Were you initially trained in the ministry of exorcisms?
"No, not really. In the days of my training,
between 1954 and 1960, one of the minor orders of the church which we received
was the order of exorcist, so every priest by virtue of ordination has the
power of exorcism. But the practice of the church is for the Bishop to appoint
a priest in the diocese to carry out the work of exorcism. Although every
priest can do this, you have what is called the
additional authority of the Bishop to carry out this work. I was appointed in 2002.
"More often than not I get cases
from local priests. Fair dos to all local clergy, they always do their best
themselves, and are a great support to me. There can come a time when they feel
they want to call me in.
When the bishop appointed me he said that he wasn’t going to advertise the fact. He was being considerate to me.
"He said 'If I do that you’d probably
get calls from all over the place.' He’s not trying to stop people from
approaching me but he’s just being practical. He said 'I’d rather that when
people want you, by all means they can reach you, but I’d rather be able to
pass on that case or have another priest pass it on to you.' We’re not advised
to give people our telephone number or details as such. Don’t misunderstand me,
I’m not trying to be secretive about it as it’s a public ministry, he wants me
to do the ministry and for everyone to find it available to them, but not in
that public way."
Within your ten years of holding this role, how many cases have you had?
"I’d say between 30 and 40. Before I was
asked to do this work I wasn’t aware there was so much of this healing needed.
I knew it had always gone on but... I was
speaking to the Bishop about this and he said “Yes, it goes on more than people
know.”
"A reason for that is the because of the
climate of the times and materialism; people moving away from God and the
Church and looking for other sources of help, that sort of thing. Also, in all
kindness and charity, there is a lot of evil in the world, and the devil is
having a heyday. That’s why we’re getting more and more people coming forward
with requests. That’s the only yard stick I can judge it by really – it’s
certainly not as much as it occurs abroad. If I said it’s quite rampant abroad, that
would be an exaggeration... but it’s getting towards that.
"It’s a ministry that’s occurring more
regularly than it used to. We have exorcist conferences and renewals frequently
– in fact I was at one last October. Each diocese has an exorcist appointed by
the bishop so one advantage of getting together is learning more about
the ministry. It allows us to make contact with each other and to share
our difficulties and questions – obviously nothing confidential – but it gives us an opportunity to receive support
from each other.
"The conference last October was called for ‘newly appointed
exorcists’. I asked the organiser that, since I
wasn’t newly appointed but still had a lot to learn, was I able to come
along? I found that there were exorcists like me who had been appointed for
some time but went along too. It was very helpful in more ways than one. I’m on
a learning curve essentially – I have to say I feel very humbled at being asked
to do it and so privileged in getting to do it. It’s very special work really.
I’m not pleased that people are troubled in this way, but I’m pleased at being
an instrument to help them."
What
sort of troubles do people come to you with?
"Often they're disturbed in themselves. One of the reasons for that is perhaps that they’ve been involved in Ouija
boards, that sort of thing – black magic, witch craft. That takes over. In my
ten years of experience I’ve never come across someone who you might call
‘possessed’ by the devil. That can happen, and does happen, though it's more rare
here than countries abroad, I’m not casting any aspersions on those countries, it’s
just that in their climate and what they have to deal with is more prevalent, as I’ve said.
"One year ago I was called to a house by a
priest up in -shire. I suppose looking back that’s the nearest I’ve
got to someone being possessed. There are signs of course which you observe. When I entered the room he didn’t want to talk to me; he was just staring – not just into space, but he had a look of anger about him. Then he started being abusive with his language: you can’t help me, what are you doing here – and more abusive, blasphemous things, against God, against the Church, against priests.
"When those things were happening I was thinking it was serious. Then quite suddenly he’d snap out of it, and talk quite normally, as I am talking to you. His parish priest was with me, and a friend of his, who was trying to help as well. The local priest had spent a lot of time with him. It was half past eight on a Sunday evening, and he had called me saying “I know it’s late, but I fear you’ve got to come up”. I got there about 11:00 – it was as desperate as that. After he calmed down he’d say “I wasn’t talking like that was I? I wasn’t saying those things?” He’d then slip into talking about his work and a normal conversation, and then quickly go back again with no explanation, and forget all about our conversation. And then when he’d come round again, he’d forget what was saying previously. Then, quite suddenly, the chap got hold of me round the collar. I didn’t make any reaction, and the other priest and his friend helped calm him down.
