DELIVERANCE

"I speak with the devil every day," says Father Gabriele Amorth, Rome's official exorcist. "I talk to him in Latin. He answers in Italian. I have been wrestling with him, day in day out, for 14 years."

The combination of ‘laying on of hands’ and ‘praying in tongues’ is risky business at any time, but when used for deliverance it is nothing short of irresponsible. There can be demonic transference when touching a demonized person. The Official Rite of Exorcism lists speaking in tongues as a symptom of demonization. The tongues people claim to have today are not from God. Tongues are dicey, because they are easily aped by Satan. Furthermore there is no valid reason for using tongues for deliverance. The practice is unbiblical and flies in the face of Catholic Tradition.

Besides lay people have no authority to involve themselves in deliverance work. “The law of the Church (CIC 1172) is written in a manner which is "invalidating" and "incapacitating." Restrictions are to be interpreted strictly, which in this case means that imprecation is left to authorized priests. See the Church's own official interpretation in Inde ab aliquot annis (Die 29 m. Septembris a. 1985).

This is the present law of the Church and the present official interpretation. The mind of the legislator is clear according to legislated norms of interpretation. Some feel the prudential judgment of the Church to be inadaquate, both those who are more traditional and those who are more charismatic. The present law is indeed extremely restrictive. So was Jesus in this matter. There are reasons for this. Anyone performing any imprecatory exorcism without authorization is in extreme danger. I can’t emphasize this more. If one plays with fire, one WILL GET BURNT!” Who Has the Authority to Perform Exorcisms?

#1172. No one may lawfully exorcise the possessed without the special and express permission of the local Ordinary. This permission is to be granted by the local Ordinary only to a priest who is endowed with piety, knowledge, prudence, and integrity of life.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church)

“In September of 1985 (AAS) Cardinal Ratzinger rescinded (to rescind = to withdraw, annul, cancel, repeal -- added) the permission for both laity and non-exorcist priests to proceed with any kind of exorcism, something which also applies to the recitation of the exorcism of Leo XIII.

As it is, no one but an exorcist may give a direct command to the devil, for such a direct command, given in the name of Jesus, is by definition an exorcism. The most one can do is make prayers of intercession for the deliverance of the besieged person or thing in conjunction with other sacramentals of the Church such as holy water. Note that this has a place in the prayer of intercession, the Lord's Prayer, at the end of which we pray, "deliver us from evil." "Evil", in this case, is to be understood as a personal evil, that is, the Evil One.” Who Has The Power To Exorcise Demons?