In the newspapers the “Exarcist switchboard”. In fact, it is a telephone service that from February 1st will allow the faithful of the Diocese of Como That they needed to contact the auxiliaries of the diocesan exorcist, priests present throughout the territory, which express multiple sensitivity, attention and charisms.
The cases of real possession of the devil are rare. But many faithful, perhaps convinced they are, need a specialist to understand it. In fact, many people also ask for help for spiritual disturbances, or after ending up in the spire of black magic, evil rites, satanic invocations or seven.
Just to answer a growing question of these needs, the diocese of Como has thought of a dedicated telephone service that facilitates the first contact between people and exorcists. Contact person of this service is the team San Michele, A reality born in 2012 and composed of priests (the more auxiliaries those who coordinate activities and also provide training support in the liturgical field, spiritual theology or canonical law) together with professionals (including, for example, doctors, psychologists , jurists).
In recent years the team has welcomed hundreds of people, mainly of the diocese of Como, ensuring them an important spiritual comfort. “It is a service aimed at exhorting the faithful to intensify Christian life (prayer, sacramental life, service in favor of the community) and discerning those signs that could reveal the possible need for the intervention of an exorcist “, explains the diocese in a note published on January 29th.
“The jubilee year – continues the text – offers the faithful multiple oasis of spirituality where to restore the path of faith and drink to the sources of hope, first of all approaching the sacrament of reconciliation, irreplaceable starting point of a real conversion path (Cf. Spes non confundit, n. 5).
In the note it is emphasized that “the faithful find first in their parish priest and in any priest the face of a church that welcomes and listens to those who are afflicted by spiritual suffering; nand priests find ministers through which to experience the forgiveness of God and the remission of their sins or through which to receive blessings (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1671).
For the faithful who, however, warn the need to contact an exorcist, the secretariat of the team San Michele offers help to find a nearby auxiliary. By calling 031.3312224 it will be possible to leave a message». The operator “will recall within 48 hours, sending the faithful who requests it to the adoption of the exorcist for an interview. In the diocese of Como, diocesan exorcists only receive the people sent by the auxiliaries ».
This service, therefore, performs an important listening and address ministry. «CHI is in charge of accommodating the requests that will perish to the secretariat of the team, has been specifically formed, is required to secret and responds to the work to the diocesan ordinary», Explain the contacts. Those who turn to the service must indicate, in the message to the secretariat, personal details, the ways to be contacted and the reasons that led to ask for support.
In Como, there are about ten the helpers of the exorcist. The names, unless rare cases, are not revealed for a precise choice. In fact, they are priests engaged in the service in the parishes, parish priests and religious at the helm of community that could be in some way conditioned with the association between the figure of the priest of reference to that of the exorcist.
Since the beginning of the activity, the team has received and managed a thousand requests for help. Among these, on average from 2 to 5% are the requests that actually prove to be cases that need an exorcism and for which a specific path is started.
The dedicated switchboard service is not an absolute novelty. The Archdiocese of Milan, for example, activated it in 2012 To allow those who need to be addressed to the nearest exorcist for an interview. In Italy there are about three hundred exorcists: they are priests appointed by the bishops in the various dioceses. Usually, it is a time assignment that is renewed. Exorcism is a sacramental, that is, a Catholic rite with particular spiritual effects.
