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NY Times PART TWO
In Houston, workmen renovating a house preivously used as a “pagan church” demanded prayers by a priest to expel evil spirits from the premises. The workmen had seen “The Exorcist.”
On the West Coast, pastoral problems have been intensified by the disclosure of the Rev. Karl Patzelt, a Jesuit priest at Our Lady of Fatima Russian Catholic Center in San Francisco, that he recently performed a series of 14 rites to free a young couple and their son from the presence of a demon in their home in nearby Daly City.
The ritual of exorcism is rooted in numerous incidents, described in the New Testament, in which Jesus or his followers cast out demons and unclean spirits from distressed individuals…
The ritual of exorcism, which persists in vestigial forms in the modern rite of baptism, was developed as a means of regularizing the Church’s approach to such situations and is essentially a prayer invoking the power of God. Until 1972, when several minor orders of ministry were eliminated, new priests were routinely ordained as exorcists.
Priests who were actually called upon to perform exorcism are carefully screened for maturity and depth of faith by their superiors. Authorization is only given on a case to case basis by bishops after it is demonsrated that medical efforts have been unsuccessful. Most informed officials estimate that no more than a handful of exorcisms have been performed in this country in this century.
THE END
Wow… Now I see the aftershock… Understand how _big_ this was… better than I did. It’s awe-inspiring. I can’t put it into words better than these. Ryan put it perfectly. I know that you know what I feel… Even if I don’t say it well.
New York Times News Service
February 1, 1974NEW YORK — Early in January a young man left a Denver theater that was showing “The Exorcist” and walked to the nearby cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.
“He was half naked – with bare feet and no shirt – and clearly distraught,” said the Rev. James W. Rasby, pastor of the cathedral. “We called an abmulance but he was so upset that it took the police, the attendants and two priests to get him into it.”
The incident is indicative of some of the pastoral and theological problems that have arisen for Roman Catholic clergymen across the country since the film…opened to capacity crowds in 24 cities the day after Christmas.
Priest have been called to the aid of terrified tneeagers who reported that they could not sleep. Chancery officials have been confronted with a wave of inquiries from persons who believe that they, or acquaintances, are possessed by a demon. Theologians have warned thet the film distorts Church teachings.
The novel and film, which were inspired by a documented case…describe the agony of a 12-year-old girl possessed by the Devil.
In the movie, Satan transforms the girl into a ghastly image that spews forth gushers of bile and screams blasphemous obscenities.
The division of film and broadcasting of the U.S. Catholic Conference rated it A-4, which meant that, while moral in itself, it could confuse or offend adult viewers.
The effect of the movie’s horror scenes on many viewers has been profound. Theater officials say that it is a rare showing in which at least one viewer does not faint or become sick to the stomach and Catholic clergymen report that they are frequently being called upon to assist such person [sic].
The Rev. Richard Woods, a Dominican priest at Loyola University in Chicago, who has published a book on the Devil, said: “I’ve received dozens of calls from people who are horribly frightened or so confused that they have begun to lose their grip on reality. I know of two kids who came out of the movie thinking that they were possessed and have now been hospitalized.”
The Rev. Michael Rush of St. Patrick’s Church in Woodbury, NJ, reported that a 19-year-old girl “spent the entire night praying the rosary with her parents and really needed some special assurances from a priest before she calmed down.”
Officials of Georgetown University, where most of the movie was filmed, report a swarm of visitors. “People are coming from all over to see the chapel, to hear mass, to discuss exorcism,” said the Rev. Edmund G. Ryan, executive vice president. He said that inquiries about the possibility of performing exorcisms are referred to local priests.
END PART ONE
You say all things well. So does Ryan. You said it, “the aftershock”… and as the articles indicate, it kept exploding with new issues of the film, and new people reading the book, and audience hunger for (if I may say so, mostly inferior) supernatural horror films, which, for better or worse ultimately spawned more “Exorcist” movies – at least we got “Legion” out of it…
Yeah, Legion is a little gem of a film, even in its tampered-with state… it delivers new Blatty material – what more could a fan want… plus, as Ryan says, maybe, just maybe in some deep vault, the missing scenes are sleeping, awaiting the awakening kiss of Serendipity…
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