Holy Water: An Important Weapon in the Exorcist’s Arsenal

Michael O’Brien, writing for the Salt Lake Tribune [1], recently published an article that begins with reminiscing about his childhood as a Roman Catholic kid in the time of the cultural phenomenon created by the release of the motion picture The Exorcist.

O’Brien writes:

Have you ever heard the phrase “there must be something in the water”? I probably first started to understand this notion 50 years ago, as a Catholic kid growing up during “The Exorcist” cultural phenomenon. Holy Water was one of the heroes (or so I heard, again and again) of the movie. The cinematic version of the sacred H2O helped control or repel the demonic beast within the poor young girl’s body.

For Catholics, Holy Water becomes an important tool—so to speak—in protecting the individual or his home from evil. O’Brien recalls how the monks from a Trappist monastery gave his mother a little plastic bottle filled with holy water for prescriptive use at home as needed.

Indeed, for those of us outside of Roman Catholicism, it would seem that every “good” Catholic home had a bottle of Holy Water, a font near a door where one could dip their fingers and cross themselves, or other means for retaining a bit of water obtained from the local parish church in case of emergencies.

O’Brien’s article, one filled with both humorous remembrances as well as subtle inferences about the mysterious nature of Holy Water, might be considered a sort of introduction—a Holy Water 101—a preface to a more serious discussion of the importance and symbolism of water blessed for use against evil.

O’Brien recalls his own interest in Holy Water as well as that of his childhood peers after watching it being used in the The Exorcist:

Our parish priest and school religion teacher, Father John LaBranche, watched all this hubbub with great interest. He was a faithful but practical man, one who could teach theology one minute and drive the school bus the next.

He understood that our youthful tendency to perceive things so literally was both our greatest strength and our most glaring weakness. He also recognized a good teaching moment when he saw one.

One day in class, he asked, “How do you make holy water anyway?” We were stumped, but interested.

Father LaBranche smiled mischievously and told us, “Take a gallon of water, put it on the stovetop, and boil the hell out of it.”

Of course, the old priest was being factitious, using humor to garner the attention of pre-teenaged boys, but in reality, he wasn’t too far off base.

Holy Water is prepared in a sacramental rite in which a basic exorcism is performed, exorcising any elemental demons from the water as well as the salt that is sprinkled into the water during a prayer in which God is asked to bless the salt, recalling the blessed salt “scattered over the water by the prophet Elisha” and invoking the protective powers of salt and water, that they may “drive away the power of evil.”

The charge persists that holy water is not found in Sacred Scripture and is an invention of the Church. This is not the case, as there are a handful of biblical references to blessed water and its effects.

The first is actually in the beginning of the Bible: “The Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters” (Gen. 1:2). Emerging from the void, God’s first act was to move across the waters of the earth he was prepared to form, first being sure to bless the waters for the goodness of his creation and the coming forth of all other matter. The Catechism acknowledges this: “Since the beginning of the world, water, so humble and wonderful a creature, has been the source of life and fruitfulness” (1218).

We even have a recipe for holy water in the Old Testament, not distant from that found in today’s rituals: “The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put it into the water” (Num. 5:17). Later in this same book, we find instructions pertaining to one defiled by touching a corpse: “He who touches the dead body of any person shall be unclean seven days; he shall cleanse himself with the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and so be clean” (19:11-12).

For some time, Christian pilgrims have journeyed to the Jordan River to immerse themselves in the water made holy when Jesus was baptized. Most Protestants believe in only one baptism for the remission of sins, but none the less, some want a second, largely symbolic, baptism in Jordan.

Likewise, it could be said that Catholics “renew” their baptism through the frequent use of Holy Water. As Protestants, we could argue that this might be an unnecessary act, but I have to ask why not use Holy Water—not as a means of obtaining salvation—but as an additional part of the armor of God Paul spoke of. (Ephesians 6:11)

Religious symbolism is effective when it appeals to both the intellect and the emotions. Christian symbolism invests objects or actions with an inner meaning expressing Christian ideas. Elemental symbols were widely used by the early Church. Water has a specific symbolic significance for Christians. Outside of baptism, water may represent cleansing or purity.

It is this symbolism that drives demons away. Holy Water, water blessed for service in the name of Christ, becomes to the entities of the demonic realm a sort of caustic solution that threatens to wash away the negative energy that sustains them. It is not so much the water per se, but rather the inclusion of Christ in the preparation and usage of the solution, that becomes offensive to demons.

Catholics believe that only a priest can bless Holy Water by virtue of the mystery of Apostolic Succession, while Protestants believe that any born-again Christian has the same abilities. The subject of who is right and who is wrong regarding this point of contention is not open for debate in this discussion. But rather, the fact that Holy Water can be an effective tool in the battle against evil is the point that we are here to underscore today.

