It is a warm winter morning, and the parishioners leave the century-old Church of San Agustín, in the heart of the Vegueta neighborhood, the historic center of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
It is likely that none of them know that the head of this parish founded in the 16th century, Miguel Lantigua (73 years old, one of the most recognized on the island), has just been appointed exorcist by the bishop of the Canary Islands, José Mazuelos.
He is accompanied in the appointment by Higinio Sánchez (60 years old), the parish priest of San Rafael Arcángel, in the town of Vecindario (70,000 inhabitants, in the municipality of Santa Lucía, in the southeast of the island), according to the communication department of the Diocese, which they affirm is “a normal practice”, included in Canon Law.
About 130 kilometers from that church, in the tourist municipality of Los Cristianos (15,000 inhabitants, in the municipality of Arona, southwest of Tenerife), the parish of Nuestra Señora del Carmen offers exorcism services to parishioners on its multilingual website. .
Those who want “spiritual guidance in this regard” must contact the parish priest, José Estévez, who in turn will refer the appointment to the exorcist priest, Don Pablo.
“The existence of exorcists is common in all dioceses,” said Rafael Hernández Urigüen, from Bilbao, doctor in Theology, graduate in Philosophy and Letters and former professor at the University of Navarra.
“There are no statistics, but it is common.
“There is demand.”
The profuse explanations offered by Hernández Urigüen are an exception.
He is one of the few priests who speaks to the media about this matter.
Thus, despite being considered a normal practice, the Church is not transparent regarding these appointments or this ritual on the islands.
It was not possible to speak with the bishop of the Canary Islands;
Miguel Lantigua, sitting in his office in the century-old parish, raises his shoulders politely when asked both about the reason for his appointment, as well as about his experience or training for the position or even his opinion on the matter.
Higinio Sánchez is sharper - although equally soft in his forms - and limits himself to raising his hand and shaking his head before closing the door of the parish residence, in a square in the heart of the town.
Don Pablo, the priest in charge of this practice in Los Cristianos, is equally implacable: “With great respect, offer rejected.
Thank you,” he responds on WhatsApp.
The one who is considered the most visible face of this practice in Spain, the priest and writer José Antonio Fortea, does not agree to participate either, refusing by email to make any type of comment.
“I have been ordered not to give any interviews,” he says via email, and invites you to consult his prolific bibliography on the subject, available for free on his website.
The Matrix parish of San Agustín.
Quique Curbelo
As Father Fortea explains in one of these books – his treatise
Summa Daemoniaca
–, possession is “the phenomenon by which an evil spirit resides in a body and at certain moments can speak and move through” it, “without the person can avoid it.
This act is carried out by a demon, “a spiritual being of angelic nature eternally condemned
. ”
Hernández Urigüen asserts that these possessions are more frequent than one may think.
“Something that was considered medieval is beginning to be taken seriously,” and this statement is supported, for example, in the profuse cases of extreme violence that occur today, phenomena that “have no explanation with the parameters of diagnosis, criminological analysis.” ”, or from the point of view of prosecutors and criminal lawyers.
“In the face of a need, a service.”
Hernández Urigüen claims to have referred or advised a dozen cases in the last ten years.
“Some of them cast curses on property.”
As an example, he relates the case of a horse that began to walk backwards before reaching the finish line.
Fortea is alarmed in his writings, even at the small number of exorcists there are today, a time in which he believes his services are more necessary than ever.
And he warns: “Two millennia of the Church's existence have made it clear that this ministry is not only exercised in an exceptional way, but unfortunately in a minimal part” of the cases that would need it.
No data
There are, however, no public figures that confirm this statement.
Neither in the Canary Islands nor anywhere else.
“The exorcisms that are carried out,” asserts the Bilbao priest, “are entrusted by interdisciplinary teams, studying the case well to determine possible psychological problems and have the permission of the bishop.
Once made, these permissions are kept in the secret archives of the bishoprics.
No data is revealed to avoid exhibitionism or spectacle and to safeguard the privacy of the affected person as much as possible.”
The Code of Canon Law includes in its canon 1,172 the license to carry out these practices.
The bishop of each diocese is the designated person, although he usually gives “peculiar and express license” to priests he trusts.
Dioceses begin to prepare priests with very demanding and interdisciplinary courses that prepare them to be able to provide this service.
In 1998, John Paul II tweaked the procedures to adapt them to new times and among the measures taken, those possessed were described as “tormented.”
Exorcists can also receive online training from the International Association of Exorcists, founded in 1994. This organization calls these ministers to biannual meetings in Rome and even publishes guidelines for this practice.
These range from how to detect and confirm cases to the steps of the ritual.
"In some cultural environments," criticizes in the prologue of the text the Italian Cardinal Angelo de Donatis, vicar general for the diocese of Rome, "an uncompromising description of Catholic exorcism continues as if it were a rugged, violent, dark reality, almost like the practice of magic.”
On the contrary, De Donatis maintains, “it fully corresponds to the
dictates
of authentic Tradition.”
This apparent secrecy does not seem to help dilute the supposed myth.
“Everything is always carried out in great silence,” admits a Gran Canaria priest who requests anonymity in his parish office in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
“These types of matters are never communicated to us, we are barely consulted.”
He recounts a case that occurred in the seventies, in which a woman, supposedly “tormented,” attacked the altar of a church in the Isleta neighborhood.
"Several priests got together to pray all night, although I'm not sure if it was a possession or rather a psychological issue."
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