Spanish Priest Arrested for Performing Exorcism on Anorexic Girl

SPAIN
Newsweek

BY FELICITY CAPON
3/19/15

A Spanish priest and an exorcist have been charged with gender violence and causing injury and mistreatment after the exorcist performed repeated exorcisms on an anorexic teenage girl.

A judge in Burgos has called for the arrest of exorcist Jesús Hernández Sahagún, the official exorcist of Valladolid, along with the girl’s priest, after she endured 13 exorcisms while still a minor.

The chain of events began in 2012, according to the Spanish newspaper El País, when the girl began to suffer from anorexia. Her parents, convinced that she had become possessed by a devil, decided to have her exorcised, and appealed to their priest for help. She was then tied up and had crucifixes hung above her bed, an ordeal which later led her to attempt suicide.

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