In Belgium there is a boom in exorcisms and the parish priests are unable to cope: what happens to the Belgians?

Exorcisms, which They practice all the great religions, they are not something of the past. Born thousands of years ago, they have survived the evolution of beliefs until arrive forcefully at this 2024. For religious people, an exorcism (the word comes from Greek exorcismsmeaning “to bind by oath”) consists of a practice against an evil force. It’s about expelling it from some place, from a person, from an object, from a place because that place is considered evil. Belgium is experiencing a boom.

According to public radio and television in the Flemish part of the country, the VRTs, the Flemish exorcists, authorized to practice by the bishops, I am unable to take on the large amount of work that has. A Flemish abbey, Averbode, located in the province of Flemish Brabant, claims that they are practicing more than 1,000 exorcisms per year, more than three a day. What’s wrong with the Belgians?

A priest who calls himself “Geert” (it’s a pseudonym to protect his identity, but VRT knows his real identity) told television that he no longer performs exorcisms because is unable to take on more work.

Among the religious only a minority have official authorization of bishops to engage in such practices, despite the growing popularity of what the general public calls “exorcisms of the devil””. Television reports that many parishes find themselves in a similar situation and that requests for exorcisms are rejected simply because there are not enough parish priests authorized to perform them.

18th century exorcism manuals

Historian Kristof Smeyers, professor at the University of Leuven and author of research on the history of exorcism in Flanders, explained to the television station that “exorcism has been practiced informally for a long time and that in the 17th century the Belgian Catholic Church decided to incorporate it into its practices and wrote about it for the first time how they should be done and who should do them.

Then he began to train parish priests to be responsible. Exorcism manuals They have changed little since then.nor the training of parish priests, who continue to use them books written at the beginning of the 18th century.

‘Geert’ explained on television that in addition to training in Belgium, many parish priests attend courses in Rome and that he would like to go to the Vatican to improve his training as an exorcist.

He also says it’s an exorcism It’s nothing spectacular and rejects the version given in films, such as ‘The Exorcist’, a film by William Friedkin, based on a book by William Peter Blatty, which in 1973 left an indelible mark on horror cinema. In it, Max von Sydow played one of the two priests who tried to get the devil out of young Regan’s body.

How is an exorcism done?

‘Geert’ explains what time the trial It starts with “an exploratory conversation” and that the person who is the subject of the exorcism “freely tells his story. Subsequently, a very long prayer is recited in front of her, but nothing that has to do with a physical performance. You never laid your hands on him.

It is, explains the Louvain historian, “of a dialogue with the devil” and the manuals used by parish priests recommend being very cautious because the devil lies a lot and anything he says in that dialogue could be a lie. It is understood that he speaks through the allegedly possessed person.

Is exorcism sexist?

The historian says it’s a lot it is more common for the devil to be detected in women than in men and therefore many more women are subject to exorcisms than men.

The parish priest said on television that most of those who come to him “are people who are stuck in their lives, who feel it they can’t move forward and they attribute the problem to being possessed by superhuman strength. We live in uncertain times and people have fewer certainties to hold on to and find it more difficult to explain certain things.”

And it works? The parish priest assures that about half of those who claim to be possessed by the evil one They claim to feel better after the exorcism.