Exorcist Priests: What They See That Most Catholics Don't Believe Exists by Jeff Callaway

Exorcist Priests: What They See That Most Catholics Don't Believe Exists

By Jeff Callaway

Texas Outlaw Poet

The priest walked into the room where the woman sat bound to a chair, her eyes rolling back white as foam gathered at the corners of her mouth. When he raised the crucifix and began the ancient prayers, a voice not her own erupted from her throat, speaking in languages she had never studied, cursing God with obscenities that would make a sailor blush. The temperature in the room plummeted. Objects flew across the space. And the woman, all ninety pounds of her, broke through restraints that had held grown men.

This is not a scene from Hollywood. This is Tuesday afternoon for Father Vincent Lampert, exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. This is the hidden battlefield that most Catholics refuse to believe exists, even as their own Church maintains formal exorcism ministries in dioceses across America and around the world.

While the average Catholic sits in the pew thinking demons are medieval superstition or outdated theology better left to horror movies, trained priests appointed by their bishops are waging a war against genuine demonic forces. The battle is real. The enemy is intelligent. And the crisis is growing.

The Scriptural Foundation Most Catholics Forget

Twenty-three percent of the Gospels show Christ dealing directly with demons. Not metaphorical evil. Not psychological distress. Actual demonic entities that Jesus confronted, commanded, and cast out with divine authority.

In the fifth chapter of Mark, we find the most dramatic exorcism in Scripture. A man possessed by a legion of demons lived among the tombs, so violent that chains could not hold him. When Jesus approached, the demons recognized Him immediately, crying out in terror. Jesus asked the demon's name and received the chilling reply: Legion, for we are many. Christ commanded the unclean spirits to leave, and they begged permission to enter a nearby herd of swine. Two thousand pigs rushed down a steep bank and drowned in the sea. The man, moments before a raving lunatic with supernatural strength, sat clothed and in his right mind at the feet of Jesus.

This was not symbolism. This was spiritual warfare made visible.

Christ gave His apostles authority over demons from the very beginning of their ministry. In Matthew chapter ten, He explicitly granted them power to cast out unclean spirits. In Luke chapter nine, the seventy disciples returned rejoicing that even demons submitted to them in the name of Jesus. In Mark chapter sixteen, Christ promised that believers would cast out demons in His name.

The early Church understood this mission. In Acts chapter sixteen, Paul cast a demon out of a slave girl. The seven sons of Sceva tried to invoke the name of Jesus without proper authority and were attacked by the demon, who declared he knew Jesus and recognized Paul but demanded to know who they were.

The Church Fathers wrote extensively about demonic activity. Saint Athanasius, Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Saint Gregory Nazianzen, and Saint Basil all praised the sign of the cross as powerful protection against demonic molestation. They insisted that exorcism prayers be rooted in the words of Holy Scripture, not human invention.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states plainly that the devil and other demons were created naturally good by God but became evil by their own doing. Satan is believed to have been an archangel who turned against God before the creation of man, waging war against his Creator and being cast out of Heaven. This teaching comes from Ezekiel chapter twenty-eight and the book of Revelation.

Most Catholics have forgotten that when they pray the Our Father, the final petition is not about abstract evil. It is a plea for deliverance from the Evil One himself, Satan, the personal embodiment of malevolence who seeks our destruction.

What the Church Actually Teaches About Demons and Possession

The Catechism defines exorcism clearly: 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. This is not optional theology or medieval holdover. This is official Catholic teaching, reaffirmed in 1999 when the Vatican revised the Rite of Exorcism.

The Church distinguishes between two types of exorcism. Simple or minor exorcism is performed at every baptism, asking God to protect the baptized from evil influences. These prayers can be offered by priests and even by laypeople in certain contexts, because they are addressed to God, not to demons.

Major or solemn exorcism is an entirely different matter. This is directed at the expulsion of demons or the liberation from demonic possession. Canon law requires that it can only be performed by an ordained priest with the express permission of his bishop. The priest must proceed with extreme caution, strictly following the rules established by the Church, and only after thorough medical, psychological, and psychiatric evaluation has ruled out mental illness.

The Church teaches that demons retain their natural power as intelligent beings to act on the material universe. They can use material objects and direct material forces for their wicked ends. This power is limited and subject to Divine Providence, but it was allowed wider scope for activity because of the sin of mankind.

