It was John Paul II who, with a clarity unparalleled in the twentieth century, recognized that in our very attempt to oppose the “Evil” we dread in others – whether in the form of genocide or totalitarian violence, down to the fear that immigrants will steal away our idolatrous “way of life,” or that the unwanted elderly or unwanted pregnancies will restrict our freedom – has ended up institutionalizing “Evil” in what he memorably described as our “culture of death.”
“To claim the right to abortion, infanticide and euthanasia, and to recognize that right in law, means to attribute to human freedom a perverse and evil significance: that of absolute power over others and against others. This is the death of true freedom: ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin’ (John 8.34).”
In this way, far from being a bizarre relic of primitive Christianity, the rite of exorcism could represent an authentic expression of the Christian virtues of solidarity, mutuality and love, which alone can oppose the devil and all his works.