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The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist Kindle Edition
| Matt Baglio (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
The inspiration for the film starring Anthony Hopkins, journalist Matt Baglio uses the astonishing story of one American priest's training as an exorcist to reveal that the phenomena of possession, demons, the Devil, and exorcism are not merely a remnant of the archaic past, but remain a fearsome power in many people's lives even today.
Father Gary Thomas was working as a parish priest in California when he was asked by his bishop to travel to Rome for training in the rite of exorcism. Though initially surprised, andslightly reluctant, he accepted this call, and enrolled in a new exorcism course at a Vatican-affiliated university, which taught him, among other things, how to distinguish between a genuine possession and mental illness. Eventually he would go on to participate in more than eighty exorcisms as an apprentice to a veteran Italian exorcist. His experiences profoundly changed the way he viewed the spiritual world, and as he moved from rational skeptic to practicing exorcist he came to understand the battle between good and evil in a whole new light. Journalist Matt Baglio had full access to Father Gary over the course of his training, and much of what he learned defies explanation.
The Rite provides fascinating vignettes from the lives of exorcists and people possessed by demons, including firsthand accounts of exorcists at work casting out demons, culminating in Father Gary's own confrontations with the Devil. Baglio also traces the history of exorcism, revealing its rites and rituals, explaining what the Catholic Church really teaches about demonic possession, and delving into such related topics as the hierarchy of angels and demons, satanic cults, black masses, curses, and the various theories used by modern scientists and anthropologists who seek to quantify such phenomena.
Written with an investigative eye that will captivate both skeptics and believers alike, The Rite shows that the truth about demonic possession is not only stranger than fiction, but also far more chilling.
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherImage
- Publication dateMarch 5, 2009
- File size1672 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“There are chilling descriptions of exorcists battling demons in The Rite … Baglio has strong storytelling skills, and constructs a narrative that travels a long distance quickly."
– LA Times
“Matt Baglio’s book is a wake-up call. It smashes the many myths created by Hollywood movies and other amateurs on the subject about exorcism and the role of the exorcist in the Catholic Church.”
— Father Basil Cole, O.P., professor of moral and spiritual theology of the Pontifical Faculty at the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C.
"Journalist Balgio follows a Catholic priest through the latter’ s training to become an exorcist in this incisive look at the church’s rite of exorcism and its use in contemporary life. Baglio began delving into the topic after hearing about a course at a Vatican-affiliated university, where he met and befriended the Rev. Gary Thomas, a priest in the diocese of San Jose, Calif. Thomas took the exorcism course at the request of his bishop and subsequently apprenticed himself to a seasoned exorcist. Keenly aware of the misunderstanding that abounds about exorcism through film images, Baglio sets about dispelling misconceptions and does so skillfully, separating the real from the imaginary in the mysterious and unsettling sphere of the demonic. Both Thomas and Baglio were changed by their exposure to the rite. Thomas grew spiritually during the process, which bolstered his desire to help his parishioners, and Baglio, previously a nominal Catholic, reconnected with his faith. For anyone seeking a serious and very human examination of this fascinating subject, one that surpasses the sensational, this is absorbing and enlightening reading."
— Publishers Weekly, starred review
"The Rite is in my opinion one of the best books ever written on the topic of exorcism. I have read very few b...
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Prologue
The thirty-five-year-old woman lay on a padded folding massage table, her arms and legs held by two men. She wore a black Puma sweat suit and her dark brown hair was pulled back tightly into a ponytail. While not heavy, she was a little on the stocky side; and as she grunted and struggled, the men fought to hold on. Nearby, another man and woman hovered, ready to intervene. The exorcist stood a few feet away, a small crucifix in one hand and a silver canister filled with holy water in the other. Surveying the scene, he had a decision to make. The exorcism had been going on for the better part of an hour, and the strain was beginning to show on everyone. Should he continue?
Suddenly the woman's head turned, her eyes fixating on a spot near the far wall. "No!" the demon said in a deep guttural voice coming from deep within her, "the one in black is here, the jinx!"
The exorcist felt a momentary ray of hope, knowing from past exorcisms that this was the demon's code to describe Saint Gemma Galgani.
"And the little white one from Albania!" the demon roared.
"Mother Teresa of Calcutta?" the exorcist asked.
