WASHINGTON (CNS) – Rare is the priest in the United States who holds the title of diocesan exorcist.
Rarer still is the priest who is the focus of a book on his training as an exorcist, not to mention that the book has inspired the making of a feature film called The Rite – starring Anthony Hopkins, no less.
But that’s all become part of the life of Fr Gary Thomas, a priest of the Diocese of San Jose, California who is pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Saratoga.
When some of his fellow priests were discussing that another priest had declined an offer from the Bishop to serve as diocesan exorcist, he thought to himself, “I could do that.”
Not that it was easy, Fr Thomas said. For one thing, he could find no US-based course of study for priests to be trained as exorcists. He wound up taking a three-and-a-half-month sabbatical to go the Rome seminary of the Legionnaires of Christ and get training from a priest based there.
His experiences are recounted in the 2009 book The Rite: The Making of a Modern Exorcist by Matt Baglio.
But Hollywood being Hollywood, when reality isn’t good enough for the big screen, it invents a new reality. “In the movie, I don’t start out as a priest. I start out as a seminarian who has a faith crisis,” Fr Thomas said. “I am ordained eventually before the end of the movie. In the book, already I’m already a priest and I’m not having a faith crisis.”
Hopkins plays a priest-mentor to the seminarian, who anchors the story.
Fr Thomas explained that “two months before Pope John Paul II died, he issued a directive through Cardinal Ratzinger’s (now Pope Benedict XVI) office that every Bishop train and appoint an exorcist.”
With no US training available, Fr Thomas studied three days a week during his sabbatical. “Partially, I made up my own curriculum,” he said. “There’s no cookbook for this stuff.”
A priest for 27 years, Fr Thomas has been San Jose’s exorcist for the past four years. In that time, he said, he has conducted exorcisms on five people. The results, he acknowledged, are mixed.
“One is ongoing and has been successful, but has not been completely delivered,” Fr Thomas said. “Two decided not to continue after a time because they lost patience. And the other two, the persons are dramatically better.”
But those are just the five whose cases he’s taken. “I get calls from all over the United States and e-mails, and I try to direct them to their own local church. It’s difficult to diagnose these things over the phone,” Fr Thomas said.
“Every person who approaches you has a different story. You have to be able to discern whether what they’re bringing is a psychological matter, a preternatural matter or a combination of both – or neither, none of the above. Quite honestly, no two situations are identical.”
Exorcism, he added, is the last step. He said he has uttered a “prayer of deliverance” over some people who fear they’ve been possessed. Fr Thomas served as a consultant on the set of The Rite, which is due out late 2011. “I’m very excited about the release of this movie,” he said. “I think the move is very authentic about the topic. I was very impressed with Anthony Hopkins and Colin O’Donoghue (who plays the seminarian) and their portrayal of the ministry of exorcism as accurate … as was the scene that specifically involved exorcism.”
Mark Tuohy, a co-producer of The Rite, said of Fr Thomas, “I think he’s a great guy.”
Fr Thomas said he is certain that demonic possession exists. He noted that one theme in common with his five exorcism clients is “they had opened doorways to the demonic, either through witchcraft or going to witch doctors or other people having gone to witch doctors on their behalf.”