"I still couldn’t make my mind up about it, in fact I said to his priest that I thought this man needed psychiatric help as well – which he was getting. I haven’t been back to him anymore, but I keep in touch with his priest, who reports that after my visit and prayers things had calmed down. He hasn’t contacted me again yet. It’s very much a pastoral role, and calls for a lot of patience and willingness to give time and hear people out, not to push them away. It can be very time consuming and like most other things you can get up to two or three in a month, and then go a month without any requests.
"When one attends a call out, and I’m not saying this to be pious or because I’m a priest, it’s not us who does the work. If we think it’s up to us then we’re going to fall flat on our faces. We need to take the Good Lord with us, in ourselves and for ourselves – if we think we’re going to do it we’re treading in dangerous waters. We take the Lord with us in prayer, and are aware that it’s His power in us that’s going to help this person, not us.
[At this point, a thunderstorm bursts into life above our heads. I flinch and emit a nervous giggle. The man who let me in earlier knocks on the door and asks Father Everson if there's a bucket around, as a leak has sprung in the vestry roof. Father Everson disappears for a short while, before returning and continuing his thought]
"I have come to the conclusion on more than one occasion that the
person is quite psychologically disturbed and quite often I find that they’re
already having psychiatric care in the medical field. In one particular case,
the psychiatrist and I worked together – there’s a bit of overlapping
sometimes. I find we can work together very well, and this particular
psychiatrist was very supportive of the work of exorcism – not all are, and I
say that with the greatest of respect to them – there are some who think my
work is a lot of nonsense. But you do get others who are sympathetic to our
work and really are very grateful to have us work with them."
Are you always called out to deal with people?
"Far from it. You’re very often called to people who are experiencing problems with the building or house that they’re in. In fact I would say that the majority of calls I get are to do with the building rather than people.
"That can be for a variety of reasons of course, one of which very often is nothing to do with the people who are the present residents, it’s to do with what happened before they took over the house – there’s something evil that’s happened in the house, or disturbance, some unfinished business where the person is very much still around. It can be very disturbing. It can be, of course, just being factual and realistic, that people are seeing and hearing things when they’re not there – but on the other hand, it can be that what they’re seeing and hearing is real.
"Some people who have approached me find it very frightening, they sense an atmosphere of evil in the house, others sense a kind presence that they don’t feel threatened by and they experience it quite frequently. They tell me they aren’t frightened at all, but would like to be delivered of them.
"I do my best to talk through with them what
they’re feeling and experiencing. At the end of that I try to make a conclusion
as to what sort of prayer, what sort of liturgy and what sort of care they
might need."
How
many of those people who turn to the church already have a faith?
"It’s difficult to say really. I wouldn’t
like to say that the people I’ve been called to have no faith at all – it
varies in degrees. Some people have great faith, others, yes, the faith is
there but is not very alive. They turn to the church in desperation.
"You
find that they’ve turned to other people as well who deal
with this sort of thing. Very often they’re not doing anything wrong by that, but they’re in such desperate need that they’ll turn to
anybody they think can help them, which is understandable. Then they come
to us."
Why
do you think there’s a fascination with exorcisms in popular culture?
"I think people want to delve into the
unknown. It has a fascination: anything people don’t know about, they’ll want to
look into it. There’s a human side of us that anything that’s strange or of
another world, people will be drawn to it like a magnet. It’s like people
wanting to find out more about space; it’s an area of exploration.
"People also have a fascination with wanting
to know what’s happened to people who have 'gone'."
What’s
the role of the church in all this?
"Whenever I work with people, I ask if they’ve
delved into thinks like the Ouija board or things of that nature, and tell them
that I view working with them a delight and privilege, but I insist that they
turn away from that. It won’t do you any good at all, but it can do you more
harm.
"The wider answer to your question is that we should be encouraging people
to leave those things alone and making God part of their lives – it’s Him we
should be asking help for and not looking to these other things."
Father Everson then gave me the book, insisting that I take it to learn more about the subject. He asked how I was getting back, and whether he could drive me. I assured him I'd bought a return ticket, and my iPhone map would see me home. We then spent 10 minutes discussing the wonders of modern technology and the damage it has on young people's spelling and grammar.
