673Please respect copyright.PENANAZTu9hSUGW0
673Please respect copyright.PENANAdiTzwI1Udw
673Please respect copyright.PENANAIwhVWTks3T
673Please respect copyright.PENANAuhR8ezbb0r
673Please respect copyright.PENANArHtMbcKTDe
According to court findings, she experienced her first epileptic attack in 1969, and by 1973 was suffering from depression and considering suicide. Soon she was seeing the faces of demons on the people and things around her, and voices told her she was damned.673Please respect copyright.PENANATmucaRqrVu
673Please respect copyright.PENANAvRzM5CNNXs
673Please respect copyright.PENANAS0gaFk2iei
673Please respect copyright.PENANAzobrq1brZC
673Please respect copyright.PENANAp0ELTL9yoW
673Please respect copyright.PENANAL7SgC7qOeu
Under the influence of her demons, Michel ripped the clothes off her body, compulsively performed up to 400 squats a day, crawled under a table and barked like a dog for two days, ate spiders and coal, bit the head off a dead bird and licked her own urine from the floor.673Please respect copyright.PENANAbFOIQjD47f
673Please respect copyright.PENANAcZbtEJo34b
673Please respect copyright.PENANAaAbReSlsWZ
673Please respect copyright.PENANA0PzurSthw5
673Please respect copyright.PENANA4ATQLZLFdL
673Please respect copyright.PENANAmiLkfKHKue
By 1975 Michel was asking for an exorcism. The Revs. Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz performed the rite 67 times over the first half of 1976. Some of the sessions took up to four hours. Forty-two sessions were recorded on tape.673Please respect copyright.PENANA7mccyQeXrP
673Please respect copyright.PENANAhh3K62AVIG
673Please respect copyright.PENANAYKBUog60MT
673Please respect copyright.PENANAAJbiRCBAOf
673Please respect copyright.PENANAZSuzTXSwCc
673Please respect copyright.PENANAvzLqyuODtL
Michel’s recorded voice can still send shivers up your spine. It is the voice of a demon, growling, barking, inhuman — and surprisingly like the voice of Linda Blair in “The Exorcist,” which had been released in Germany two years earlier.673Please respect copyright.PENANA1gpdwQPeBC
673Please respect copyright.PENANABKnjy93Qoc
673Please respect copyright.PENANA8KtRlSVdu9
673Please respect copyright.PENANArjdOjIxtu3
673Please respect copyright.PENANA80WvAC5iSx
673Please respect copyright.PENANAcMj8PZtFs4
Sometimes the demons identified themselves — as Cain, Nero, Judas, Lucifer, Hitler and others — and even answered the exorcists’ questions, explaining what was wrong with the church or why they were in Hell. “People are stupid as pigs,” spat Hitler. “They think it’s all over after death. It goes on.” Judas said Hitler was nothing but a “big mouth” and had “no real say” in Hell.673Please respect copyright.PENANAQmNDF5GJCc
673Please respect copyright.PENANADdX8cGOaMw
673Please respect copyright.PENANAGxBMlcxpmz
673Please respect copyright.PENANAwOtSmG3TQm
673Please respect copyright.PENANAL58zEnQwHp
673Please respect copyright.PENANAMoZQzv5BvK
Anyway, it wasn’t the exorcism that killed Anneliese Michel.673Please respect copyright.PENANAIbwRxYWcVY
673Please respect copyright.PENANALFRSTWbVwB
673Please respect copyright.PENANAxBpmF6Wjiz
673Please respect copyright.PENANA40Vx1crm1G
673Please respect copyright.PENANAYOUGZr0GNR
673Please respect copyright.PENANAMwh7OdgWzq
At some point she began talking increasingly about dying to atone for the wayward youth of the day and the apostate priests of the modern church, and refused to eat. Though she had received treatment for epilepsy, by this time, at her own request, doctors were no longer being consulted.673Please respect copyright.PENANAsekqFUrn6H
673Please respect copyright.PENANA6HkgqKz28q
673Please respect copyright.PENANArM9VvaX30s
673Please respect copyright.PENANAYvK1l90Rtn
673Please respect copyright.PENANAiMZRBsKzFa
673Please respect copyright.PENANAGDdRnM4G6p
