The Pope has ordered his bishops to set up exorcism squads to tackle the rise of Satanism.
Vatican chiefs are concerned at what they see as an increased interest in the occult.
They have introduced courses for priests to combat what they call the most extreme form of “Godlessness.”
Each bishop is to be told to have in his diocese a number of priests trained to fight demonic possession.
There appears to be some question about the veracity of this report. The source is not official and some Vatican sources are denying it. But then, I thought many RC dioceses already had at least one official exorcist.
Nikolaus –
If I understand correctly, the office of exocist exists, but is mostly ignored, at least in the U.S. I certainly have no idea who my own diocesan exorcist might be.
In any case, isn’t the Daily Mail something like the National Enquirer in the U.S.? I’m not up on my British papers, so apologies in advance if that’s not correct.
There is a diocesan exorcist for every (Catholic) diocese, though the name is generally known only to the bishop and a few higher-ups in the chancery. That’s because the exorcist functions at the behest of the bishop; his office isn’t open to just any person who thinks they need an exorcism (which might result in the harassment of the exorcist). The exorcist’s name is forwarded to the Holy See, so there is a permanent record, but the bishop is the one who receives requests for the rite of exorcism, evaluates the request, and then gives the go-ahead when the rite is thought to be needed.