

"I didn't know what it was, I hadn't studied it," the father says. "He told me what to do. I was totally ignorant."
He has since become one of Rome's busiest exorcists, and the Catholic Church is struggling to find younger successors. Working three days a week from a windowless room at the back of his church near the Vatican, he often sees up to 30 people every day.
"Before doing exorcisms I urge people to see a psychologist or a psychiatrist, and I ask them to bring me their prognosis. I'm in touch with many psychologists who send their patients here."

"First of all, I get the room ready," he says. "Then if the person is not doing well, I try to calm them down reassure them. I invite them to join me in prayer. But many of them when they come here are already disturbed."
He looks through his copy of the Catholic Church's exorcism rites. He's had to tape it back together to stop it from falling apart. Amidst the pile of papers on his desk, he finds the cross he uses to expel evil spirits.
His most notable case involved a married woman he treated for 13 years.

Within the Catholic Church, the concept of possession by demons is an accepted belief. It is sometimes used to explain murderous behaviour, as in the recent murder of 85-year-old French priest Fr Jacques Hamel in his church in the French city of Rouen in July. When two Islamist militants acting in the name of jihadist group Islamic State (IS) burst into the church and stabbed Fr Hamel, he tried to fend them off, crying out "Be gone, Satan!" - an apparent attempt at exorcism. In support of the priest's actions, Pope Francis accelerated the process of Fr Hamel's candidacy for sainthood.

Fr Taraborelli rejects the scepticism.
"Well, someone who isn't a believer doesn't believe in the devil either," he says, "But someone who believes knows that the devil exists, you can read it in the gospel. Then you only need to see how the world is nowadays. It has never been this bad. These violence acts are not human. So terrible, like IS."
Fr Taraborelli shows no sign of wanting to give up his work and his mobile phone rings constantly. But younger priests are not particularly attracted by the prospect of spending hours in windowless rooms, reading exorcism rites to disturbed believers.
"I told the bishop that I can't find anyone willing to do this. Many of them are scared. Even priests can be scared. It's a difficult life."
Wouldn't it be great if a paranormal magazine regularly featured the stories of a catholic priest, BUT not just any catholic priest, one who performs exorcisms BUT not just any catholic priest who performs exorcisms BUT a catholic priests who performs exorcisms and has been given clearance to talk about them BUT not just any catholic priest who performs exorcisms and has been given clearance to talk about them exclusively to Haunted Magazine. Wouldn't it be great? Wouldn't it?
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