Catholics need no urging to use Holy Water as a preventive or prophylaxis, just as doctors inoculate patients to prevent disease. To my Protestant brothers and sisters, I would ask, “As long as we use the correct frame of mind, in keeping with reformation doctrine, what is it going to hurt?” Holy Water will not hurt the individual, but it will help keep demons at bay.

[1] The Salt Lake Tribune, By Michael Patrick O’Brien | Feb. 18, 2024

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/02/18/michael-obrien-what-i-started/

 

A Rise In Demand For Exorcisms As The American Church Falls For Demonic Spirits

Christ casting out demons

Two interesting articles recently came across my desk that should be of great interest to all Christians but probably will only be noted by those involved in Deliverance Ministry.

The first, an op-ed from End Time Headlines, [1] decries the widespread failure of Christian Churches to adequately discern the spirits, in particular the evil ones.

Over the last two centuries, science has convinced us that the physical world is the totality of existence.

In our piece titled The Reality of Non-Physical Reality [2] we reported that science disregards anything that it cannot measure, or otherwise quantify, define, or even experiment with. Because it defies their human limited science, it therefore must not exist. But as Christians we know, by faith, that God created spiritual entities we characterize as angels.

We also know that a number of these entities rebelled, were cast out of Heaven and fell

Close Encounters of the Paranormal Kind

Watch Close Encounters of the Paranormal Kind on YouTube
Listen to the Podcast on Spotify, or read it below

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Throughout his career, Steven Spielberg has been a prolific writer, director, and producer bringing to the world a multitude of work, entertaining both old and young alike in the process.

In 1977, Spielberg wrote and directed one of the many movies he is known for, a movie that now has a cult following, a Science fiction movie that is considered to be in the realm of the paranormal.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a fictional story of a rather plain everyday kind of guy who, during a close encounter with an alien intelligence, is gifted with a vision that he can not quite discern the nature thereof.

Of course we all know that Roy Neary, the character played by Richard Dreyfuss, later

NEFARIOUS: When Fiction Intersects With Reality

 

[Watch this on YouTube…]

[Listen on Spotify or continue reading below.]

On the day of his scheduled execution, a convicted serial killer gets a last minute court-ordered psychiatric evaluation. The killer surprises the psychiatrist with his claim that instead of trying to avoid his fate, he is in fact a demon who wants the execution to go forward… and further claims that before their brief time together is over, the doctor will commit three murders of his own.

If—at the time of this essay—you were looking for a movie to see at a theater near you, the preceding synopsis was prominently displayed following the motion picture titled: Nefarious.

This most recent project of filmmakers Cary Solomon and Chuck Konzelman, takes on

EXORCISM AT NANCY’S

If are you like those of us here at Saint Michael’s Journal in that you intently watch the Internet for particular keywords, such as Exorcism, then undoubtedly, you have been very busy reading the sensationalized details of a recent event that involved an Exorcism at the home of a famous person.

On the weekend of Halloween 2022, the media was ablaze after David Depape allegedly broke into the home of the, at the time, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. So far we have not been told of an exact motive for the break-in and subsequent assault of Pelosi’s husband, so it is only speculation that, it being the weekend of Halloween he chose to commit the crime, Depape was looking for a witch.

In all seriousness, the accused at least appears to be a good candidate for

The Exorcist: The true story behind the movie…

In what is perhaps one of the most remarkable experiences of its kind in recent religious history, a 14-year-old Mount Rainier boy has been freed by a Catholic priest of possession by the devil, Catholic sources reported yesterday.
Only after between 20 and 30 performances of the ancient ritual of exorcism, here and in St. Louis, was the devil finally cast out of the boy, it was said.

In all except the last of these, the boy broke into a violent tantrum of screaming, cursing and voicing of Latin phrases-a language he had never studied-whenever the priest reached the climactic point of the ritual, “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, I cast thee (the devil) out.”

In complete devotion to his task, the priest stayed with the boy over a period of two months, during which he said he personally witnessed such manifestations as the bed in which the boy was sleeping suddenly moving across the room.

A Washington Protestant minister had previously reported personally witnessing similar manifestations, including one in which the pallet on which the sleeping boy lay slid slowly across the floor until the boy’s head bumped against a bed, awakening him.

In another instance, reported by the Protestant minister, a heavy armchair in which the boy was sitting with his knees drawn under his chin tilted slowly to one side and fell over, throwing the boy on the floor.

The final rite of exorcism in which the devil was cast from the boy took place in May, it was reported …

A priest here voiced the belief that it was probably the first casting out of the devil through the ritual in at least a century of Catholic activities here and perhaps in the entire history of the church in this area. …[1]

The preceding is an excerpt from a 1949 article published in the Washington Post.  It is said that  William Peter Blatty, who was attending Georgetown University learned of this event and of course we know that years later Blatty wrote the novel that was adapted to be one of the most famous horror films of all time, one that remains today a cult classic.

