'Catholic Demon-Making' Huffington Post Read Time 1 Minute Issues and Ideas Academics With exorcism making headlines—the Vatican just concluded its annual conference on exorcism and the satanic "black Mass' at Harvard University was canceled due to protest—Mathew Schmalz, associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post about his experiences evicting demons.He writes: “Professionally and personally, I do know something about exorcism. I even performed an exorcism myself—albeit under duress. Twenty-years ago, I was doing my Ph.D. research among Catholic faith healers in India. I was recording an exchange between a Catholic exorcist and a possessed woman, when the exorcist left the room and pointed to me saying, ‘he’ll finish the job.’ Not knowing what else to do, I laid hands on the woman, who subsequently barked like a dog and then gave me a smile before she left the room.”“I wrote about this incident for an academic journal -- not to hang out my shingle as the professor who deals with devils, but to explore a dilemma common to anthropologists who become entangled with their research in unexpected and sometimes disturbing ways,” he continues. “But as much as I took an academic perspective on the incident, I did feel at once empowered and embarrassed; empowered because I felt connected -- embarrassed because it all seemed so crazy.” Read the entire op-ed on the Huffington Post This "Holy Cross in the News" item by Cristal Steuer. More Stories Image Go to Story Ritual, Community and Shared Experience: Running the Boston Marathon Image Go to Story Faculty, Worcester Partnerships Solve Real-World Problems Image Go to Story Remembering the Truth-Telling Outsider View All Stories
With exorcism making headlines—the Vatican just concluded its annual conference on exorcism and the satanic "black Mass' at Harvard University was canceled due to protest—Mathew Schmalz, associate professor of religious studies at the College of the Holy Cross, wrote an op-ed for the Huffington Post about his experiences evicting demons.
