AUSTRALIA
Sydney Morning Herald
March 6, 2016
Stephanie Wood
Senior Writer
As Monsignor William Mullins led Sunday mass at St Mary’s Cathedral, some flapped the order of service booklets before their faces to keep cool; others absorbed the words on the pages in their hands.
If they’d started on the first page, they would have read an attention-grabbing introductory missive from St Mary’s Dean, Father Don Richardson. “I prayed six exorcisms last week,” the dean wrote.
It wasn’t just Cardinal Pell’s testimony that put the Catholic Church in the headlines last week: according to an ABC news report, the Psychology Council of New South Wales is investigating a Wollongong psychologist and priest for comments about exorcism he made to triple j broadcaster John Safran.
It was, thought Father Richardson, “an opportune teaching moment”.
What he was talking about and what he had prayed were “minor exorcisms”, the type performed at the celebration of Baptism – simply, prayers “that the candidates be kept safe from Satan”.
“My advice is not to give Satan a foothold … Try to have a healthy spiritual, mental and physical lifestyle. Don’t be complacent about sin and evil.”
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