The demon let fly a string of blasphemies in a rage, then his voice took on a mocking childlike tone. "Oh, look at them! Look at them! They are hugging and greeting each other!" Then, back to a deep guttural rasp, "Disgusting! Disgusting!"
To the woman lying on the table, the two figures appeared as if in a dream. Saint Gemma was dressed in her traditional black, and looked very much as she had in her twenties. Oddly, Mother Teresa also looked very young--perhaps only twenty-five.
The exorcist glanced over his shoulder to where the woman was staring and saw nothing but the blank wall. "Let us thank Saint Gemma Galgani and Mother Teresa for being here with us today," he said.
"No, him too. Send him away, send him away!" the demon wailed.
Unsure of who had just arrived, the exorcist added, "I say thank you that he is here."
Then suddenly the woman sat bolt upright, her arms extended in front of her as if she'd been yanked up by some unseen force. "Leave me alone!" the demon screamed, even as the woman flailed to break free from the invisible grasp. The two men went to pull her back down, but the exorcist motioned for them to stop. "Let's see who just came. In the name of Jesus and the Immaculate Virgin, who is this person?"
"Nooooooo!" the guttural, ferocious voice growled. "Totus tuuuuuus!"
The exorcist smiled inwardly, recognizing the Latin motto. "Thank you, Holy Father John Paul II, for coming to help our sister," he said.
"No, no!" the demon shrieked. "Damn you! Get away from me!"
Again, in her dreamlike state, the woman watched Pope John Paul II, who seemed no older than thirty and was dressed all in white, bless her forehead three times.
Wanting to take advantage of the apparent reinforcements, the exorcist pressed on. "Repeat after me: Eternal Father, you are my Creator and I adore you," he said to the demon.
"Up yours!" the voice responded.
"Eternal Father, you are my Creator and I adore you," the exorcist insisted.
"A bomb is going to explode if I say it!" the demon shouted.
"I order you, in the name of the Immaculate Virgin Mary and in the name of Jesus Christ, to repeat those words," the priest commanded again.
All at once, the woman felt awash in an incredible feeling of love as the veiled figure of Mary appeared before her, wrapped in a gold and white veil that covered half her face. Watching in amazement as the figure approached, the woman was even more surprised to see that Mary was gazing at her tearfully.
As the exorcist watched, the demon once again went into a fit. "No, no, no, don't cry!" he screamed, and the woman's body practically convulsed.
Then for an instant the woman snapped out of the trance, saying, "A tear from Mary is all it took," before falling back into the state.
The exorcist was elated to know that Mary was present and helping. He instantly launched into a Hail Mary. Everyone in the room joined in, even the woman on the table. Yet somehow the exorcist knew it wasn't over. The demon must be hiding to allow her to recite the prayer, he thought. "Say after me: Eternal Father, you are my Creator and I adore you," he said to the demon.
The woman thrashed and screamed. "No!" the demon barked. "I'm not going to say it! I must not say it, I can't; it is against everything."
The exorcist could feel that the demon was weakening. He asked everyone in the room to kneel. "Eternal Father, you are my Creator and I adore you," he intoned, while everyone repeated him.
The woman, sensing the torment of the demon, saw all the saints in the room respond as well.
"No, no, even those other ones kneeled down--the white one, the black one, and the little white one," the demon said. Then the exorcist noticed that the demon's voice changed slightly to a tone of forced reverence when he added, "Her, her [Mary]--she kneeled down as well."
This must be it, the exorcist thought. The demon is going to break. "In the name of Jesus Christ, I order you to repeat the phrase."
The woman struggled, but slowly a croaking noise came from her throat. "Eee . . . ter . . . nal . . . Fa . . . ther . . . , I must . . . ad . . . ooor . . . yooou."
Ecstatic, but realizing it was still not over yet, the exorcist made the demon repeat the phrase two more times. When the demon had finished, the exorcist recited the conclusion of the Eucharistic prayer: "Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, forever and ever."
"This humiliation was given for the glory of God, not because you commanded it but because God commanded it. You are damned," the demon said, addressing the exorcist.
The exorcist did not falter. "Che Dio sia benedetto," he continued, God be praised.
"I go away but you are going to be damned for life," the demon sneered. "You and your companions, you are going to be persecuted for life!"
