(Exorcist Fr. Marius Roque with his tools of holy water and the St. Benedict crucifix. Photo by Ding Cervantes)
CLARK FREEPORT – For adventurous youths this All Saints’ Day, Pampanga’s priest-exorcist has caveats. This, he warned, amid the possibility of diabolical possession, not much different from episodes in the ‘80s move The Exorcist.
In a forum here, Fr. Marius Roque, who was designated by San Fernando Archbishop Florentino Lavarias as official exorcist for Pampanga, said he has been through seven years of direct encounters with the devil in exorcism rites in various towns in his province.
“All Saints’ Day is not about vampires, witches, and other terrifying beings. It should be all about saints worthy of emulation,” said Roque.
Roque warned against wearing terrifying costumes and other practices on Nov. 1, All Saints’ Day, citing at least one case of diabolical possession because of this.
He said he had once exorcised a girl after she who donned a “black lady” costume for Halloween trick or treat. “She contorted her body in the most unnatural way and was behaving violently,” he recalled.
Roque said Catholic religious leaders in the country are now promoting instead the wearing of costumes associated with saints for All Saints’ Day. “The Church wants a new tradition, although it will probably take time to realize this because the Halloween practices among many Filipinos have taken roots,” he added.
Another case was that of a teenaged girl who, also on All Saints’ Day, had joined her peers in a ghost hunting adventure in an abandoned hospital in this freeport. “This girl was also brought to me for exorcism, amid unusual change of behaviour, frothing in the mouth and even in the navel, and her eyes were pure white, just like Linda Blair in the movie The Exorcist,” Roque said.
He also said in most cases, those brought to him for exorcism had first been brought to doctors and psychologists or psychiatrists but to no avail.
“I prefer that cases brought to me be first consulted with doctors as a way of easing the task of determining the possibility of diabolical involvement,” he noted.
Roque also warned against the practice of calling on the spirits of the dead via the Ouija board as this could also give way to diabolical possession. He recalled the case of a house which he later exorcised after its family dwellers complained of haunting. “It turned out that that one of the children resorted to the Ouija board which he learned from YouTube,” he said.
This All Saints’ Day, Roque urged Filipinos to respect the cemetery as being a “holy place, just like a church or a chapel.”
Roque also endorsed the use of holy water and blessed sacramentals and other sacred objects as protection against evil spirits.
He said he once immediately delivered a person from diabolical possession by pressing on him a first class, tiny relic from St. Gemma Galgani.
Roque also recalled a case in which an apparently possessed man was freed after a friend, who wore a St. Benedict medal on his neck, transferred the medal to the possessed man.
“Unfortunately, the evil spirit seemed to have transferred immediately to the medal owner who then had to be exorcised,” he said.
Roque explained that the worst diabolical intervention in humans is actual possession. Of lesser degree are ordinary temptations and obsession which could drive one to commit suicide.
In some cases, buildings could also be haunted by evil spirits, he added.
