Lack of exorcists in Ireland ‘leaves flock to the wolves’

A renowned Dublin-based exorcist has said bishops who don’t take the Devil seriously are leaving their flock to “the wolves of evil”.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic Fr Pat Collins CM described the revelation that two-thirds of Ireland’s dioceses don’t have an exorcist as “appalling”.

His comments come after this paper reported on initial research conducted by a group of European academics. Only nine dioceses said they had an official exorcist despite Vatican protocol requiring at least one exorcist per diocese.

“It’s not surprising. I’ve been complaining for years, I would refer lay people to the local bishop but when they get in touch with bishop’s house, they find that there’s nobody competent,” said Fr Collins, who added he receives calls for help almost daily.

“If somebody is referred to the bishop and the bishop thinks it’s a really serious case and warrants the exorcist dealing with it, then he would refer that person to his chosen exorcist or exorcists in the diocese and to me it is appalling that there are many dioceses where there is no such reference person. It’s a dereliction of duty, I really feel that strongly.”

The research on exorcists is being conducted by academics from GRIS (Research and Socioreligious Information Group), Pontificio Regina Apostolorum and the Department of History, Cultures, Civilisations in the University of Bologna.

All of Ireland’s dioceses were contacted. Nine confirmed the presence of an exorcist, nine didn’t have an exorcist, two refused to participate and six didn’t respond. The research covered England and Wales, Scotland, Italy and Ireland.

The limited and ongoing new research also found that many dioceses were “little competent” regarding information sought about exorcists and their ministry.

Fr Collins said bishops need to do more than just appoint an exorcist, saying the elected person must be trained appropriately and have skills such as counselling.

He said: “It has to be holistic. You would have doctors, psychologists, working together with spiritual directors so that it’s an integrated approach because a lot of the people who will present, in their own minds, as needing an exorcism or deliverance, actually it’s psychological so there’s a great need for discernment.

“The Church is in the healing business and if people are hurting psychologically, we should help them anyway but what I would find is that there would be people who definitely have psychological and pathological problems but it’s not merely psychological there is reason to think that there’s a spiritual, supernatural dimension to it as well.”

Some of Ireland’s bishops, Fr Collins believes, don’t believe that the Devil is a personal being who is opposed to the purposes of God but rather see the Devil as “merely a symbol” of evil.

“It’s an over-secularised understanding, it’s a de-supernaturalised one, it’s from liberal theology. If you don’t take the Devil seriously, he’ll run rings around you which I think he’s doing by the way,” he said.