*
When people hear the word exorcism, many think of images made popular by Hollywood films--girls writhing in torment, their bodies contorting in impossible ways as they launch a continuous stream of pea-soup-green projectile vomit. In truth, such theatrics, as well as those in the woman's exorcism that took place in January 2007, in Rome, Italy, are quite rare. Instead, exorcisms can be rather mundane, almost like going to the dentist--complete with a stint in the waiting room and a card to remind the recipient of his or her next appointment. The reality is that few people realize what goes on during an exorcism, and that is true for Catholic priests as well--many of whom would just as soon forget that exorcism exists at all.
The word exorcism itself is an ecclesiastical term that comes from the Greek exorkizo, meaning "to bind with an oath," or to demand insistently. During an exorcism, a demon is commanded in the name of God to stop his activity within a particular person or place. As understood by the Catholic Church, an exorcism is an official rite carried out by a priest who has been authorized to do so by his bishop. In ancient times, exorcism was an important way for early Christians to win converts and prove the veracity of the faith. The power itself comes from Jesus, who performed numerous exorcisms as detailed in the New Testament, later instructing his disciples to do the same.
In light of the tremendous advances in modern medicine--including a more sophisticated understanding of neurological and psychological illnesses, the advent of psychoanalysis, and similar advantages--the rite of exorcism has become an embarrassment to many within the Church, who see it as a superstitious relic from the days when illnesses like epilepsy and schizophrenia were considered "devils" to be cast out.
Much of this misunderstanding comes from the nature of exorcism itself, as well as from the Devil's attributes that have more foundation in folklore than theology. A beast with horns and half a goat's body ravaging innocent virgins in the dead of night? Soul-leaching, shape-shifting she-demons on the prowl for their next victim? Without courses on demonology to educate seminarians, it's no wonder priests have turned away in droves from this exorcism stuff.
At the core of the issue lies the problem of evil. Is it a physical reality, a fallen angel called Satan (as the Catechism of the Catholic Church, a small but dense book of about 900 pages says), or is it a lack of good in something, an inability to live up to the designs of the benevolent Creator?
Many priests, not wanting to turn their backs on the rich history associated with their faith, while at the same time wanting to embrace the modern view of reality in which the Devil is seen as a metaphor, would like to have it both ways. Others believe in the traditional teachings, but prefer not to talk about it. On the extreme end, some priests just flat out deny the Devil's existence.
Ironically, while many priests and bishops seemed bent on skepticism, the general public has become enamored with the occult, gravitating to new religions such as Wicca. According to an American Religious Identity Survey, Wicca grew in America from 8,000 members in 1990 to over 134,000 in 2001. (By 2006, that number was said to have risen to more than 800,000.) Sales of occult and New Age books have also skyrocketed, as has the number of people who believe in angels and demons (according to a 2004 Gallup poll, about 70 percent of Americans said they believe in the Devil). All this coincides with an explosion in the numbers of people who say they are afflicted by evil spirits. According to the Association of Italian Catholic Psychiatrists and Psychologists, in Italy alone, more than 500,000 people see an exorcist annually.
For many years, a small but vocal group of overworked exorcists in Italy, led by Father Gabriele Amorth, has tried to get the Church to take the increasing numbers of people who cla...
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.From AudioFile
About the Author
MATT BAGLIO, a reporter living in Rome, has written for the Associated Press and the International Herald Tribune.
--This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.From School Library Journal
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an alternate kindle_edition edition.
Product details
- ASIN : B001UMCA1O
- Publisher : Image (March 5, 2009)
- Publication date : March 5, 2009
- Language : English
- File size : 1672 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 306 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #417,631 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #113 in Biographies of Catholicism
- #160 in Occult Satanism
- #165 in Spiritual Biography
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About the author

Matt Baglio has worked for a variety of news organizations and magazines. Author ofthe bestselling The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist, he divides his time between California and Italy.
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A balanced look at the experience of an exorcist must weigh all of these barriers towards providing a fair and believable look at the truth behind these tormenting experiences. Freelance writer and journalist Matt Baglio succeeds at demonstrating why modern demon possession lore is just the tip of the iceberg through his recently released, The Rite: Making of a Modern Exorcist.
I didn't expect an account of exorcism to be so believable, or so chilling. Partly because Baglio was just as skeptical when he started writing the book, and partly because following San Franciscan Catholic priest Father Gary through his training revealed that he started just as clueless.