“The Exorcist” — both the movie and the 1971 novel it’s based on — was written by William Peter Blatty, who first heard about the demonic possession of a 14-year-old boy around 1949, while he was a senior at Georgetown University. Eugene Gallagher, one of his professors and a priest at the Jesuit college, told Blatty, a New York native, about the extraordinary story of the boy who was believed to be in the throes of demonic possession, but had been saved through a series of exorcisms.[2]

Over the years the true identity of the boy has been a highly guarded secret, designed to protect his privacy.  Countless news articles and historical treatises have been written using the pseudonym  Roland or in some cases Robbie Doe.

Hunkeler’s mother thought the strange occurrences were related to the death of an aunt who taught the boy how to use a Ouija board to communicate with spirits. USA Today Network/Sipa USA

It seems that “Robbie” survived the exorcism and grew up to become an engineer and worked at NASA for forty years.  While at NASA he patented a special technology to make space shuttle panels resistant to extreme heat, helping the Apollo missions of the 1960s that put US astronauts on the moon in 1969. [2]

Researchers and would be sleuths managed to track down those with some degree of knowledge about the case and deduced “Robbie’s” true identity.

While exploring the story  for his podcast, The Devil in the Details–JD Sword explains in an article published in the Skeptical Enquirer [3] — found that folks such as investigative journalist Mark Opsasnick, blogger Mike Madonna, and Dr. Sergio A. Rueda had already thoroughly researched the case and cast doubt on many of its claims, as well as having deduced the real identity of Roland Doe.

Sword tell us that Opsasnick spoke to Mt. Rainier resident Dean Landolt, who stated he was “very good friends with Father Hughes, the priest involved in the case. … Father Hughes told me two things: one was that the boy lived in Cottage City, and the other is that he went on to graduate from Gonzaga High and turned out fine.

Opsasnick was able to obtain a list of names of male students that graduated on that year from Gonzaga then he narrowed the list down to only one student who lived in Cottage City and had been born on June 1, 1935: Ronald E. Hunkeler

In his 1999 Strange magazine article, Opsasnick chose not to reveal Ronald’s identity, “for a number of legal reasons” as he explained to me. However, knowing the address made it possible to deduce Ronald’s identity. As author Kyle T. Cobb explained to me, “TW Scott confirmed the address without naming the boy. The address confirmed the last name and parents. The school annuals and interviews with classmates verified the timeline and identity.” In addition, since the publication of the article in Strange, more than just the full twenty-nine-page diary of Father Bishop had become public knowledge. In his book Diabolical Possession and the Case behind the Exorcist, Sergio Rueda interviewed Rev. Schulze on July 25, 1990, and asked him, “Was the name of the family, the Hunkeler family?” to which Schulze replied, “Yes” (Rueda 2018).[3]

Finally we read in the NY Post:

Hunkeler’s female companion confirmed to The Post that he died last year, a month shy of his 86th birthday, after suffering a stroke at his home in Marriottsville, Md., a suburb northwest of Baltimore. He was cremated, she said.

Blatty’s book “The Exorcist” sold more than 13 million copies in the US alone, and the film earned him an Academy Award and a Golden Globe in 1974. It was the first horror movie to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar.

Universal Studios recently announced that it is planning a rebooted trilogy of the film, with Ellen Burstyn reprising her original role as the mother of the possessed teen, beginning in 2023.[2]

As in many of these cases, those who were not eye witnesses to paranormal events and who want to believe that possession and the Devil himself are naught but figments of our imagination, go out of their way to dismiss and discredit the stories told by those who personally were present and observed phenomena that they could not offer a rational explanation for.  Even I have seen things that I try to find a rational explanation that fit for that which I have experienced.  We would all–even those of us in the ministry–love to say that the devil is just a myth, but that would put us in the position of being culpable, aiding and abetting  in Satan’s grand deception.

May the Peace of the Lord be with Mr. Hunkeler.

