Journalist
Rod Dreher recently recounted a disturbing story on his blog. A
Catholic friend of his – respectable, upper middle-class, devout, normal
in every sense of the word – confided to him in a phone call recently
that his wife has been undergoing regular exorcisms.
The
friend – who Dreher calls “Nathan” – explains that it all began
normally enough, when his wife fell into a state of depression, a
condition that she had suffered from as a teenager. This time, however,
there were other, far stranger symptoms, beginning with a strong
aversion to religious items. It escalated from there. Now, writes
Dreher, “The wife goes through periods in which she hears foul
blasphemies, and feels compelled to commit suicide. In the exorcism
sessions, Nathan says the demons, under compulsion from the exorcist,
speak of these things — in particular, how they intend to destroy
Nathan’s wife, and her family life.”
Dreher insists that his friend is the furthest thing from a pseudo-mystical nut...
