By Father MieczysЕ‚aw Piotrowski TChr,
Love One Another! 10/2008 → Magic, idolatry, spiritual threats
As a famous and respected scientist with over thirty years of distinguished scholarly and clinical practice behind him, Dr. Simone Morabito has gathered a great deal of documented material on the subject of demonic illnesses. And yet barely twenty years ago, he did not believe in the real existence of evil spirits and the possibility of demonic possession.
It was only after encountering the shocking facts in the course of his medical practice, that he completely changed his mind. Since then, he has been systematically documenting his findings on the subject of demonically caused illnesses. Today he works with many exorcists and is often invited to speak at conferences dealing with the problem. A great many mysterious illnesses, whose origins remain a puzzle to medicine, and before which she stands powerless, are caused by evil spirits of unimaginable power. The prayer of exorcism — a prayer to which the Church has resorted since the beginning of her existence — remains the only effective remedy for such cases.
Dr. Morabito had his first palpable experience with the presence of Satan about twenty years ago. It was then that a nineteen-year-old student named Fabio came with his parents to consult him at his office. To all appearances Fabio was a normal, bright young man. He complained of periodic bouts of deep depression and anxiety, which disturbed his sleep. Dr. Morabito noticed that every now and then his young patient’s face would take on a terrifying aspect. Hatred seemed to emanate from his eyes. Some invisible force would make him turn suddenly toward his parents, who stood behind him. “I hate my mother and father!” he would say through clenched teeth. Then suddenly everything would return to normal and Fabio would continue as if nothing had happened. But after a while the same shocking conduct would repeat itself. It became obvious to Dr. Morabito that he was dealing with a special kind of pathological behavior. It seemed to him that some hidden personal power was manifesting its presence and forcing Fabio to behave in this bizarre manner. Having never in his many years of treating mental illnesses encountered symptoms of this kind, the doctor decided to subject his patient to psychoanalytic examination. As soon as he began, Fabio went into a series of violent convulsions. He started to pound his head with all his strength against the wall, all while screaming with an inhuman voice. It was an appalling sight. As an experienced physician, Morabito knew that one such massive blow was enough to cause severe hemorrhaging of the brain. But Fabio continued with ever-increasing force and frequency to beat his head against the wall. It seemed like a suicidal act. Morabito summoned five grown men to help him restrain the youth, but to no avail. Morabito decided to administer a sedative — one of the strongest available, which would have subdued an elephant in a few seconds. And yet for some unaccountable reason the injection had no effect on the patient. The measure proved utterly useless, and Fabio continued to bang his head with all his might against the wall, all the while screaming inhumanly. When the crisis passed, it was discovered, to the great amazement of everyone present, that the youth’s head had suffered no damage, bleeding, or swelling. Fabio resumed his normal behavior and went on talking as if nothing had happened. Morabito was dumbfounded, at a total loss to understand the situation. Why had the sedative not worked? Why had the violent blows of the head against the wall not caused any contusions? – he asked himself.
On returning a week later for a second visit, Fabio was very calm at first. But then after talking briefly with the doctor, he once again began to beat his head against the wall and utter appalling screams. Once again Morabito resorted to a sedative, this time using another drug of extraordinary potency. Yet once again the shot had no effect.
Although Morabito had learned of the existence of angels and evil spirits from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he had never attached much importance to these beliefs. True, at the university medical center he had often come across strange cases — cases which medicine was unable to account for; but it was only upon observing Fabio’s behavior that Dr. Morabito began seriously to wonder if these maladies were not occasioned by evil spirits. No normal person could have withstood the effects of drugs as powerful as the ones Fabio was receiving. Nor could a normal person have survived such violent and numerous blows of the head against a hard wall.
Suspecting the presence and agency of spiritual powers of evil, Dr. Morabito decided to consult with an experienced exorcist priest. This meeting proved to be a turning point in his life and medical practice. After a long conversation with the exorcist, he finally understood that many of the illnesses he had encountered might have had a demonic cause and that the only effective remedy for such cases was the prayer of exorcism.
A few weeks later, Dr. Morabito encountered another particularly difficult case in his office. A twenty-two-year-old woman named Francesca sought his professional help. She was very attractive, intelligent, and wealthy, born of a well-known Italian family. When Francesca arrived with her twenty-eight-year-old sister, Morabito noticed that the temperature in his office dropped by ten degrees. Even though he had nerves of steel and was normally able to remain perfectly calm in the most difficult situations, nevertheless, in this instance, he felt overwhelmed by a powerful sense of fear. Francesca went up to him and, with hate burning in her eyes, said, “I want you to hypnotize me!” Morabito felt certain that there was another, mysterious and invisible person present in his office — a spirit of appallingly evil power that was terrorizing him, throwing him into a panic, and causing his hands to shake. He realized that the main instigator of this paralyzing fear was not Francesca, but some other unseen personal presence accompanying her. Morabito had often encountered very serious and dangerous cases of mental illness, but he had never known fear and had always been able to maintain a sense of distance and feel compassion and pity for the patient. In this case, however, he would gladly have fled the office. With great difficulty he rose from his chair and went next door to ask his friend, a lawyer, to be present with him. But Francesca merely repeated her request: “I want you to hypnotize me!” Morabito felt an ever-mounting sense of panic overtake him. So overwhelming and all-consuming was this fear that he decided that his only salvation in this situation lay in prayer. As he could not remember the words of the Our Father, he began to call on Jesus. He called out his name: Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! As soon as he began to pray, the temperature in his office began to rise. His paralyzing fear receded and he began to recover his equanimity and self-confidence. Dr. Morabito took command of the situation. In order to consult with her sister, he had Francesca removed from the office. It was then that he learned that Francesca’s problems had arisen after she had attended meetings of a satanic sect. She had taken part in black masses and spiritist séances. When she returned home, the most terrifying things began to happen in her room. Among other things, it seemed to all those present in the house that at least twenty people visited her room at night. They heard terrifying cries, explosions, banging against the walls, screams, and wails. Invisible hands seemed to hurl objects at the walls. In the morning Francesca would emerge from her room covered with bruises; and, despite the fact that she would not eat for ten days, she had incredible energy.
While the psychiatrist consulted with her sister, Francesca screamed with rage behind the door. “Don’t say anything!” she roared. “Don’t talk to him!” And she kicked and beat her fists against the wall. When she was finally allowed into the office, she went up to the doctor with hatred burning in her eyes, but the doctor replied in a firm voice, “I am the doctor here and I will not hypnotize you.” “You wretch!” she screamed back. “I know you well and I’ll make you pay for it!” Dr. Morabito then contacted Francesca’s parents and advised them to take their daughter to an exorcist. Terrible things happened during the first exorcism, though after that first session Francesca felt somewhat better. But more sessions were required, and gradually the young woman returned to a normal life.
The article was published with the permission from "Love One Another!"
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