Written and collected by Zia H Shah MD, Chief Editor of the Muslim Times 

Pope Benedict unwittingly performed an exorcism of two men possessed by the Devil in the very heart of the Vatican, according to the Catholic Church’s best-known exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth.

Nick Squires of Rome wrote in a recent article titled, Pope ‘exorcised two men in the Vatican’, claims new book, published in the Telegraph in February of 2014:

In his book, “The Last Exorcist – My Fight Against Satan”, he claimed the mere presence of the pontiff cured the men of their demonic afflictions.

Father Amorth said his two female assistants escorted the two men into St Peter’s Square as the Pope was driven between crowds of faithful in the white “Popemobile” jeep.

The women managed to obtain seats for the two men in an area of seating normally reserved for the disabled.

Painting by Francisco Goya of Saint Francis Borgia performing an exorcism

According to the Gospel of Mark, Jesus, may peace be on him, had taken out 7 demons out of Mary Magdalene, who was his disciple and according to some experts his wife:

When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it. Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either. (Mark 16:9-13)

In the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 17, Jesus gives recipe for casting out the demons:

When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed from that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. ( Matt 17:14-20)

The world of the New Testament compilation was one with abundant demons and ghosts.   Given the license in the Holy Bible itself the world of Christendom remained an era of devils and demons and exorcisms.  The Encyclopedia Britannica States about exorcism:

Exorcism,  an adjuration addressed to evil spirits to force them to abandon an object, place, or person; technically, a ceremony used in both Jewish and Christian traditions to expel demons from persons who have come under their power. The rites and practices of preliterate people to ward off or to expel evil spirits are also a form of exorcism, though they are sometimes considered witchcraft.

In the Christian tradition, Jesus expelled demons by a word and stated that this act was a sign of the coming of God’s Kingdom. His followers, and others as well, drove out demons “in his name.” In the first two centuries of the Christian era, the power of exorcism was considered a special gift that might be bestowed on anyone, lay or cleric. About ad 250, however, there appeared a special class of the lower clergy, called exorcists, to whom was entrusted this special function. About the same time, exorcism became one of the ceremonies preparatory to baptism, and it has remained a part of the Roman Catholic baptismal service.

In Roman Catholic dogma exorcism is a sacramental^[1][2] but not a sacrament, unlike baptism or confession. Unlike a sacrament, exorcism’s “integrity and efficacy do not depend … on the rigid use of an unchanging formula or on the ordered sequence of prescribed actions. Its efficacy depends on two elements: authorization from valid and licit Church authorities, and the faith of the exorcist.”^[3] The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “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, it is called exorcism.”^[2]

The Catholic Church revised the Rite of Exorcism in January 1999, though the traditional Rite of Exorcism in Latin is allowed as an option. The ritual assumes that possessed persons retain their free will, though the demon may hold control over their physical body, and involves prayers, blessings, and invocations with the use of the document Of Exorcisms and Certain Supplications.

Solemn exorcisms, according to the Canon law of the church, can be exercised only by an ordained priest (or higher prelate), with the express permission of the local bishop, and only after a careful medical examination to exclude the possibility of mental illness.^[4] The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) enjoined: “Superstition ought not to be confounded with religion, however much their history may be interwoven, nor magic, however white it may be, with a legitimate religious rite.” Things listed in the Roman Ritual as being indicators of possible demonic possession include: speaking foreign or ancient languages of which the possessed has no prior knowledge; supernatural abilities and strength; knowledge of hidden or remote things which the possessed has no way of knowing; an aversion to anything holy; and profuse blasphemy and/or sacrilege.

Growing up in Pakistan, I had observed that the greatest prevalence of the demons (Jinn in local language) was in villages and as we moved from small towns to larger towns and from less educated to more educated parts of the society, the prevalence of demons decreased.  A similar trend can be observed in the history of the Catholic Church despite the claims to the infallibility of the Popes.  Here, I quote the history from Wikipedia:

In the 15th century, Catholic exorcists were both clerical and lay, since every Christian has the power to command demons and drive them out in the name of Christ. These exorcists used the Benedictine Vade retro satana around this time. By the late 1960s, Roman Catholic exorcisms weren’t as popular or done as often in the United States. But by the mid-1970s, movies and best sellers changed people’s interest and raised demand for Catholic priests to perform exorcisms because of thousands of claims of demonic possession. By the mid-1970s maverick priests who belonged to the right-wing fringes took the opportunities of the growing need for exorcists and went into their own businesses. The exorcisms that they performed were, according to “Contemporary American Religion”, the “clandestine, underground affairs, undertaken without the approval of the Catholic Church and without the rigorous psychological screening that the church (at least in theory) required. In subsequent years the Church took more aggressive action on the demon-expulsion front.”^[5] By the eighties and early nineties exorcisms were a common phenomenon.

According to the Vatican guidelines issued in 1999, “the person who claims to be possessed must be evaluated by doctors to rule out a mental or physical illness.”^[6] Most reported cases do not require an exorcism because twentieth-century Catholic officials regard genuine demonic possession as an extremely rare phenomenon that is easily confounded with natural mental disturbances. Many times a person just needs spiritual or medical help, especially if drugs or other addictions are present. After the need of the person has been determined then the appropriate help will be met. In the circumstance of spiritual help, prayers may be offered, or the laying on of hands or a counseling session may be prescribed.

Moving from Catholicism to Protestantism, to understand the role of Protestant Churches in exorcism and perpetuation of ignorance, let me refer you to a National Geographic documentary, Taboo ‘Devils and Demons.’  Some video clips and photos from this documentary and additional details are available in this link.

