Word: priesting
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When he first heard about a Vatican-sponsored course on exorcism for priests, journalist Matt Baglio was intrigued by the idea of this ancient ritual taking place in the modern world. In his new book, The Rite, Baglio follows American priest Father Gary - sent to Rome to train as an exorcist - and his apprenticeship with Father Carmine. Baglio talked to TIME about belief, skeptical priests and the particulars of the exorcism ritual. (Read "The Exorcist," one of the top 25 horror movies...
...priest supposed to figure out that an exorcism is warranted? How do they judge who is and who isn't a worthy candidate? The ritual stipulates that there are three signs that the priest has to look for: abnormal strength, the ability to understand unknown languages and the knowledge of hidden things. But they're very arbitrary, even those things. So they have to be in concert with something else. And typically what priests look for is what they call the aversion to the sacred, which is a person's inability to pray, to say the name of Jesus...
...what happens during the exorcism rite? The ritual, as its written, has several different stages to it. You say the litany of saints, you read the Gospel, you say a homily. The priest is allowed to bring in other elements if he wants to - the renewal of the baptismal vows, for example. But at the core of it are the exorcism prayers themselves, which are composed of the imperative and the depreciatory. The depreciatory involves the exorcist entreating God - "God, come down and bless this person." The imperative is the command, "I command you to leave this person...
...strange voice. It's very uncanny, very unnatural. And then, of course, there's vomiting, which is common. Father Carmine saw a case where a woman vomited up a small black toad that was still alive. He went to catch it, and it dissolved into saliva. I had another priest who I talked to who dealt with a woman who vomited up seven little black nails, six of which dissolved into this black liquid. Father Carmine saw a woman vomiting up buckets of human sperm...
Daily Komsomolskaya Pravda dubbed the recommendations the "anti-crisis diet." First published during the start of Orthodox Lent in late February, the fish-heavy diet even has people thinking of religion, the newspaper reported. "The first two apostles, Andrew and Peter, were both fishermen," Father Alexei, a priest in Polenovo just outside of Moscow, told the newspaper. "Therefore, the church has a positive attitude towards eating sea and river [fish...