Here is an article I have read recently, I have read a lot about exorcisms, its one of the subjects I fascinate me.
I am interested in your thoughts, beliefs etc
EXORCISM IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
To become an exorcist you must be a Roman Catholic priest and have permission from your bishop to join the International Association of Exorcists.
The body, which meets in secret every two years was founded in 1993 by Father Gabriele Amorth, the official exorcist of Vatican City in the Diocese of Rome, with the aim of increasing the number of official exorcists worldwide.
Since 2005, Catholic priests can sign up to learn how to cast away evil spirits from the possessed at the Vatican-backed college, the Athenaeum Pontificium Regina Apostolorum in Rome.
It runs a two-month course to teach the "spiritual, liturgical and pastoral work involved in being an exorcist."
According to Father Giulio Savoldi, Milan's official exorcist, requirements include "the supernatural force – the presence of God – and then suggest that the man picked to do this kind of work be wise and that he should know how to gather strength not just from within himself but from God." The Roman Catholic's new Exorcism Rite, which was updated in 1999 for the first time since 1614, stresses the importance of distinguishing who is really in need of an exorcism.
Father Savoldi said: "Those studying to become exorcists should also study psychology and know how to distinguish between a mental illness and a possession. And, finally, they need to be very patient." He said the priest who undertakes the office should be himself a holy man, of a blameless life, intelligent, courageous, humble. He should avoid in the course of the rite anything resembling superstition and he should leave the medical aspects of the case to qualified physicians.
The exorcism should take place in the church or some other sacred place, but can be done in a private house with witnesses.
All idle and curious questioning of the demon should be avoided, and the prayers and aspirations should be read with great faith, humility and fervour, and with a consciousness of power and authority.
The crucifix, holy water, and, where available, relics of the saints are to be employed during exorcism. If expulsion of the evil spirit is not obtained at once, the rite should be repeated, if need be, several times.
The exorcist should be vested in cassock, surplice, and a violet stole.
In Roman Catholic dogma exorcism is a sacramental but not a sacrament, unlike baptism or confession. Unlike a sacrament, exorcism's "integrity and efficacy do not depend ... on the rigid use of an unchanging formula or on the ordered sequence of prescribed actions. Its efficacy depends on two elements:
authorization from valid and licit Church authorities, and the faith of the exorcist." The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "When the Church asks publicly and authoritatively in the name of Jesus Christ that a person or object be protected against the power of the Evil One and withdrawn from his dominion, it is called exorcism."
The Catholic Church revised the Rite of Exorcism in January 1999, though the traditional Rite of Exorcism in Latin is allowed as an option. The ritual assumes that possessed persons retain their free will, though the demon may hold control over their physical body, and involves prayers, blessings, and invocations with the use of the document Of Exorcisms and Certain Supplications.
Solemn exorcisms, according to the Canon law of the church, can be exercised only by an ordained priest (or higher prelate), with the express permission of the local bishop, and only after a careful medical examination to exclude the possibility of mental illness.The Catholic Encyclopedia (1908) enjoined: "Superstition ought not to be confounded with religion, however much their history may be interwoven, nor magic, however white it may be, with a legitimate religious rite." Things listed in the Roman Ritual as being indicators of possible demonic possession include: speaking foreign or ancient languages of which the possessed has no prior knowledge; supernatural abilities and strength; knowledge of hidden or remote things which the possessed has no way of knowing; an aversion to anything holy; and profuse blasphemy and/or sacrilege.