The Exorcism of
Emily Rose
The True Story
I loved the movie
of THE EXORCISM OF EMILY ROSE even though it deviated from the facts of the
case somewhat. Nonetheless the relevant
facts of the case were well done in the movie.
The important
facts --- she was possessed, God allowed it, Psychiatry cannot understand
Possession, Civil Governments have no right to judge the supernatural, the
Virgin Mary appeared to the possessed person and asked her to remain possessed
to teach the world about demons, she died in the grace of God, and maybe, just
maybe, she will someday be called a saint.
What was not
according to the facts of the case are the following --- her name was not Emily
Rose, but Anneliese Michel, she did not live in America but in Germany, what
was not brought out in the movie was that she predicted the time of her own
death and that before her death she would be free of the demons and in the
state of grace.
What is still
unconfirmed by my own investigation is the claim that she has an uncorrupt
body. There are two sides to the story
of her body and I am not inclined to
believe that she has an uncorrupt body.
Nonetheless, I
think someday she will be canonized.
The True Story
Anneliese Michel was born in Leiblfing, Bavaria,
Germany on September
21, 1952,
and was raised in the small Bavarian town of Klingenberg
am Main, where her father operated a saw-mill. Her parents were devout
Catholics and she grew into a deeply religious person. She did much penance in
response to the post-Vatican II changes that the Church implemented.
At the age of 17 in 1969,
Anneliese began suffering from unusual seizures happening during the night,
which involved her body suddenly becoming rigid, the sensation of an enormous
weight on her chest, paralysis, and inability to speak.
She was diagnosed as epileptic at the Psychiatric Clinic in Würzburg, although an autopsy after her death, including
microscopic study of the brain, did not show any changes or damage that could
be responsible for the alleged epilepsy. She was then sent to a psychiatric
hospital in Mittleberg where she remained for about
one year, and she suddenly began seeing demonic faces during her daily prayers.
Suffering from what seemed to doctors to be major seizures, Anneliese
returned to secondary school in the autumn of 1970, and in 1973 attended the
Basing her life on deep faith, Anneliese began to attribute her condition
to demonic possession. She grew increasingly frustrated with medical
intervention as it did not affect what she perceived as her real problems.
Long-term medical treatment proved unsuccessful; her condition, including her
depression, worsened with time.
Continuously haunted by demonic images, and increasingly intolerant of
sacred places and objects, she came to feel certain that demons had possessed
her.
It is important to note that throughout the course of the Exorcism rites
Anneliese underwent, she took powerful psychotropic drugs prescribed to her by
doctors. It is believed today that these drugs prevented the mental
concentration she needed for the Exorcism to work.
Below is the timetable of her medical treatment based on information from
F. Goodman’s research.
After the third seizure in June 1970, during her stay at the psychiatric
hospital, she was prescribed with an unknown anticonvulsant. The medicine did
not cure her of seizures; she also continued to see what she described as
“devil faces” at different moments throughout the day. The medicine also causes
brain cells to lose sodium; this might have been the cause of Anneliese's
absenteeism.
Around the same time, Anneliese became convinced that conventional medicine
was of no help, as it did not make her better in the least. Growing
increasingly adamant that her illness was of a spiritual kind, she asked the
Church to perform exorcism on her. At that time, however, she was denied help
of this kind. The same month she was prescribed another anticonvulsant, Aolept (periciazine), which
raises the convulsion threshold of the nervous system.
November 1973 – Anneliese started her treatment with Tegretol
(carbamazepine), which, according to Physicians Desk
Reference, should not be prescribed to women of childbearing age due to its
dangerous effect on red blood cells. Anneliese took this medicine frequently,
until shortly before her death, when she was unable to swallow anything.
September 1975 – Anneliese was finally allowed exorcism by the Church;
weekly exorcism sessions began using the full Rituale
Romanum.
The Exorcisms
Voices also began
following her, saying Anneliese will "stew in hell". She mentioned
the "demons" to the doctors only once, explaining that they have
started to give her orders.
After 5 years, her
parents visited different pastors to request an exorcism. Their requests were
rejected and they were given recommendations that the now 20 year old Anneliese
should continue with medication and treatment. It was explained that the
process by which the Church proves a possession (Infestatio)
is strictly defined, and until all the criteria are met, a Bishop can not
approve an exorcism. The requirements, to name a few, include an aversion to
religious objects, speaking in a language the person has never learned, and supernatural
powers.
In 1974, after
supervising Anneliese for some time, Pastor Ernst Alt requested a permit to
perform the exorcism from the Bishop of Wurzburg. The
request was rejected, and a recommendation soon followed saying that Anneliese
should live even more of a religious lifestyle in order to find peace.