When the Catholic Church wrote a letter to every US diocese in 2005, Father Gary was surprised to learn that he had been chosen for the post. Leaving for a sabbatical year, Father Gary spent twelve months at the Continuing Theological Education at the North American College in Rome where he was ordered by his bishop to take a course on how to become an exorcist. That first class was where Baglio and Gary met, Matt seeing an opportunity to follow someone through the process of what he thought might be a sensational ploy at the headlines by the Catholic Church.
Most American priests fall on one end of a large spectrum, they are either quite skeptical of exorcism or "see demons everywhere". But in Italy, demonic possession is just a fact of life. Oddly enough, the most exorcisms occur in Italy, a country that is over 80% Catholic. Is this because demonic possession primarily affects Catholics or is it because Italians are more likely to seek out an exorcism? These are just some of the interesting mysteries raised by this book.
As Father Gary progresses through the training, he apprentices with Father Carmine, an expert in performing the exorcism ritual. Initially Father Gary only witnessed what he described as people coming in and belching very loudly. Leaving him with many more questions than answers... until he witnessed the case of Sister Janica.
Janica was a nun that suffered from a "very powerful demon." When Father Carmine began the ritual she shook in her chair and began to beat her head against stone wall until it shook. As the prayers continued she growled and then shouted an ear piercing scream just before, "the voice" manifested. It was an otherworldly guttural rasping sound that shouted obscenities at Father Carmine. Her face contorted into rage. Her eyeballs rolled into her head and she screamed, flailing on the floor. And this had been happening regularly for nine years. Movies and lore depicts the exorcism as a one shot deal but this is rarely the case. The possessed are freed from their demons only after a long process of returning to religious ritual in their lives, for Catholics this means confessions, prayer and mass. The exorcism only makes up about 10-20% of the healing process. But in rare cases, priests have performed exorcisms on Muslims and Hindus, after which they returned to their respective rituals. This is one of the theological reasons that God allows possession, to lead people back to a life of devout faith. After witnessing something as horrible as an evil force acting through a human being, I'm sure I would strike up some sort of repeated action to avoid it.
The scientific explanation against possession lacks the ability to account for quite a few unbelievable experiences. For example, one priest went home after an exorcism and his cats began tearing each other to pieces. The next day when talking to his "patient", the demonic voice manifested and said to the priest that it enjoyed playing with his cats. Another case involved a possessed individual taunting a priest with a demonic voice about its ability to erase all his phone's text messages, because he did. Multiple personality disorder and depression can't explain why the possessed have been known to vomit buckets of sperm, live scorpions and black nails. Clairvoyant abilities are provided by the demons through the possessed as they sometimes describe intimate details of priest's lives or objects in hidden areas. In very rare cases, a demon will describe its past possessions the priest was involved in. The descriptions that Matt Baglio received of these horrible exorcisms through first hand interviews are very disturbing. As I read them, chills went down my spine because they are so vivid and honest.
Discernment, the ability to determine if someone is truly possessed, is an interesting dilemma. Many exorcists like to work with a team of psychologists, psychiatrists and other advisers. The key to determining if someone is truly possessed can be rather obscured but typically if someone's condition does not respond to medicine, only to blessings and prayer it is an indication that demonic possession is likely present. Almost always, someone truly possessed won't attribute their problems to a demon. They only seek out the priesthood after being forced by a family member or friend. If one comes to a priest saying that they have a demon in them, that's a clue in the direction of a purely psychological problem.
This gripping account of an often ignored portion of the human experience, The Rite exceeded my expectations and led me to question my hodge-podge worldview. Why is it that demonic possessions occur so often in Catholics and in women? This leads me to speculate that like the campfire creating the shadows, the Catholic Church somehow creates this polar opposite manifest in the phenomena of demonic possession. There is truth in the accounts within this book, as depicted by the shock of seasoned priests to the experience of their first witnessed possession. When the exorcists themselves can't explain what is happening I know it is a profound mystery. What it all means is beyond anyone's understanding, especially mine.
The Catholic Church, on the other hand, hardly gets much positive press these days, although much of the negative coverage has been self-inflicted (witness the pedophile scandal). As Richard Alleva suggests in his Commonweal review of the recent movie adaptation of this book (March 11, 2011), where the Church does get to buff its public halo just a bit is in the genre of exorcist movies, especially the granddaddy of them all, "The Exorcist."
