Not The Exorcism of Emily Rose
But of Anneliese Michel

I finally bought the DVD The Exorcism of Emily Rose. I saw it when it first came out and found it not only to be a good flick, but one that was overtly pro-Catholic. A rarity in Hollywood, indeed.

But anyhow, I started looking into the real "Emily Rose", and found out that the movie was based on the 1976 exorcism of a Bavarian girl named Anneliese Michel.

One thing jumped out at me about Anneliese. Prior to her death, she had spoke of dying to atone for the sins of the wayward youth and apostate priests of the modern church (washingtonpost.com). (Warning; graphic pictures of her during the exorcisms)

That made me dig even deeper. I went to the actual Washington Post article, where I found this;

A study by research institute Infratest and published in the German newsweekly Der Spiegel last month showed that even among churchgoers, approximately a third of baptized Catholics... do not believe in life after death.

Also, this interesting bit of news;

"Secularization has the church in its grip," says Ulrich Niemann, a Jesuit priest, medical doctor and psychiatrist who often has been called into exorcism cases by clergymen. "We do a lot for the Third World, but little for faith in a transcendent God. . . . The German church is far too cerebral."

But in an amazing about face, the following;

Niemann doesn't consider himself an exorcist and doesn't perform the Roman ritual of 1614. "As a doctor, I say there is no such thing as possession," he says. "In my view, these patients are mentally ill. I pray with them, but that alone doesn't help. You have to deal with them as a psychiatrist. But at the same time, when the patient comes from Eastern Europe and believes that he's been impaired by evil, it would be a mistake to ignore his belief system."

What was that that Anneliese warned about "the sins of the wayward youth and apostate priests of the modern church"?

Our Lady of Akita, Ora Pro Nobis.