 

[1]Priest Frees Mt. Rainier Boy Reported Held in Devil’s Grip By Bill Brinkley Post Reporter Friday, Aug. 20, 1949, Washington Post Archives;https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/features/dcmovies/exorcism1949.htm

[2] https://nypost.com/2021/12/20/is-the-exorcist-a-true-story-what-happened-to-ronald-hunkeler/

[3]Demoniac: Who Is Roland Doe, the Boy Who Inspired The Exorcist?
by JD Sword From: Volume 45, No. 6 November/December 2021 https://skepticalinquirer.org/2021/10/demoniac-who-is-roland-doe-the-boy-who-inspired-the-exorcist/

Lay students scramble to exorcism course | ANSA

From: Lay students scramble to exorcism course | ANSA

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Half of students on pontifical university’s books aren’t priests

(ANSA) – ROME, OCT 25 – Lay students are scrambling to join an exorcism course at a pontifical university in Rome which is reopening in person after the COVID emergency.
“Around half the hundred or so students to the in-person course and the 37 who will follow it online are lay persons,” course coordinator Father Luis Ramirez told a press conference.
The highly popular course, titled Exorcism and the Prayer of Liberation, is being given by the Sacerdos Institute of the Regina Apostolorum University. (ANSA).

The exorcism courses returned to Rome after the pandemic and there were record registrations | Market Research Telecast

Excerpted from: The exorcism courses returned to Rome after the pandemic and there were record registrations | Market Research Telecast

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After a year in which they were suspended due to the pandemic, this week the face-to-face courses on exorcisms and prayer of liberation from the Pontifical Athenaeum, the University of the Legionaries of Christ in Rome.

The workshop, which has been held for 15 years, began on Monday the 25th and will last until Saturday the 30th. 137 priests and lay people participate together with religious of other Christian confessions.

There was a record of registrations: each participant must pay 400 euros, plus 300 for any necessary Italian translations, in English and Spanish. There will also be lessons on the historical origin of exorcism and the criteria to identify the action of the Evil One and the symbolisms in the magic-occult rites.

Read more at MRT

Enough is Enough

In January of 2013, this ministry established this blog as a means to educate lay people about the very real ministry of Exorcism.  We believe that evil entities do frequently oppress people and in rare cases possess them leading them to preform horrendous acts.  From the onset of this publication we have maintained that Exorcism is a religious rite, one that should be only performed by trained, ordained Christian ministers and not by well meaning laity.  Admittedly we have been reluctant to post links to articles that report the travesty of lay people and in some cases ministers that physically abuse the presumed victim causing harm, hospitalization and in some cases death.  We do not see such events as legitimate religious rites, as by tradition Exorcism consists of a series of prayers found to remove offensive spirits.  Under no condition is an Exorcist to “beat the devil out’ of the victim.  Physical harm in no way encourages an entity to leave but rather gives it a reason to persist as its goal is to see the victims suffer.

When possible, it is our intention to bring light to these events in which innocent victims suffer at the hands of those who quite possibly are themselves possessed.

Practically in our back yard, we find a case in Benton County Missouri; the following excerpt is reported by Ozarksfirst.com, a local CBS affiliate.

Court documents say an investigator with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the scene and found the father of the four-year-old girl to ask him what happened. The father showed the investigator his daughter.

The investigator saw the four-year-old girl wrapped up in a pink blanket on the floor. Court records say she had several purple bruises from her neck to her feet. The investigator found that the bruising appeared to be belt marks.

The investigator then asked the man where the rest of his family was in the house. Court documents say the mother and their two-year-old son had severe bruising. The family has another infant and he had no injuries.

The deputy asked the father how these injuries happened. He told the deputy that people who lived across the road, Mast and Aumen, caused the injuries. According to the PC statement, the two went to the family’s house that morning around 8 a.m. and beat the two-year-old.

The father told authorities that the beatings have been happening for about two weeks. He also told police that he was beaten with a wooden spoon two days earlier.

“I asked how he could let people do this to his family, and he stated that they were told (the mother) had a “demon” inside her, and her children would end up just like her if it was not taken care of,” court documents say.

The father said that Mast and Aumen threatened him and said if he did not comply, someone would get shot. The father also told police that if he or his wife provided aid or comfort to the children or themselves, it would be a sin, and satan would come.

Mast and Aumen told investigators during interviews after being arrested that they did beat the children and their mother. They also said they forced the mother and daughter to a pond where more assaults occurred.

Please, tell everyone you know, demonic possession is rare and Exorcism should only be performed by trained ministers and then as a last resort after all other means of treatments are exhausted.  Do not attempt to Exorcise a demon from a person or place if you are not ordained as a minister, to do so is to invite destruction upon yourself and possibly great harm to those you think you are helping.

Exorcisms Surge in Concert with Social Decomposition

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Excerpted from: Exorcisms Surge in Concert with Social Decomposition By Bill Donohue | November 21, 2018 | CNSNEWS.COM

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The Christmas season has just begun, and so has the need for spiritual peace. By any measure, the number of troubled Americans, saddled with personal problems, is staggering. Some are so desperate as to seek ways to purge themselves of demons.

Take the case of Gary Dale Mort. This Muncie, Indiana man recently kicked his wife out of their house and set it on fire. He was shot by police after he flashed what turned out to be a pellet gun; he was not seriously injured. Last year, he slammed his car into