The thing is, does the devil exist? It's kind of an embarrassing question for many modern-day Catholics who like to have an enlightened view of their religion. Can we really believe that fallen angels--and not even complete angels, really, since angels are supposed to have bodies, but evil spirits--inhabit the bodies of some particularly vulnerable people? Isn't the demonstration of possession simply a manifestation of some variety of mental illness like schizophrenia? Isn't exorcism just a form of quackery, a kind of magic that deprives the patient of psychiatric care?
One wants THE RITE: THE MAKING OF A MODERN EXORCIST, a breezy non-fiction book by the journalist Matt Baglio, to get right to the point and address that singular issue: Are you real, Mr. Satan? The book is an engaging read, but Baglio ultimately doesn't really answer the question, and maybe he doesn't want to.
Okay, bottom line for Catholics: the Catechism of the Catholic Church, as it turns out, is very explicit in identifying the devil as a person: "evil is not an abstraction, but refers to a person, Satan, the Evil One, the angel who opposes God. The devil (dia-bolos) is the one who `throws himself across' God's plan and his work of salvation accomplished in Christ" (2851). Still, one suspects that a good number of otherwise devout Catholics find this hard to accept. Indeed, even among the priests to whom Baglio refers as being ill at ease with the matter of exorcism there are as likely those who are uncomfortable with the personhood of Satan as there are those who don't want to deal with a ritualistic experience so unnerving.
THE RITE is centered about the experiences of a young California parish priest, Father Gary, who is selected by his bishop to be the diocesan exorcist, and is sent to Rome for training. The book follows Father Gary as he deals with the more mundane aspects of his days in Rome, like trying to find an interpreter for his class. Eventually, Father Gary manages to set up an internship with a Franciscan friar and exorcist. His experiences under Father Carmine at San Lorenzo in Rome convince him that possession is real and that exorcism is a much needed ministry. His bishop is somewhat surprised at Father Gary's exuberant embracing of exorcism, but gives him his full support.
Baglio alternates between the narrative of Father Gary's life in Rome and back in California, and discussions of the theological underpinnings of belief in the devil and of exorcism and, to some extent, of modern scientific views of the phenomena. (There's also a chapter that tells the story of a bad hiking fall that Father Gary suffered; however interesting, it's not entirely clear to me why that chapter is in the book.) In a postscript, Baglio notes that his faith grew stronger as a result of this book project.
That brings us back to the central issue. Was what Baglio witnessed real? Is possession real? Does exorcism make sense in the twenty-first century? In the end, it may be impossible to determine scientifically that a person's experience of possession is all in the mind. It may be that, after all, the personhood of Satan, like the existence of God, is a matter of faith and of acceptance of religious dogma.
(I read this book on a Kindle, which I enjoyed; however, the Kindle version includes a number of typographical problems, especially in the notes.)
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L'unico punto negativo che ho trovato è che il libro si conclude proprio quando il protagonista, tornato negli Stati Uniti, inizia il suo nuovo ministero. Mi sarebbe piaciuto che la narrazione continuasse un po' di più per parlare sia di come l'attività di esorcista ha cambiato il protagonista, sia per sentire dalla sua voce commenti, pareri, difficoltà.
Edizione Kindle ottima, con indice e rimandi veloci alle numerose note a fine libro.
-> Você quer fazer um exorcismo, é?: Vá para uma casa semi abandonada numa 'favela' italiana, coloque a pessoa num lugar BEM escuro e tenebroso para dar uma ambiente melhor!.
-> Que tal colocar propaganda no seu filme, heim?: Coloque o personagem principal como um cético moderno e sóbrio enquanto os exorcistas são arbitrários, arcaicos e ignorantes! mostre como a igreja católica é ruim, decadente, exploradora e perversa!.
Que fique claro que essa é uma avaliação do livro comparada ao filme, e não uma análise do filme em sí. Os pontos acima citados só existem no filme, Matt Baglio te dá uma visão sóbria e pé no chão do que um exorcismo realmente é, sem agenda e sem cliché hollywoodiano, após ler o livro você aprenderá a sentir nojo do lixo que produzem em filmes sobre um assunto como esse. É uma boa compra pois você deixará de ser mal informado sobre tal assunto como a esmagante maioria é. Recomendo muitíssimo.










