Strongly biased and strangely, boring. ( )

Pretty good, although I can't imagine it being a movie...just saying. ( )

Surprisingly informative and minimally sensational book about the Catholic rite of exorcism. Bears no resemblance to the excretable movie of the same name. ( )

This book is what the Anthony Hopkins movie by the same title is based on. Hopkins has done some benefit charity work for the Catholic Church in the past, although he isn’t Catholic. The movie The Rite focused on the priest overcoming his fear and bewilderment over paranormal phenomena than battling Satan per se, but I thought it was interesting if inaccurate. In the book now-married journalist Baglio followed a priest from a San Jose, California parish as he goes to Rome to take classes to familiarize himself with the role as the bishop’s official exorcist. The Church’s canon law stipulates that only those priests explicitly named by the bishop can perform exorcisms on ‘the possessed.’
Although most of the book protests an aversion to seeing the devil as ubiquitous and afflicted people everywhere, that is pretty close to where Baglio ends up the book. A remarkably fast read (showing talent as a researcher and stylist for a 280pp work). Although by the conclusion this is altered to be many people searching out a priest for exorcism due to actual possession, to most people needing a steady faith life to counter-balance the forces of evil in the world that undermine a person’s coping with tragedy in life. This is not a positive view of any healing ministry in the church or even spirituality in general, and is a major flaw in the author’s outlook. The elemental catholic understanding is that Christ in his resurrection gives his own spirit to all who have faith and that this faith is strong enough to stand against any power of evil. A life of frequent practice in the Christian faith will shield a person from any worry about power from anything outside of God. The Rite does say correctly that most people with actual problems have them due to availing themselves to occult powers of New Age thinking or mediums of various kinds. This book lacks understanding when Baglio says that saints have been possessed and that God willed for them to be possessed (chapter five). That is definitely not true. No saints were ever possessed and it is never God’s will for anyone to be separated in any way from Him. Language misunderstanding seems to be going on here. Saints have been tested by hardship of spiritual & physical trials but that is not to be possessed. Basic things like that undermine the book from being taken seriously, however well intentioned.
The church has always acknowledged the existence of evil spirits influencing people toward bad decisions which cause harm to self and others [first miracle in Mark’s Gospel is a demonic healing]. For this reason Jesus asked the church forevermore to make available penance and the Eucharist. The book does come to those same conclusions after a consistent practice of Roman Catholicism shows evidence of growth. I would not recommend this book to Catholics, as it seems to give undue attention to those who claim to be possessed. Many people can claim many things and it takes time and consideration to sort out what the situation actually is.
In the Catholic Church, the priest sees the person as a believer who is suffering and needs to be returned to a safe relationship with Jesus by prayer (& sacraments of Eucharist and Penance). It is never an all out battle between the priest and the oppressing demon with the afflicted person considered as collateral damage. There are still current stories of that nature in the news with the “exorcists” being charged with felony crimes.

This was a very interesting perspective. There were sections that I didn't want to put the book down. This would be a good companion to anyone who has read the exorcist. It is not necessarily a book that will scare but rather educate you regardless if you are a practicing Catholic or not. ( )