She, her parents and the exorcists decided to rely completely on exorcism. By the time Michel died of starvation, she weighed only 68 pounds.673Please respect copyright.PENANAJcS910g9P3
673Please respect copyright.PENANA3X1B8HuHrj
673Please respect copyright.PENANACBOJRlwlpo
673Please respect copyright.PENANAb3IIKXTIVz
673Please respect copyright.PENANAef36g1h5cF
673Please respect copyright.PENANAumdANHcx6w
After her death, the Anneliese Michel trial also set reason against faith.673Please respect copyright.PENANAJxJKtOa9h7
673Please respect copyright.PENANAvGRZc1khaq
673Please respect copyright.PENANANPQjYKKOy5
673Please respect copyright.PENANAqRaDzBusfG
673Please respect copyright.PENANAejNpjkUNL8
673Please respect copyright.PENANA8kW2nvUGJn
“I personally believe that this case was handled in such a way as to play down the reality of the Devil,” says Norbert Baumert, Jesuit priest and chairman of the theological commission of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Germany, which cannot perform exorcism but practices “prayers for deliverance” from “demonic nuisance.”673Please respect copyright.PENANAvnrGhmyz42
673Please respect copyright.PENANA9MjmexU8Uy
673Please respect copyright.PENANA9Npv03t50x
673Please respect copyright.PENANAbjO9d9L3Md
673Please respect copyright.PENANAwhXazpMv11
673Please respect copyright.PENANAHmTNK2S984
The trial went to the heart of faith: If the Bible is true, then the miracles must have really happened, and Satan must be real.673Please respect copyright.PENANADR3jU2Dnbn
673Please respect copyright.PENANAm7MFhnsq1c
673Please respect copyright.PENANA7BwrYjVA6e
673Please respect copyright.PENANAEDKVaFcupJ
673Please respect copyright.PENANAUVkqh3Xm9N
673Please respect copyright.PENANApJDQqnsxP0
But it’s not easy preaching the existence of the Devil to one of the most secularized countries in Europe. A study by research institute Infratest and published in the German newsweekly Der Spiegel last month showed that even among churchgoers, approximately a third of baptized Catholics and half of baptized Protestants do not believe in life after death.673Please respect copyright.PENANA0BULoR0Rbx
673Please respect copyright.PENANApQuiaYpmea
673Please respect copyright.PENANA4U6YRDkJ8Z
673Please respect copyright.PENANA4xgGgnea7O
673Please respect copyright.PENANAFXfOMukxBw
673Please respect copyright.PENANAAA8Stx1WbG
“I understand the complaint that German theologians are too rational,” says Klemens Richter, professor for liturgical science in Muenster. “But exorcism is all about helping the sick. In Anneliese Michel’s case, the sickness was supported. When I go to a patient and support her in her delusion, she gets the impression that she really is possessed.”673Please respect copyright.PENANAu8RGZ1BKDM
673Please respect copyright.PENANAHPmQTssPYN
673Please respect copyright.PENANAzjIm0d3BtM
673Please respect copyright.PENANAm8Q2Ajmtal
673Please respect copyright.PENANACnGCwOhYSW
673Please respect copyright.PENANAp7Ns51CIxm
Exorcism is far more widespread today than most people imagine. According to Richter, there are about 70 practicing exorcists in France and just as many employed in Italy. In July this year, a congress in Poland was reportedly attended by about 350 practicing exorcists.673Please respect copyright.PENANATaQ2H9NLV8
673Please respect copyright.PENANAyr6iX7Af7q
673Please respect copyright.PENANAEB4DTq5EyI
673Please respect copyright.PENANAK6LobV4gHA
673Please respect copyright.PENANAaDKczLJ3c2
673Please respect copyright.PENANA9WV8lpqObQ
Germany is the major European exception. Here, there are only two or three practicing exorcists, and though they have the approval of their bishops, they operate in secret.673Please respect copyright.PENANAiBsZTbII5h
673Please respect copyright.PENANASfNr5jtcGN
673Please respect copyright.PENANATFDsSzaE4d
673Please respect copyright.PENANAf8yFGOIKpQ
673Please respect copyright.PENANA6hyYOsAkVV
