So if somebody has one or more invisible demons or spirits living in their body and a priest comes along and casts a spell or mutters some magical words or does some other magic to drive the spirits and demons out of a persons body it isn't magic or superstition? Then just what is it?

I say if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it is a duck! Or if it looks like magic, walks like magic and quacks like magic then it is magic!

Source

Bishops conduct exorcist training

by Rachel Zoll - Nov. 13, 2010 12:00 AM

Associated Press

NEW YORK - Citing a shortage of priests who can perform the rite, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops are holding a conference on how to conduct exorcisms.

The two-day training, which ends today in Baltimore, is to outline the scriptural basis of evil, instruct clergy on evaluating whether a person is truly possessed, and review the prayers and rituals used in an exorcism. Among the speakers will be Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston.

"Learning the liturgical rite is not difficult," DiNardo said in a phone interview before the conference, which is open to clergy only. "The problem is the discernment that the exorcist needs before he would ever attempt the rite."

More than 50 bishops and 60 priests signed up to attend, according to Catholic News Service, which first reported the event. The conference was scheduled for just ahead of the fall meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which starts Monday in Baltimore.

Despite strong interest in the training, skepticism about the rite persists within the American church and exorcists in U.S. dioceses keep a very low profile. In 1999, the church updated the Rite of Exorcism, cautioning that "all must be done to avoid the perception that exorcism is magic or superstition."

The practice is much more accepted by Catholics in parts of Europe and elsewhere overseas. Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the longtime private secretary of Pope John Paul II, revealed a few years after the pontiff's death that John Paul had performed an exorcism on a woman who was brought into the Vatican writhing and screaming in what Dziwisz said was a case of possession by the devil.

Bishop Thomas Paprocki of Springfield, Ill., who organized the conference, said only a tiny number of U.S. priests have enough training and knowledge to perform an exorcism. Dioceses nationwide have been relying solely on these clergy, who have been overwhelmed with requests to evaluate claims.

The rite is performed only rarely. Neal Lozano, a Catholic writer and author of the book "Unbound: A Practical Guide to Deliverance" about combating evil spirits, said he knows an exorcist in the church who receives about 400 inquiries a year, but determines that of that number, two or three of the cases require an exorcism.

A major exorcism can be performed only by a priest with the permission of his bishop after a thorough evaluation, including ruling out any psychological or physical illness behind the person's behavior.