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Heart and Soul: Driving Out the Devil: Driving Out the Devil

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Driving Out The Devil

26/07/2014 GMT

Driving Out the Devil

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Driving Out the Devil, Driving Out the Devil

Are people 'possesed' by daemons or is it a case of mental illness that's being ignored?

The ideas and images we have of the devil and of daemonic possession have largely come down to us through popular culture - and that is especially true of exorcism. It’s a vital part of faith, to believe in good there must be bad and bad comes in the many forms of the devil.

The rite of exorcism, where the spirit of the devil which has taken up a place within a body is cast out, is very real and across the world officially appointed Catholic ministers conduct exorcisms on a regular basis. Each year for the past decade trained and practising exorcists and interested parties have come together in Rome for a conference, to investigate the role of exorcism in the modern world. 

Mark Dowd has been granted rare access to this conference - and exorcists from all over the globe - to find out what they actually do and how they respond to suggestions that this is a throwback to medieval superstition. He questions how possible it is to distinguish between possession and mental illness, and discovers in a conversation with the former Bishop of Monmouth in the UK, that this is a rite not just practised by Roman Catholics but also by Anglican ministers globally. 

Mark then travels to Sardinia, the small island off the coast of Italy, which sent three priests to the Rome conference last year following increased reports of possession. And, he meets a woman who is undergoing a course of exorcism from two priests, having been taken over by several daemons for the past five years. 

The conflict between whether she and other ‘possessed’ people have been invaded by the devil is a constant one. Sceptics say that as long as the church continues to conduct exorcisms it just perpetuates the myth surrounding Satan and the dangers of evil. They are concerned that the possessed are in fact mentally ill and that this is being dangerously ignored.

Heart and Soul: Driving Out the Devil

BBC World Service

Mark Dowd joins priests on an exorcism course and finds out why exorcism is a growing part of the Catholic Church’s concern.

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