Demonic influence exists on a spectrum. Every human being experiences ordinary temptation, the normal spiritual warfare that comes from living in a fallen world. Beyond this, the Church recognizes extraordinary demonic activity: vexation, where a person is physically attacked from outside; obsession, where demons assault the mind with persistent evil thoughts; infestation, where places or objects are influenced by demonic presence; and possession, where demons take control of a person's body and faculties.

Actual possession is rare. Father Lampert estimates that only one in five thousand people who claim to be possessed actually are. But the other forms of demonic influence, especially obsession and oppression, are skyrocketing.

The Growing Crisis Most Catholics Ignore

When Father Lampert was appointed as the exorcist for Indianapolis in 2005, there were only twelve trained exorcists in the entire United States. Today, there are approximately one hundred seventy-five designated exorcists across the country. The demand has exploded.

In 2005, the archdiocese might receive a handful of requests for evaluation each year. Now, thousands of people seek help annually, claiming demonic affliction. Father Lampert reports seeing only three actual possessions in recent years, but countless cases of infestation, vexation, and obsession.

The International Association of Exorcists, which met in Rome in 2018, declared the rising demand for exorcisms a pastoral emergency. Italian exorcists report hundreds of thousands of alleged cases annually. The increase is not limited to America or Europe. From Mexico City to Manila, from Warsaw to Washington, exorcists are overwhelmed with requests.

What is driving this tsunami of demonic activity?

First, involvement in occult practices has become normalized and even trendy. Tarot cards are sold in mainstream bookstores. Ouija boards are marketed as children's games by major toy companies. Horoscopes appear in every newspaper. Psychic services have become a multi-billion dollar industry. Young people dabble in witchcraft, spiritism, and New Age practices without understanding the spiritual doors they are opening.

The Catechism is crystal clear: all forms of divination are to be rejected, including recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead, consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens, and recourse to mediums. These practices contradict the honor, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.

Father Lampert states bluntly that Ouija boards are probably the primary way people open up the entry point for the demonic into their lives. Some exorcists estimate that ninety percent of their worst cases involving demonic activity have been linked to the use of Ouija boards. Yet parents allow these instruments of divination in their homes, treating them as harmless entertainment.

Second, pornography has become a pandemic destroying souls and opening demonic doorways. Father Chad Ripperger, an exorcist and expert on spiritual warfare, notes that ninety percent of sixteen-year-olds now watch pornography online. This addiction creates compatibility with demons, building handles by which evil spirits can grip a person's soul.

The data is staggering. Couples living together outside the Sacrament of Marriage multiplied nineteen times in the last five decades. Sexual morality has collapsed. And with it, protection from demonic influence has evaporated.

Third, drug abuse creates vulnerability to demonic attack. Exorcists consistently report that addictions, whether to illegal drugs, alcohol, or prescription medications, when coupled with other factors, can become pathways for demonic entry.

Fourth, grave sin committed or suffered opens doors. Father Ripperger identifies three primary causes of vulnerability to possession: committing grave sin like fornication or adultery, having grave sin committed against oneself such as sexual abuse, and attempts at reparation for sin like divorce that involve more sin.

The most sobering statistic: approximately eight in ten people who seek exorcism are survivors of sexual abuse. The trauma of abuse creates conditions where actual demonic possession can take hold. The victim is wounded by human evil and then becomes vulnerable to supernatural evil, victimized again by forces of darkness.

Finally, the collapse of sacramental life among Catholics has removed the primary protection against demonic influence. When Catholics stop going to Mass, receiving the Eucharist, going to Confession, praying the Rosary, and living in a state of grace, they remove the armor that repels demonic attacks.

Monsignor John Esseff, an exorcist for over forty years, states it plainly: as the acceptance of sin has increased, so too has demonic activity.

What Exorcists Actually Witness

The phenomena reported by trained exorcists exceed any psychological explanation. During formal exorcisms, priests have witnessed possessed individuals speaking ancient or foreign languages they have never studied. A woman with no education in Latin speaks fluent ecclesiastical Latin. A man with no knowledge of Aramaic curses in the language of first-century Palestine.

Possessed persons demonstrate knowledge of hidden or remote things they have no natural way of knowing. They reveal secrets about the exorcist's past, details about other people in the room, information about events happening miles away at that very moment.

The physical manifestations are equally inexplicable. Father Lampert has seen eyes roll back in the head, bodies contort in ways human anatomy should not allow, supernatural strength that allows a small woman to break metal restraints, foul odors that appear from nowhere, temperatures in the room plummeting without natural cause, and a person levitating off the ground.

