Way it was done: St George slays a demonic devil
which Fr Brown was all too familiar
as the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of
Luton’s official exorcist.
With the help of my friend who is a
parishioner, I managed to track down Fr
Brown and he agreed to an interview so
I might get his insights into the nature
of demonic possession. For in addition
to his duties as pastor of a church, he
has spent the last six years helping souls
overcome the demonic through his
unique ministry as a Roman Catholic
exorcist.
Fr Brown still vividly remembers the
case he recalled which took place in 2010
and involved a young girl named Lisa.
The family had asked for help and Fr
Brown had responded.
Fr Brown explained that “demonic
possession” was the domination by one
or more demons over a person’s bodily
organs and lower spiritual faculties. In
some instances of possession recounted
in the New Testament, possession
by the devil is manifested in various
disturbances of the human body itself,
where the devil has gained control over
sight, hearing, speech, or the physical
organism in general.
“To be possessed can mean that Satan
has gained mastery over free will so
devastatingly that sinfulness passes
beyond ordinary depravity in the world,
and its cause must be sought in a power
above the order of nature.
“To be possessed can mean that Satan
has clouded the intellect, so that the
light of faith cannot illuminate it. To
be possessed can mean that Satan has
befuddled a person’s reason,” said Fr
Brown.
“Now, simple and naive folk have
wrongly made lunacy synonymous with
diabolical infestation. I don’t blame them.
How does one really tell between the two?”
According to the Vatican, there are a
few hard and fast rules that are foolproof
and fully comprehensible. Descriptions of
demonic possession often include erased
memories or personalities, convulsions,
“fits” and fainting as if one were dying.
Other descriptions include access
to hidden knowledge or knowledge of
the unknowable (gnosis) and foreign
languages (glossolalia), drastic changes in
vocal intonation and facial structure, the
sudden appearance of injuries (scratches,
bite marks) or lesions