a convent in Earling, Iowa, there to await the arrival of an exorcist.

The man appointed to the task was a German-American priest named Theophilus Riesinger, a member of the Capuchin order. He enjoyed a reputation as a successful banisher of unclean entities. Yet Mary would prove to be the greatest challenge of his career.

Begun on the first day of December, the exorcism was to last for a grueling twenty-three days. Father Riesinger was assisted by his friend and fellow monk Father Joseph Steiger. The two were to experience terrible resistance from a number of demons who appeared to have taken control of the woman, chief among whom was one who identified himself as Beelzebub.

As the days wore on, certain details about Mary's past emerged. The priests discovered that her father, Jacob, had attempted an incestuous relationship with her. We do not know for certain if he succeeded. It also came to light that Mary's mother had killed four of her own infants. It seems that for these crimes the parents, on their deaths, were damned. Among their infernal “tasks” was to demonize their daughter and to curse her.

A fearsome array of demons presented themselves; among them was one called Mina, who, it seems, in life was Jacob's mistress. The demons used many stratagems to thwart the exorcism: Father Steiger had a freak auto accident but survived, and the entities unsuccessfully attempted to drive a wedge between the priests.

Again and again, the Rituale Romanum was enacted, without any outward sign that the victim was responding. Demons continued to speak out of Mary's mouth, at times divulging information that she could not have known. At times the voices could be heard even when Mary's mouth was shut.

But the entities left in the end, two days before Christmas. At their leaving, the priests heard a piercing scream, followed by a raucous cacophony of voices filling the room where the victim lay. Evidently they were those of the demons, including her father and
his mistress. Their parting words were, “Beelzebub, Judas, Jacob, Mina—hell, hell, hell!”

The curses had been lifted. Mary regained her own consciousness. Her first words were in praise of Jesus.

SATANISM AND THE BEAST

In England in 1929, a flamboyant braggart named Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) published his
Confessions,
in which he all but admitted “going over” to the Devil. His enemies—and he had made a great number—needed no such admission. Throughout his long career as a magician, scandal followed Crowley wherever he went, and he was accused of all manner of perversion, from satanism to human sacrifice. A newspaper famously called him “the wickedest man in the world”; he himself rejoiced in the title of The Beast—the name by which his own mother knew him.

When he died in a boardinghouse in Hastings, a hopeless drug addict, he bequeathed to posterity a system of magic (or “magick” as he preferred to call it) that was at the very least ambiguous in its dealings with the preternatural, the demonic.

But generally speaking, demonic possession, its prevention and cure, did not figure largely in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century. There were isolated cases, most of which merited little more than a footnote in a news report.

That was to change. “This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius,” sang the chorus of the rock musical
Hair
in 1968, and we were invited to believe that we were entering a period of

It was a charming but dangerous naiveté. The reality would prove very different indeed.

DEMONS IN A TIME OF SCIENCE AND WONDERS

With the turn of the century—and the millennium—a paradox like no other in history arose. In the face of encroaching secularism and a flowering of science and technology, exorcism was more prominent than it had been for hundreds of years.

Even the pope was engaging in it. In September 2000, John Paul II cast a demon out of a nineteen-year-old Italian woman. She had attended a public audience with the pontiff in St. Peter's Square.

She was brought to Father Gabriele Amorth, who tried twice to rid her of the evil that had taken control. He failed. It was a measure of Amorth's confidence in the pope that he allowed the woman to be brought before him. John Paul prayed over her for more than half an hour, and succeeded in banishing the demon—though only temporarily. At one point, the young woman, in a loud, masculine voice, was heard to bellow: “Not even the head of your Church can send me away!”

Catholics everywhere greeted the news with bemusement tinged with awe; when it became known that it was the
third
exorcism performed by that particular pope while in office, eyebrows were raised even more. Pontiffs are not supposed to soil their hands with the “dirtier work” of the Church; they are expected to fulfill a more symbolic role.

The Holy Father's intervention served also to endorse a growing development within the twenty-first-century Christian Church: the recognition that Satan was at work with a vengeance, and battle had been joined.

Few could have imagined, half a century ago, that the third millennium of Christendom would be ushered in by the pope of Rome battling Christ's greatest adversary. The notion is unsettling for Christian and unbeliever alike. Satan ought not to have a place in our modern world.

Yet there are those who do not doubt that responsibility for many of the world's woes can be laid at the Devil's door. They argue
that our species could not possibly visit so much evil on its fellow creatures alone and unaided. It is not part of our make-up, they contend; when men commit the most unspeakable crimes, they are going against human nature.

The debate—an important part of it, in any case—is whether evil is innate or demonic forces are at work in the world, forces that can turn ostensibly normal, rational individuals into monsters. British author and former crime reporter Brian McConnell chooses to believe the latter.

The name Michael means in Hebrew “he who is like God.” The Archangel Michael is traditionally seen as the archfoe of Satan, since it was he who fought Lucifer and his angels when they challenged God. The Revelation of St. John the Divine (12:7–9) recounts how “there was war in heaven.”