During one particularly intense exorcism, Father Ripperger witnessed what he describes as a full-blown preternatural manifestation that convinced him he was seeing a glimpse of hell itself. The demon he was confronting had such power that even the experienced exorcist was shaken.

The most disturbing aspect is the intelligence of these entities. Father Ripperger explains that demons exist in a strict hierarchy based on their intellects. The most powerful demons are also the most intelligent. One demon, he notes, is more intelligent than every single human being combined. They know how to manipulate and deceive. They can quote Scripture. They can appear as angels of light or as departed loved ones. They are master strategists in the war for souls.

But demons are also liars and deceivers. The Church cautions exorcists against engaging demons in conversation or asking them questions outside the prescribed ritual. The information they provide cannot be trusted. Their only goal is to harm us and separate us from God.

The transformation after successful exorcism is equally dramatic. The person who moments before was manifesting supernatural phenomena, speaking in unknown languages, demonstrating impossible strength, is suddenly calm, coherent, clothed and in their right mind, just like the man Christ healed in the region of the Gerasenes.

The Ministry Most Dioceses Keep Hidden

Every Catholic diocese is supposed to have an appointed exorcist. This is not a suggestion. Pope Saint John Paul II explicitly recommended that every diocese appoint an exorcist as part of its pastoral ministry. The bishops are the chief exorcists of their dioceses, but they delegate this authority to specially trained priests.

Canon law requires a bishop to give permission before a priest can perform a major exorcism, but most bishops receive no formal training in exorcism. To address this gap, in 2010 the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops organized a two-day conference on all aspects of exorcism. In 2012, the Pope Leo XIII Institute was founded to support the spiritual formation of priests to bring the light of Christ to dispel evil.

The Institute offers a two-year program with ten-day sessions twice a year at Mundelein Seminary in Chicago. The first class graduated fifty-five exorcists and deacons in 2015. More classes have followed. Yet the need far outstrips the supply.

Before a person can be referred to an exorcist, they must undergo thorough evaluation. The Church requires medical, psychological, and psychiatric testing to rule out mental illness, personality disorders, and physical ailments. Exorcists work with teams of doctors and psychologists precisely to ensure that people receive the help they actually need, whether medical, psychological, or spiritual.

The actual determination of whether someone is possessed is made by the Church, not by the individual claiming possession. An exorcist must reach moral certainty based on specific criteria established from centuries of experience.

The signs of genuine possession include: speaking or understanding languages the person has never learned; knowledge of hidden or distant things the person has no way of knowing; manifestation of strength beyond what is natural for the person's age or condition; and violent aversion to anything holy, including blessed objects, sacred images, the Eucharist, and the name of Jesus.

Most people who believe they are possessed are suffering from psychological or medical conditions. Exorcists are trained to be skeptics. Father Lampert states that technically, he should be the last person in the room to believe that somebody is truly dealing with demonic influences. Every other possible explanation must be exhausted first.

The Church would cause greater harm by labeling someone as possessed when they actually need mental health treatment. The label itself could prevent people from getting the help they truly need.

But when all natural explanations have been eliminated and the signs of possession are present, the exorcist seeks permission from his bishop to perform the Rite of Major Exorcism. The ritual can take months or even years in difficult cases involving high-ranking demons.

The Spiritual Battle Every Catholic Must Fight

The reason a major exorcism needs a bishop's permission is that the priest talks directly to the devil and commands him in the name of Jesus Christ to leave. For the priest to exercise that authority, he needs the backing of the Church behind him.

Demons recognize the authority of bishops and the Church. When people try to command demons on their own authority without proper delegation from the Church, they invite disaster. In Acts chapter nineteen, Jewish exorcists attempted to cast out demons using the name of Jesus without true faith or authority. The demon responded by asking who they were, then attacked them violently.

The power does not come from the exorcist himself but from the authority of the Church that comes from Jesus Christ. Christ won the victory over Satan through His death and resurrection. The Church participates in that victory through the sacraments and the authority Christ granted to the apostles and their successors.

This is why the ordinary sacramental life is the primary defense against demonic influence. Going to Mass, receiving the Eucharist, frequent Confession, praying the Rosary, reading Scripture, wearing blessed sacramentals like the brown scapular, keeping holy water in the home, displaying the crucifix prominently, and living in a state of grace create a spiritual fortress that demons cannot easily penetrate.