673Please respect copyright.PENANAfMEFWxMCkI
Secularization has the church in its grip,” says Ulrich Niemann, a Jesuit priest, medical doctor and psychiatrist who often has been called into exorcism cases by clergymen. “We do a lot for the Third World, but little for faith in a transcendent God. . . . The German church is far too cerebral.”673Please respect copyright.PENANADFF3wsub4z
673Please respect copyright.PENANAYWLXL4DYgg
673Please respect copyright.PENANAIgzXpRcGCt
673Please respect copyright.PENANAYSaYQhKmaO
673Please respect copyright.PENANAhED4mhp9KU
673Please respect copyright.PENANAQxzBJpg1Y0
Niemann doesn’t consider himself an exorcist and doesn’t perform the Roman ritual of 1614. “As a doctor, I say there is no such thing as possession,” he says. “In my view, these patients are mentally ill. I pray with them, but that alone doesn’t help. You have to deal with them as a psychiatrist. But at the same time, when the patient comes from Eastern Europe and believes that he’s been impaired by evil, it would be a mistake to ignore his belief system.”673Please respect copyright.PENANAdfr9egoaUi
673Please respect copyright.PENANAGjNFtq4b7l
673Please respect copyright.PENANAwXEkTaKxuO
673Please respect copyright.PENANA8mqS7uNkeq
673Please respect copyright.PENANA6K4gX32KlS
673Please respect copyright.PENANAY8gQ9HjxyC
After the Michel trial, German bishops and theologians formed a commission to review the exorcism rite, and in 1984 they petitioned Rome to change it.673Please respect copyright.PENANADaIV1nfCsl
673Please respect copyright.PENANA78JcFFhF6f
673Please respect copyright.PENANAD8hpD9H0mj
673Please respect copyright.PENANA2vIXbUjWO9
673Please respect copyright.PENANAUbJyuFC9eE
673Please respect copyright.PENANAOuDjGsOTm1
The heart of the problem, they found, was the practice of speaking directly or “imperatively” to the Devil, that is, “I command thee, unclean spirit . . . ” That part of the rite seemed to do the most damage, since it confirmed to the patient that he or she truly was possessed.673Please respect copyright.PENANAeQOW79gPuS
673Please respect copyright.PENANAGacNKnuFNu
673Please respect copyright.PENANAhrXXyI6fZL
673Please respect copyright.PENANAnViD5Gh16T
673Please respect copyright.PENANAiDFqox0SMa
673Please respect copyright.PENANAvwawRQ494G
The Germans didn’t get what they wanted.673Please respect copyright.PENANAYh1PqYqohV
673Please respect copyright.PENANApyrpC1zbbr
673Please respect copyright.PENANAMRAp8n3Hgp
673Please respect copyright.PENANAYvnRoEaklf
673Please respect copyright.PENANAi7g0pGCOzA
673Please respect copyright.PENANAkpTkQivgmM
“We were astonished when Rome issued a changed exorcism formula in 1999 which left open the possibility of speaking to the Devil directly,” says Richter. “But you can’t know for certain that a patient is truly possessed of the Devil.”673Please respect copyright.PENANAoMuuec56Ll
673Please respect copyright.PENANA6EHAVj53Lt
673Please respect copyright.PENANADPbyjPVSNy
673Please respect copyright.PENANAxrIfNHKIts
673Please respect copyright.PENANAvJ9FhhvwVc
673Please respect copyright.PENANAsZAFACtrSw
Today, 30 years after Michel’s death, with both exorcists and her father also dead (her mother couldn’t be reached for this article), Michel is still revered by small groups of Catholics who believe she atoned for wayward priests and sinful youth, and honor her as an unofficial saint.673Please respect copyright.PENANAUjoC23q7WI
673Please respect copyright.PENANAAHEWZlTogJ
673Please respect copyright.PENANAO8IKBl5tQ3
673Please respect copyright.PENANAZAAtexGbOw
673Please respect copyright.PENANAxSWaXdpOZf
673Please respect copyright.PENANA55IAqctiv1
“Buses, often from Holland, I think, still come to Anneliese’s grave,” Barthel says. “The grave is a gathering point for religious outsiders. They write notes with requests and thanks for her help, and leave them on the grave. They pray, sing and travel on.”