Exorcist Fr. Chad Ripperger: Possessed Politicians, Occult Activity, and Speaking to Satan Himself
- •
Exorcism is central to the mission of Christianity - approximately 23% of the Gospels detail Christ casting out demons, highlighting a core aspect of the faith that modern Western psychology has largely obscured.
“So supernatural is those things which are above anything that is created, and that pertains to God. Whereas praetor natural comes from the Latin word praetor and natura, which means aside from nature. So that would be things that are above what we experience as human beings in this world.”
- •
Demons are highly regulated and lack total autonomy - evil spirits cannot act without divine permission and are constrained by their fixed nature, meaning they are far from all-powerful in the spiritual landscape.
“When psychology came on board, it became in vogue, especially in the 50s and in the 60s, to just think that all these people's problems were just purely psychological. I mean, there are psychological issues that very much look like that. But the fact is, is that, so they just started chalking it up.”
- •
Demons possess infused knowledge rather than learned intellect - unlike humans who must reason to understand the world, demons immediately grasp the essence of everything, which acts as a key diagnostic during exorcisms.
“If you ask them a technical, theological or philosophical question, if it's a human being, you can see they have to think about it, and then they'll kind of reason their way through it. That's not how demons work. They'll immediately give you the answer, just immediate.”