Father Lampert emphasizes that ultimately, it is the very normal aspects of our faith that protect us from evil. The extraordinary ministry of exorcism exists for rare cases of full possession, but every Catholic is called to the ordinary spiritual warfare of resisting temptation and growing in holiness.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the greatest enemy of Satan and his demons. Father Ripperger and his fellow exorcists have noticed the amazing power of the Angelus prayer to reduce demonic influence. Families who pray the Rosary together every day without fail tend not to lose children to the faith. Regular self-denial, sacrificial prayer, and devotion to Mary create an environment where demons cannot thrive.

Father Ripperger notes that families who exercise self-denial on a regular basis, who rise at the same time each morning for prayer regardless of how they feel, who fast and make sacrifices, who live disciplined sacramental lives, maintain their children in the faith. The demon becomes an instrument of sanctification when we fight against temptation rather than surrendering to it.

Why Catholics Refuse to Believe

The average Catholic dismisses demonic activity for several reasons. First, secular rationalism has convinced us that everything has a natural explanation. Mental health professionals provide diagnoses for conditions that previous generations attributed to spiritual causes. We prefer psychological frameworks to supernatural ones.

Second, we fear being labeled superstitious or backward. Belief in demons seems like medieval ignorance in our enlightened age. We would rather appear sophisticated than admit the reality of spiritual warfare.

Third, many Catholics simply do not know that the Church still teaches the existence of demons and maintains an active exorcism ministry. When the knowledge of one exorcist dies with him and no new exorcists are trained, entire generations of Catholics grow up never hearing about this dimension of spiritual reality.

Fourth, fear paralyzes us. If we acknowledge that demons are real, we have to confront the possibility that we ourselves might be under attack. We have to examine our lives for the entry points we have carelessly opened. We have to take seriously the call to holiness and the sacramental life.

But the most dangerous error is the belief that if we do not believe in demons, they cannot affect us. This is catastrophically wrong. Spiritual reality does not depend on our belief in it. Would you leave your front door unlocked at night just because you do not believe in burglars? The Ouija board has an objective reality that exists apart from a person's perception of it. It is real even if you do not believe it is real.

Disbelief in the demonic is exactly what demons want. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he does not exist. While Catholics smugly dismiss spiritual warfare as outdated theology, demons work unhindered in their lives and in the lives of their children.

The Urgent Call to Wake Up

The Church has maintained an unbroken tradition of exorcism from the time of Christ to the present day. The apostles cast out demons. The Church Fathers wrote about it. Every century of Church history includes accounts of exorcisms. The Roman Ritual codified the practice. Vatican II did not abolish it. Pope John Paul II encouraged it. Pope Benedict XVI praised exorcists. Pope Francis speaks frequently about Satan and the reality of spiritual combat.

This is not a peripheral issue. This is not a matter for specialists. Every baptized Catholic is engaged in spiritual warfare whether they acknowledge it or not. Saint Peter warned us to be vigilant and watchful, for the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

The current crisis demands a response. When exorcists cannot keep up with the demand for their services, when dioceses are scrambling to train more priests in this ministry, when demonic obsession and oppression are exploding across the population, the Church cannot afford to remain silent and the faithful cannot afford to remain ignorant.

We must return to the fullness of Catholic teaching about the reality of Satan and his demons. We must reclaim the sacramental life as our primary defense. We must root out of our homes and our lives every doorway to the demonic, from Ouija boards to pornography to occult practices masquerading as entertainment.

We must teach our children that demons are real, that spiritual warfare is not optional, and that Christ has given us every weapon we need for victory through the Church He established.

We must go to Mass not out of obligation but out of desperate need for the Eucharist, the source and summit of our faith, the true presence of Christ who conquered death and hell.

We must go to Confession regularly, placing our sins in the hands of God so that the devil can no longer use them against us.

We must pray the Rosary as families, invoking the protection of the Blessed Mother who crushes the serpent's head.

We must live in a state of grace, cutting off the handles by which demons grip our souls through habitual sin and vice.

The exorcists see what most Catholics refuse to believe exists. But their testimony is backed by Scripture, by Tradition, by the constant teaching of the Church, and by the terrifying reality they witness in their ministry.

The question is not whether demons exist. The question is whether we will wake up to the battle before it is too late. The question is whether we will arm ourselves with the sacraments and the power of Christ, or whether we will continue living as if the war is not real while the enemy devours souls all around us.

The Church has given us everything we need for victory. Christ has already won the war through His death and resurrection. But we must choose to fight. We must choose to believe. We must choose to live as spiritual warriors in a world that has forgotten the enemy is real.

The exorcists are on the front lines of a battle most Catholics pretend is not happening. It is time for every Catholic to join the fight.

~by Jeff Callaway

Texas Outlaw Poet

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