Tue Aug 22, 2023 – 11:19 am EDT
(Rev. Michael P. Orsi) — Demonology is a subject awash in irony. The idea that people can be possessed by malevolent spirits has been the basis of countless books, movies, and TV shows, many of which were, and remain, enormously popular.
The Exorcist, for example, is one of the best-known films of all times. More than just a commercial success, this disturbing account of a young woman in the grip of diabolical possession has become a pop-culture icon of inexplicable evil.
Despite our fascination with the topic, many people are ambivalent in their feelings about the demonic realm. Some dismiss the whole idea as mythical, assuming that all human wickedness can be explained as symptoms of psychological illness (or maybe politics).
Others assume that incidents such as the one described in a recent Gospel reading — Matthew 15, where Jesus frees the daughter of a Canaanite woman from possession — are artifacts of the distant past.
“That was Bible times,” they’ll say. “Such things don’t happen anymore.”
Yet, the Church insists demons are indeed real, and that they’re as active today as they
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