The attacks did
not diminish, and her behavior become more erratic. At her parents' house in Klingenberg, she insulted, beat, and began biting the other
members of her family. She refused to eat because the demons would not allow
it. Anneliese slept on the stone floor, ate spiders, flies, and coal, and even
began drinking her own urine. She could be heard screaming throughout the house
for hours while breaking crucifixes, destroying paintings of Jesus, and pulling
apart rosaries. Anneliese began committing acts of self-mutilation at this
time, and the act of tearing off her clothes and urinating on the
floor became commonplace.
After making an
exact verification of the possession in September 1975, the Bishop of Wurzburg, Josef Stangl ordered
the Exorcism. He assigned Father Arnold Renz and Pastor Ernst Alt with the order to perform
"The Great Exorcism" on Anneliese Michel. The basis for this ritual
was the "Rituale Romanum",
which was still, at the time, a valid Cannon Law from the 17th century.
It was determined
that Anneliese must be saved from the possession by several demons, including
Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Nero, Cain, Hitler, and Fleischmann, a disgraced
Frankish Priest from the 16th century, and some other damned souls which had
manifested through her.
From September '75
until July '76, one or two exorcism sessions were held each week. Anneliese's
attacks were sometimes so strong that she would have to be held down by 3 men,
or even chained up. During this time, Anneliese found her life somewhat return
to normal as she could again go to school, take final examinations at the
The attacks,
however, did not stop. In fact, she would more often find herself paralyzed and
falling unconscious than before. The exorcism continued over many months,
always with the same prayers and incantations. Sometimes family members and
visitors, like one married couple that claims to have "discovered"
Anneliese, would be present during the rituals. For several weeks, Anneliese
denied all food. Her knees ruptured due to the 600 genuflections she performed
obsessively during the daily exorcism. Over
40 audio tapes recorded the process, in order to preserve the details.
The last day of
the Exorcism Rite was on June 30th, 1976, and Anneliese was suffering at this
point from Pneumonia. She was also totally emaciated, and running a high fever.
Exhausted and unable to physically perform the genuflections herself, her
parents stood in and helped carry her through the motions. "Beg for
Absolution" is the last statement Anneliese made to the exorcists. To her
mother, she said, "Mother, I'm afraid." Anna Michel recorded the
death of her daughter on the following day, July 1st, 1976, and at noon, Pastor
Ernst Alt informed the authorities in
Letter written by Anneliese
Anneliese gave a hand written letter to the Exorcist not long before her
death, saying that she no longer wanted any more Exorcisms. Without her approval the Exorcists could not
continue. In the letter she said that
the Virgin Mary had appeared to her giving her two choices: 1. To be freed from
the demons immediately, or 2. To remain possessed for a time longer to show the
entire world the dangers and power of demons, which would save souls. Anneliese chose to remain possessed and
stopped the Exorcisms. She also was told
by Our Lady that she would be freed from the demons before her death and die in
the state of grace. Shortly before her
death she predicted the time of her death.
On July 1, 1976, the day that
Anneliese had predicted as the day of her liberation, she died in her
sleep. At midnight when, according to what she said, the demons had to leave
her, she stopped raging. Exhausted but peaceful, she finally went to sleep and
never woke up.
Today, Anneliese's grave in Klingenberg am
Her corpse was
exhumed eleven and a half years after her burial, only to confirm that it had decayed
as would have been expected under normal circumstances. Today, her grave
remains a place of pilgrimage for rosary-praying and for those who believe that
Anneliese Michel bravely fought the devil.
The Court
Case
After an investigation,
the state prosecutor said Anneliese’s death could
have been prevented even one week before she died. He charged all four
defendants — Pastor Ernst Alt and Father Arnold Renz
as well as the parents — with negligent homicide
for failing to call a medical doctor.
The trial started on March 30, 1978
in the district court and drew intense interest. Before the court, the doctors
claimed the woman was not possessed, although Dr. Richard Roth, who was asked
for medical help by Father Alt, allegedly said after the exorcism he witnessed
on May 30, 1976 that "there is no injection against the devil." The
only doctor present believed her possessed.
The priests were defended by church-paid lawyers. The parents' defense claimed that the exorcism
was legal and that the German constitution
protected citizens in the unrestricted exercise of
their religious beliefs.
The defense played the tapes from different sessions, sometimes featuring
the demons arguing, to prove that Anneliese was indeed possessed. Both priests
presented deep conviction that she was possessed, and that she was finally freed by exorcisms just before she died.
Ultimately, the accused were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and were
sentenced to six months probation. It was a
far more severe sentence than most people anticipated. Also, it was higher than
the demand of the prosecution, which had asked that the priests be fined and
that the parents be found guilty but not punished.
