Devil keeping busy today, author says

Speak of the devil, the old saying goes, and he’ll show up.

But Neal Lozano thinks not speaking of the devil doesn’t mean he won’t.

Lozano is a Roman Catholic author who believes contemporary Christians too often deny that evil spiritual forces are at work in the world.

To him, Satan and his minions aren’t just metaphors for otherwise indescribable evil. They’re real.

“There really are angels, and there really are demons, and they really do have the ability to influence us,” Lozano says.

A 62-year-old layman who lives in suburban Philadelphia, Lozano is the author of “Resisting the Devil: A Catholic Perspective on Deliverance” published by Our Sunday Visitor, a Catholic publishing house in Huntington.

The book is a witness to a puzzling trend. While six out of 10 American Christians strongly or somewhat agreed that Satan “is not a living being but a symbol of evil” in a 2009 national survey, interest in the demonic apparently is on the rise.

In November, more than 100 Catholic bishops and priests attended a conference in Baltimore to learn how to deal with requests for, and conduct, exorcisms. Organizers cited increased demand, in part from immigrants from Latin America and Africa influenced by their cultures.

Then there’s the popularity of the “The Rite,” a movie in which a young and skeptical candidate for the Catholic priesthood comes to a deeper faith in God through a seasoned exorcist.

For more than 30 years, Lozano has been leading what he calls a deliverance ministry – working, he says, to liberate hundreds of people who feel oppressed by evil forces outside themselves.

He says he has developed a five-step method for helping believers take up the spiritual authority they have in Christ to drive demons from their lives.

Among the ministry’s tools, he says, are careful and thorough interviewing of candidates and reassurance of forgiveness of sins from the minister – and repentance, confession of faith in Jesus and verbal renunciation of specific evils by the participant.

Casting out demons, Lozano says, goes back to Jesus, who did it during his earthly ministry and told his disciples to do the same by the power of the Holy Spirit. Still, deliverance ministry is not without controversy.

For one thing, the practice treads around the edges of exorcism – a formal Catholic rite dating from 1641 that can be used only by priests, who must be deemed worthy by their bishop and obtain his permission in each case.

Lozano says he doesn’t use the word exorcism for his method or perform the rite. He maintains that nothing prohibits lay Catholics from praying for deliverance privately with others as he does. He says his ministry, which works with Protestants as well as Catholics, is not an official church-sponsored apostolate, though his priest and his superiors know about it and allow it.

Vince LaBarbera, spokesman for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, says Catholics have many recognized ways of overcoming sin without resorting to deliverance ministry.

“I think the church would mostly tell parishioners to pray and go to confession. … To go out and see a layperson, I think that would be discouraged,” he says, adding he is unaware of any local Catholic deliverance ministries.

Jeannie DiClementi, a licensed clinical psychologist and an associate professor of psychology at IPFW, says plenty of explanations for negative or destructive emotions and behavior exist without positing demonic forces.

“I think what’s dangerous about some viewpoints like this is when they’re encouraging people to discontinue using the medical and psychological professions and treatment for management of a disorder because they think they won’t get the help they need,” she says.

While apparent successes might come from the placebo effect, if deliverance or exorcism doesn’t work, it can be devastating to the afflicted, says DiClementi, a Catholic.

“The implication is that they have done something wrong – it’s your fault, you’re weak, or you don’t have enough faith.

“There’s very much a blame-the-victim attitude. … It’s a real double bind for the person who is already suffering from whatever the illness is.”

Lozano, who has a master’s degree in religious studies from Villanova University and is a former parochial high school religion teacher, says he wrote his books to clear up confusion about Catholic beliefs and practices.

Many Catholics don’t know about deliverance ministry, Lozano says, and it doesn’t entail the typical Hollywood spectacle of scary physical contortions, eye-rolling, screaming and other bodily torments sometimes referred to as demonic “manifestations.”

Participants may become emotional, he says, but the process is “non-confrontational” with any evil spirits that might be present.

Sessions resemble what might take place in a therapist’s office or in the confessional booth. He does not charge for them but accepts donations, he says.

Indeed, Lozano says, priests trained in deliverance methods can incorporate them into the Sacrament of Reconciliation, often referred to as confession. He says he often recommends participants partake of it, as well as consult mental health professionals when appropriate.

Few people – perhaps one in 100 who seek it – warrant actual exorcism, Lozano adds.

Deliverance ministry offers something secular counselors don’t, Lozano says – an acceptance that people’s problems can have what he calls “a spiritual dimension.”

“They talk about management. We’re talking about being set free, not that everybody can be, but a lot of people are set free and are not having to just ‘manage’ their stuff,” he says.

“That’s what Jesus promised – to set the captives free.”

rsalter@jg.net

via journalgazette.net

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