Fifty young adults gathered at the centre located at the University of Toronto to watch the Hollywood film The Exorcism of Emily Rose. Said to be based on a true story, the film is about a priest charged with negligent care after Emily Rose, a first-year university student who suffered from demonic possession, dies shortly after an exorcism.
After watching the movie, the audience joined Fr. Ivan Camilleri and Christina Alaimo, Newman Catholic students’ president, for a discussion about Hollywood’s portrayal of the exorcism rite and the Catholic Church’s perspective.
Exorcism is the act of driving out, or warding off, demons or evil spirits from persons, places or things believed to be possessed or infested by them. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, an exorcism is when the Church “asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his dominion…”
Historically, the Church received the “power and office of exorcising” from Jesus who expelled demons during His time on Earth.
Camilleri, chancellor of spiritual affairs at the archdiocese of Toronto, identified the steps that need to be taken, including determining if the person is possessed, and then the steps that need to be taken to determine the type of pastoral care needed. Camilleri noted that if demons are present, the exorcising priest must seek permission from the bishop to perform the rite. At the same time, the affected individual needs to agree to an exorcism. In the archdiocese of Toronto, there are two priests who can perform the rite who work with other spiritual staff who “help them discern the case,” Camilleri said.
He pointed out two major flaws in the film’s take on exorcism. Emily Rose is “possessed” after waking up one night.
Camilleri said in order to be possessed by a demon, a person has to “freely desire to be possessed” by an entity.
“In the beginning, there was no real evidence that this young lady co-operated with it. It was sort of like she was walking down the street and a piano fell on top of her. That’s not how people get possessed,” he said.
“It’s the same with God’s grace. If you don’t co-operate with God’s grace, God’s grace isn’t efficacious. It’s not going to work. Even though anything is possible with God and God is careful not to interfere with the gift of free will. So the same is true of evil spirits,” Camilleri said.
The second flaw Camilleri pointed out is the conflict between the use of medicine versus spiritual care in the film. In the film, the plaintiff blamed the priest for allowing Rose to not take her medicine.
“Priests will not interfere with people’s medical situations,” said Camilleri. “A person is always sent to do a psychological assessment. And it didn’t seem like this person was sent for a psychological assessment. There was a medical assessment done but not a psychological one.”
Alaimo recapped the differences between possession, where an exorcism is performed to expel demons, and infestation, when a person’s free will is weakened and unguarded with spirits, where a prayer of deliverance is then performed.
Camilleri hasn’t attended an exorcism. There hasn’t been one in the archdiocese since he’s been in office, but there are one or two requests for exorcisms a month, he said.
(Chen, 20, is a journalism student at Ryerson University in Toronto.)