Pope Leo XIII had a curious experience in 1884, toward the end of his reign. In conclave with his cardinals, he suddenly fainted. They feared him dead, but he recovered consciousness with the words: “I have had a terrible vision.” He told of the legions of the Devil overrunning the world, yet repulsed in the end by Michael and his forces. The pontiff took the vision to be a sign that the importance of the archangel should be acknowledged, and to this end
composed a prayer to be included at the close of all “low” Masses. It is a bone of contention for many Catholics, both clerics and laity, that this prayer—a powerful petition in the fight against evil—was dropped in 1970, during the reign of Pope Paul VI.

Two translations from the original Latin follow. The first is the full prayer, complete with responses, as written by Leo XIII. The second is the shorter version.

P
RAYER TO
A
RCHANGEL
M
ICHAEL

F
ULL
V
ERSION

Most glorious Prince of the Heavenly Armies, Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in “our battle against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this world of darkness, against the spirits of wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). Come to the assistance of men whom God has created to His likeness and whom He has redeemed at a great price from the tyranny of the Devil. Holy Church venerates thee as her guardian and protector; to thee, the Lord has entrusted the souls of the redeemed to be led into heaven. Pray, therefore, the God of Peace to crush Satan beneath our feet, that he may no longer retain men captive and do injury to the Church. Offer our prayers to the Most High, that without delay they may draw His mercy down upon us; take hold of the dragon, “the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan”; bind him and cast him into the bottomless pit, “so that he may no longer seduce the nations” (Revelation 20:3).

In the Name of Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, strengthened by the intercession of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God, of Blessed Michael the Archangel, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and all the Saints, we confidently undertake to repulse the attacks and deceits of the Devil.

“Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered; let those who hate Him flee before Him. As smoke is driven away, so drive them away; as wax melts before the fire, so the wicked perish at the presence of God” (Psalm 68).

V. Behold the Cross of the Lord, flee bands of enemies.

R. He has conquered, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the offspring of David.

V. May Thy mercy, Lord, descend upon us.

R. As great as our hope in Thee.

(At the © make the Sign of the Cross.)

We drive you from us, whoever you may be, every unclean spirit, all satanic powers, all infernal invaders, all wicked legions, assemblies and sects; in the Name and by the power of Our Lord Jesus Christ, © may you be snatched away and driven from the Church of God and from the souls made to the image and likeness of God and redeemed by the Precious Blood of the Divine Lamb. © Most cunning serpent, you shall no more dare to deceive the human race, persecute the Church, torment God's elect and sift them as wheat. © The Most High God commands you. © He with whom, in your great insolence, you still claim to be equal, “He who wants all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). God the Father commands you. © God the Son commands you. © God the Holy Ghost commands you. © Christ, God's Word made flesh, commands you. © He who to save our race outdone through your envy, “humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death” (Philippians 2:8); He who has built His Church on the firm rock and declared that the gates of hell shall not prevail against Her, because He will dwell with Her “all days, even to the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). The sacred Sign of the Cross commands you, © as does also the power of the mysteries of the Christian faith. © The glorious Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, commands you. © She who by her humility and from the first moment of her Immaculate Conception, crushed your proud head. The faith of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and of the other Apostles commands you. © The blood of the Martyrs and the pious intercession of all the Saints command you. ©

Thus, cursed dragon, and you, diabolical legions, we adjure you by the living God, © by the true God, © by the holy God, © by the God “who so loved the world that He gave up His only Son, that every soul
believing in Him might not perish but have life everlasting” (John 3:16); stop deceiving human creatures and pouring out to them the poison of eternal damnation; stop harming the Church and hindering her liberty. Begone, Satan, inventor and master of all deceit, enemy of man's salvation. Give place to Christ in whom you have found none of your works; give place to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church acquired by Christ at the price of His Blood. Stoop beneath the all-powerful Hand of God; tremble and flee when we invoke the Holy and terrible Name of Jesus, this Name which causes hell to tremble, this Name to which the Virtues, Powers and Dominations of Heaven are humbly submissive, this Name which the Cherubim and Seraphim praise unceasingly repeating: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, the God of Armies.

V. O Lord, hear my prayer.

R. And let my cry come unto Thee. V. May the Lord be with thee.

R. And with thy spirit.

Let us pray.

God of Heaven, God of Earth, God of Angels, God of Archangels, God of Patriarchs, God of Prophets, God of Apostles, God of Martyrs, God of Confessors, God of Virgins, God who has power to give life after death and rest after work, because there is no other God than Thee and there can be no other, for Thou art the Creator of all things, visible and invisible, of whose reign there shall be no end, we humbly prostrate ourselves before Thy glorious Majesty and we beseech Thee to deliver us by Thy power from all the tyranny of the infernal spirits, from their snares, their lies and their furious wickedness; deign, o Lord, to grant us Thy powerful protection and to keep us safe and sound. We beseech Thee through Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

From the snares of the Devil, deliver us, o Lord.

That Thy Church may serve Thee in peace and liberty, we beseech Thee to hear us.

That Thou may crush down all enemies of Thy Church, we beseech Thee to hear us.

Holy water is sprinkled in the place where we may be.

P
RAYER TO
A
RCHANGEL
M
ICHAEL
S
HORT
V
ERSION

St. Michael, Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the Devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the Divine Power, thrust into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who prowl about the world, seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.