Before the trials, the parents
asked authorities for permission to exhume the remains of Anneliese. They did
so as a result of a message received from a Carmelite nun from the district of Allgäu in
southern
The official reports, which have, to date, not been disputed by any
authority, state that the body had shown consistent deterioration. Photos made
during the exhumation were never released. Some speculate the exhumers moved Aneliese's body from one coffin to the other holding her by
her legs and hands, which some speculate means the body couldn't have decayed
much.
The accused exorcists — Anneliese’s parents and the two priests — were
discouraged from seeing the remnants of Anneliese. Also, Father Arnold Renz later claimed that he had even been prevented from
entering the mortuary.
The demons that are said to
have possessed Anneliese are Lucifer (the devil
himself), Cain, Nero,
Judas, Fleischmann (who might have been a
disgraced priest in Franken, living in the
17th Century), and Hitler.
Bishop Josef Stangl, who
approved the exorcism and was in contact a dozen times with the two priests
through letters on the case, was also investigated by state authorities, but
they decided not to indict him or ask him to appear at the trial due to his age
and poor health. The bishop stated that his actions were all within the bounds
of canon law.
Results of
the Court Case
The courtroom case, called the Klingenberg Case, became the basis of Scott Derrickson's 2005 movie The Exorcism
of Emily Rose. The film significantly deviates from the real-world
events (for example, the film is set in the
A short time
before these final events unfolded, William Friedkin's
"The Exorcist" (1974) came to the cinemas in
According the
forensic evidence, "Anneliese starved to death". Specialists
claimed that if the accused would have begun with forced feeding one week
before her death, Anneliese's life would have been saved. One sister told the
court that Anneliese did not want to go to a mental home where she would be
sedated and forced to eat.
The exorcists
tried to prove the presence of the demons, playing taped recordings of strange
dialogues like that of two demons arguing about which one of them would have to
leave Anneliese's body first. One of the demons called himself Hitler, and
spoke with a Frankish accent (Hitler was born in
The psychiatrists,
who had been ordered to testify by the court, spoke about the "Doctrinaire
Induction". They said that the priests had provided Anneliese with the
contents of her psychotic behavior. Consequentially, they claimed, she later
accepted her behavior as a form of demonic possession. They also offered that
Anneliese's unsettled sexual development, along with her diagnosed Temporal
Lobe Epilepsy, had influenced the psychosis.
The verdict was
considered by many as not as harsh as they expected. Anneliese's parents, as
well as the exorcists, were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from
negligence and omitting first aid. They were sentenced to 6 months in jail and
probation. The verdict included the opinion of the court that the accused
should have helped by taking care of the medical treatment that the girl
needed, but instead, their use of naive practices aggravated Anneliese's
already poor constitution.
The German Bishops Back
Down
A commission of
the German Bishop-Conference later declared that Anneliese Michel was not possessed, however, this did not keep believers from
supporting her struggles. This is not
surprising considering the history of German Bishops being on the very liberal
side of theology and producing many heresies and being always the first to be
disobedient to
In 1999, Cardinal
Medina Estevez presented journalists in Vatican-City the new version of the
"Rituale Romanum"
that had been used by the Catholic Church since 1614. The updates came after
more than 10 years of editing. It is called "De exorcismis
et supplicationibus quibusdam"
otherwise known as "The exorcism for the upcoming millennium".
The Pope approbated the new Exorcism Rite, which is now allowed for worldwide use. This new form of exorcism came after the German Bishop-Conference demanded to ultimately abolish the "Rituale Romanum". It also came more than 20 years after Anneliese Michel had died. The Rituale Romanum, is still used by many Exorcists and as far as the new Rite, I have great doubts as to its power. Just as the Mass, maybe it is time to return to what we know works.
Answers to questions regarding this Newsletter.
1. "Anneliese's unsettled sexual development" is a reverence to the fact that she remained a virgin.
2. 80 to 90% of Possessions are because of some fault of the person but not all. Some Possessions are caused by outside sources and allowed by God through no fault of the person.
3. After Possession a person can be in the state of grass, go to confession and communion and still remained possessed.
4. No one wants to remain possessed and they do not loose free will.
5. In all but first degree possessions (state of sin) a person cannot drive out demons on their own.
6. Except for the basic evil person, possession does not take over the soul. Only the body. Major sin takes over the soul but can be freed by a true act of contrition.
- Goodman, Felicitas D. (1988). How about Demons?: Possession and Exorcism in the Modern World.
- "Cries of a
Woman Possessed;
- The
Exorcism of Emily Rose; Movie based upon this event.
- http://www.spectator.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=8898
- Langue française : "La vérité
sur l'exorcisme d'Anneliese Michel" par Felicitas
D. Goodman.
Most information from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anneliese_Michel"