![]() ![]() Warren Schlanger, who treated Gina in the Miami Children’s Hospital psychiatric ward, said in the ″20-20″ report that the girl was diagnosed as actively psychotic. If no scientific explanation can be found, church officials search for the four traditional signs of possession: unusual strength, signs of levitation, clairvoyance and speaking in languages that were never studied.ĭr. In the ″20-20″ broadcast, LeBar said cases of diabolical affliction are evaluated by health professionals for medical and psychiatric explanations. ″You don’t race as quickly as you used to to the idea of possession.″ ![]() James Hennesey, a Catholic historian at Canisius College in Buffalo. ″There are other reasons why these things happen,″ said the Rev. However, advances in science and psychiatry that have provided new understandings of abnormal behavior have led the church to perform exorcisms relatively rarely in recent decades. In a 1984 poll by Louis Harris and Associates, 25 percent said they believed in the power of exorcism. In a 1990 Gallup Poll, 55 percent of the respondents said they believed in the devil, and 49 percent said they believe that people are sometimes possessed by the devil. There are many New Testament accounts of Jesus casting out devils. The Catholic Church, like many other Christian groups, teaches that the devil is real, and evil spirits exist that strive to harm humans and lead them into sin. Richard Woods, a professor at Loyola University in Chicago, told The New York Times. ″There is a place for exorcism in the healing ministry of the church, but it is very rare and extraordinary,″ the Rev. LeBar, a consultant on cults for the Archdiocese of New York and one of the priests who participated in the exorcism, said Thursday the media attention on the centuries-old rite gives ″hope to those who may be afflicted and at least they would have some place they could turn.″īut the decision already has drawn criticism from some priests who say the broadcast violated an understanding in the church that public spectacle should be avoided in what for centuries has been a private ceremony. ![]() Keith Symons of the Diocese of Palm Beach, who gave permission for the filming. ″It is my ardent hope that this film will be helpful in promoting awareness for the ongoing need for humble prayer and penance to counteract diabolical activity around us,″ said Bishop J. In hopes of dramatizing the reality of evil in the modern world, Roman Catholic Church officials gave ABC’s ″20-20″ news program permission to film the solemn rite last October for a segment to be broadcast Friday night. What will be different in this chapel at a house for nuns in suburban Palm Beach, Fla., is that the solemn rite - once confined to the imagination of Hollywood in such films as ″The Exorcist″ - will be broadcast to millions. ![]()
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