We've never been busier, says official church exorcist

The number of exorcisms performed around the world is rising because of the growth of "new age" religions and spiritual blindness, a leading exorcist said yesterday.

Father Jeremy Davies, 65, an exorcist of the Westminster diocese, told the Catholic Herald that the increased vigilance of the Roman Catholic Church in the past 10 years had also contributed to the rise. He said: "There have been more exorcisms undoubtedly. There are more people in need and the church is dealing with the problem more effectively.

"The incidence of the demonic on the whole is rising. At the centre of this is man's ever-growing pride and attempted self-reliance. Man trying to build a better world without God - another Tower of Babel." Father Davies, who is a co-founder of the 200-strong International Association of Exorcists begun in Rome in 1993, said other root causes were phenomena such as ignorance of the Bible, lack of faith and spiritual blindness.

The growth of false "new age" religions and gullibility about false prophets also contributed to the rise, he said. In response to the rise, the Vatican has issued a new exorcism ritual manual, which replaces the one in use since 1614. The ritual, a 90-page book entitled De Exorcismus et Supplicantionibus Quibustam (On Every Kind of Exorcism in Supplication) encourages priests to work closely with the medical profession to distinguish between cases of mental illness and demonic influence.

Father Davies, who was a doctor before taking holy orders, said the new ritual had not radically altered the work ofexorcists, as the old ritual also advised priests to distinguish between the varying degrees of demonic influence and natural psychological disorders. He warned that there was a tendency in the West to mistake the spiritual for the psychological, as opposed to the African continent where the reverse was true. Each Catholic diocese has to appoint an exorcist, but they are rarely identified publicly. Under 1998 guidelines, they are forbidden to speak publicly about the performance of the ritual or to record exorcisms for broadcast.

The new exorcism manual - which is currently being translated from Latin for distribution to bishops and exorcists around the world - retains much of the symbolism and language of the medieval ritual, but encourages priests to spend more time in prayer with the possessed person and tones down the most aggressive imprecations against the Devil.

The new manual is the result of 20 years' work by a Vatican commission of theologians and liturgists.