I recently finished reading My Confrontation with Hell: Real Demonic Encounters of an Exorcist, an interesting and informative new book by Monsignor Stephen J. Rossetti, D.Min., Ph.D. Rossetti is an exorcist for the Archdiocese of Washington, a priest of the Diocese of Syracuse and the president/founder of the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal. He’s also a licensed psychologist and has spent many years working in psychological treatment as well as the spiritual renewal of priests and religious.

Rossetti doesn’t perform exorcisms on everyone who believes they need them. There’s a process that those experiencing what they think are demonic attacks have to undergo. And an exorcist-priest must have permission from the local bishop to perform a formal exorcism. (Beware of anyone who claims to be an exorcist who isn’t approved by the local bishop.) “The Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal carries out its ministries with the approval of the Archbishop of Washington,” according to a statement by the Rev. George E. Stuart, J.C.D., episcopal vicar for canonical services for the Archdiocese of Washington. This is very important.

Rossetti’s latest book is easy to read and non-polemical. His writing is firmly grounded in traditional Catholic teaching without being pretentious. The demonic encounters he writes about are warnings for people not to get involved with the occult in any way, shape or form. In fact, the majority of people who have sought his assistance over the years either dabbled in the occult or were heavily involved in it for a long time.

A few brief excerpts from the book are as follows:

“I know a man who became possessed after an unholy interest and visits to haunted houses and ghost hunting. His unholy interest and personal sins made him vulnerable, and his frequenting these ‘haunted’ locations actually put him in regular contact with the demonic. The currently popular ‘ghost hunting’ craze is a spiritually dangerous idea.” (page 23)

“Sadly, one common occurrence in an exorcism is the ‘raping’ of a possessed female. Women are especially shamed by forced sexual encounters. Demons know this and will not uncommonly ‘rape’ [a simulated rape, as demons obviously don’t have bodies] a woman during an exorcism, or at other times. This has happened very often for fully possessed women, although sometimes with men as well. It is a terrible trial.” (page 67)

“Of all that I share with individuals about this ministry, one of the most intriguing for many individuals, and often disbelieved, is the idea that I get text messages from demons. Actually, I get a lot of them….Typically the texts appear to be coming from the phone of the possessed but, when the phone is checked, these texts do not appear. In one set of demonic texts, the phone number listed for the source was: ‘000 666’” (page 78)

“Perhaps unexpectedly, I would say that the one abiding experience of this ministry and our God is that of joy…. Joy is an irrepressible sign of the Holy Spirit and it is this Spirit that animates our work.” (Introduction)

Click here to order a copy of My Confrontation with Hell from SpiritDaily.com.

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Pertinent link: The Saint Michael Center for Spiritual Renewal