Epilogue

The Holy Quran has a nuance position about the Bible.  It says that Allah revealed the Torah (Old Testament) and the Injil (parts of the Gospels), but, the pure revelations were interpolated over time.  As these revelations were not preserved so these have become mixture of truth and falsehood.  Therefore, Allah revealed the final scripture, the Holy Quran, which has been preserved over time.

Even though the Christian apologists have been accusing for centuries that the Holy Quran is plagiarized from the Bible, yet the  Holy Quran makes no mention of demons in reference to Jesus, may peace be on him, or his disciples.

The Holy Quran does talk about Jinn, which are sometimes understood as demons by Muslims with medieval mind set.  Here, I link a chapter of a book Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge and Truth, with rational and enlightening understanding of the term, Jinn, as mentioned in the Holy Quran: The Jinn.

Given the long history of exorcism and the Catholic Church and now many Protestant Churches, allopathic medicine and the field of psychology have had a long struggle to pull out rationality and science of medicine from the jaws of irrational belief.  Read further:

Allopathic Medicine’s long struggle with the Bible

Editor’s note

Within a day after the publication of this article in the Muslim Times, in November of 2012, the original publication of unwitting exorcism by the Pope, was removed from the Telegraph, but is available in the following link.

Appendix: List of mentions of demons in the New Testament, from Wikipedia

The New Testament mentions several episodes in which Jesus drove out demons from persons:

• Matthew 4:23-25: Demon-possessed persons are healed by Jesus (also Luke 6:17-19).
• Matthew 7:21-23: Many will drive out demons in Jesus’ name (also Mark 16:17; Luke 10:17; Acts 5:16; 8:7).
• Matthew 8:14-17: Jesus healed many demon-possessed (also Mark 1:29-39; Luke 4:33-41).
• Matthew 8:28-34: Jesus sent a herd of demons from two men into a herd of pigs (“about two thousand” pigs, according to the account at Mark 5:1-20; both Mark’s account and Luke 8:26-39, mention only the one man).
• Matthew 9:32-34: Jesus made a demon-possessed mute man speak, the Pharisees said it was by the power of Beelzebub (also Mark 3:20-22).
• Matthew 10:1-8: The Twelve Apostles given the authority to drive out evil spirits (also Mark 3:15; 6:7; 6:13; Luke 9:1; 10:17).
• Matthew 11:16-19: “this generation” said that John the Baptist was possessed by a demon (also Luke 7:31-35).
• Matthew 12:22-32: Jesus healed a demon-possessed blind and dumb man (also Luke 11:14-23; Mark 3:20-30).
• Matthew 12:43-45: Jesus told an allegory of nasty spirits coming back home, that is, to the human body where they have lived before (also Luke 11:24-26).
• Matthew 15:21-28: Jesus expelled a demon from the body of the daughter of a Canaanite woman (also Mark 7:24-30).
• Matthew 17:14-21: Jesus healed a boy by driving out a demon from him (also Mark 9:14-29; Luke 9:37-49).
• Mark 1:21-28: Jesus expelled a nasty spirit from a man (also Luke 4:31-37).
• Mark 9:38-40: A non-Christian is seen driving out demons in Jesus’ name (also Luke 9:49-50).
• Mark 16:9: Jesus had driven seven demons out of Mary Magdalene (also Luke 8:2).
• Luke 7:21: Many people are cleansed from evil spirits by Jesus.
• Luke 13:10-17: Jesus expelled a spirit of disease from the body of a woman on the Sabbath.
• Luke 13:31-32: Jesus continued to cast out demons even though Herod Antipas wanted to kill him.
• Luke 22:3: Satan entered into Judas Iscariot (also John 13:27).
• John 7:20: A “crowd of Jews” that wanted to kill Jesus said he was demon-possessed.
• John 8:48-52: “The Jews” said Jesus was a Samaritan and demon-possessed.
• John 10:20-21: Many Jews said Jesus was raving mad and demon-possessed, others said he was not.
• Acts 5:3: Satan filled the heart of Ananias.
• Acts 5:16: The Apostles healed those tormented by evil spirits.
• Acts 8:6-8: At the teaching of Philip the Evangelist in Samaria, evil spirits came out of many.
• Acts 8:18-19: Simon Magus offered to buy the power of Laying on of hands.
• Acts 10:38: St. Peter said Jesus healed all who were under the power of the Devil.
• Acts 16:16-24: Paul and Silas were imprisoned for driving a future-telling spirit out of a slave girl.
• Acts 19:11-12: Handkerchiefs and aprons touched by Paul cured illness and drove out evil spirits.
• Acts 19:13-20: Seven sons of Sceva attempted to drive out evil spirits by saying: “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” But because they did not have faith in Jesus, they were unsuccessful and were actually driven from that house by the possessed.
• Revelation 18:2: The Whore of Babylon is a home for demons, evil spirits and unclean birds.

Acts of the Apostles also contains a number of references to people coming under the influence of the Holy Spirit (1:8, 2:4, 2:17-18, 2:38, 4:8, 4:31, 6:3-5, 7:55, 8:15-19, 8:39, 9:17,10:19, 11:12-16, 11:28, 13:9, 16:6-7, 19:2-6, 20:23, 21:11, 23:8-9) which is believed to be a good thing (see Baptism with the Holy Spirit) in contrast to demonic influence.

The 1902 work Demonic possession in the New Testament by Rev. William Menzies Alexander attempted to explain accounts of possession in the synoptic Gospels, outlining their historical, medical and theological aspects.^[6]