Over 250 priests, theologians and psychologists attended a week-long conference on exorcism as the demand for the ritual grows.
The 13th annual conference on "Exorcism and Prayer of Liberation" opened on Monday at the Regina Apostolorum pontifical university in Rome with some exorcist priests warning about the increasing demand for the rite due to the decline of Christianity and the rise of occultism.
Opening the seminar was Fr. Jose Enrique Oyarzun, who contended that demonic possession is "always a current reality" even though the Church's beliefs are often misrepresented by the media.
Oyarzún serves as the director of Institute Sacerdos, which has organized the conference since 2002. He lamented that the Church's beliefs about demonic possession are often mix with fiction, "placing a big question mark on the viewers," and leading some people to believe that the Devil is "just a character."
He insists that the Devil can behave in ways that cannot be explained by science. "The Devil roars around us like a lion. The father of lies is more and more sought after. Digital technology is invigorating him and leading people astray. The phenomenon is very, very widespread," he said, as reported by The Telegraph.
Priests attending the event claimed that exorcisms really can involve people speaking in tongues and vomiting shards of glass, as depicted in some Hollywood movies.
However, another exorcist noted that movies often show the most dramatic exorcisms, but in reality, such cases are very rare.
"What we see in the movies are the extreme cases, which are very rare," Fr. Luis Ramírez told Crux. "Hence, it doesn't mean that every exorcism ends as what we see in the theaters. It's true that there are difficult cases, that can have an impact on us, but this is not what an exorcist deals with every day," he added.
In the interview with Crux, Ramirez detailed the process that a priest must go through before performing an exorcism.
Before performing the rite, priests are required to determine whether the person needs a priest or a doctor. The priest only goes through with the exorcism if there has been no improvement after medical treatment.
Organizers of the conference clarified that the event was not a school for exorcists, as all practitioners within the Church are required to obtain a license from their local bishop.
The Catholic Church requires each diocese in the world to have a priest trained as an exorcist. Italy has around 300 exorcist priests, but the demand for the rite has reportedly tripled in the past decade.
