Monstrous
The Darker Side => Demons, Demonology and The Devil => Topic started by: Jake on January 21, 2012, 05:00:36 AM
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A US newspaper recently published a fairly frank interview with exorcist Fr. Vincent Lampert, a Catholic priest at the Saint Francis and Claire Roman Catholic Church in Greenwood, Indiana:
The Rev. Vincent Lampert knows Hollywood has created an image of his profession, a dark figure in a hat looking up at a window, preparing to cast out demons. He says most exorcisms aren’t as dramatic as they appear in movies, but some come close. There was the time in Italy when a woman shook violently and Lampert said he saw her levitate above a chair. “If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it,” said Lampert, 48, a Roman Catholic priest and designated exorcist for the Diocese of Indianapolis. “There was nothing between her and the chair. My jaw must have been open.”
…He was pegged by the Indianapolis Archbishop to become an exorcist after another priest designated to perform that service died in 2005. He said he was sent to Rome with this advice from the Archbishop: “I don’t know what I’m asking you to do. Go and find out.” He spent three months in Rome, where he was mentored by the Rev. Carmine De Filippis. Another student there was the Rev. Gary Thomas, a California priest whose experiences became part of a book by author Matt Baglio called The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, which became the basis of a fictionalized movie. Lampert’s experiences, and the levitation he said he witnessed, are included in the book. He said demons don’t jump from one person to another, that possession is not a communicable disease, and he tells people evil is not contagious the way it’s sometimes portrayed by Hollywood. He said he witnessed about 40 exorcisms while in Rome and most were not all that exciting…
“Some people think every little trouble is caused by evil,” Lampert said. “Exorcists are trained to be skeptics. When someone comes to me and says they are possessed, my first thought is: ‘No you’re not.’”
Full article (http://www.deseretnews.com/article/700193717/Vatican-trained-exorcist-shares-true-tales-of-his-craft.html)