Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 5, 1991 TAG: 9104050048
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Undaunted, the priest intones, "In the name of Jesus Christ, I silence Minga. I command the spirit of evil to leave now."
But the menacing voice the girl now speaks in refuses to be silenced. "We don't want to leave. . . . We want Gina."
As clergy before him have done since medieval times, the priest makes a final determination that the woman is possessed and decides to perform an exorcism.
What will be different in this chapel at a house for nuns in suburban Palm Beach, Fla., is that the solemn rite - once confined to the imagination of Hollywood in such films as "The Exorcist" - will be broadcast to millions.
In hopes of dramatizing the reality of evil in the modern world, Roman Catholic Church officials gave ABC's "20-20" news program permission to film the solemn rite last October for a segment to be broadcast tonight.
But the decision already has drawn criticism from some priests who say the broadcast violated an understanding in the church that public spectacle should be avoided in what for centuries has been a private ceremony.
The Catholic Church, like many other Christian groups, teaches that the devil is real, and evil spirits exist that strive to harm humans and lead them into sin. There are many New Testament accounts of Jesus casting out devils.
However, advances in science and psychiatry that have provided new understandings of abnormal behavior have led the church to perform exorcisms relatively rarely in recent decades.
If no scientific explanation for suspected cases of diabolical affliction can be found, church officials search for the four traditional signs of possession: unusual strength, signs of levitation, clairvoyance and speaking in languages that were never studied.
Dr. Warren Schlanger, who treated Gina in the Miami Children's Hospital psychiatric ward, said in the "20-20" report that the girl was diagnosed as actively psychotic. But church investigators determined there was something more involved, and decided last October to perform the exorcism.
By the end of the exorcism, Gina becomes complacent and obeys the commands of the exorcist.
Gina, who had not attended school for several months, has returned to school, and says during the broadcast, "I'm very happy now."
by CNB