Old Way To The Priesthood

[ThomasPeter]

i was reading a new post taht one of the stages to the priesthood use to include "exorcist". what did this "stage" do? where they really an exorcist? im just a little curious as it cought my eye. thanks
tom

[BLAZEr]

It used to be that as seminarians prepared for Holy Orders, they used to be ordained to the minor orders of porter, lector, acolyte, and exorcist, sub-deacon then enter holy orders as a deacon and finally as a priest.

Pope Paul VI eliminated all of the minor orders except lector and acolyte, which still exist and are reserved only to men who are celibate (and usually only seminarians are instituted, not ordained, to the minor orders).

Today the role of exorcist belongs only to the Bishop and to those priests he has deputed to help him carry out this role.

[cappie]

There have been eight Orders in the Roman Catholic Church viz., the Order of Bishop, Priest, Deacon, Subdeacon, Acolyte, Exorcist, Lector, and Porter

Major Orders. The Episcopate, the Priesthood, and the Diaconate are conferred though the Sacrament of Holy Orders. They are sometimes known as Major Orders to distinguish them from Minor Orders. These latter were instituted not by Christ but by the Church and are therefore not part of the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

The Minor Orders. By the middle of the 3rd Century in Rome, there were subdeacons, acolytes, exorcists, lector and porters, offices which became known collectively as minor orders. Their names suggest the duties originally attached to them. The Subdeacon was one step lower than the Deacon, assisted at the Altar, and by later legislation was bound to celibacy and the recitation of the Divine Office. In the Western Church, from the 13 century, the Subdiaconate was regarded as a Major Order even if not instituted by Christ. The Acolyte ministered to the Subdeacon. He had charge of lighting the candles for Mass, helping to serve the water and wine, and was the bearer of letters from one Christian community to another. It was the Exorcists duty to exorcise evil spirits. The Lector read portions of the Sacred Scripture for the people and instructed children in doctrine. The Porter called the people to church by ringing the bell and locking the doors.

For many centuries, before minor orders were conferred, the candidate for the priesthood received the first Tonsure, a ceremony by which he was set apart and became a cleric. Over time the minor orders became only steps by which the candidate approached Major or Holy Orders. The office of Exorcist was discharged by a priest authorised by the Bishop, and the duties connected with other minor orders were fulfilled chiefly by lay people.

In 1972 in the Document Ministeria Quaedam, Pope Paul VI abolished the subdiaconate and minor orders in the Western Church, and replaced them with Lector and Acolyte henceforth known as “ministries”, open to laymen. At the same time the ceremony of Tonsure was abolished and replaced by the ceremony of “candidacy”. Entrance to the clerical state now takes place at diaconate. Before diaconate a candidate will have received the two ministries.

The Eastern Churches retain the minor orders. The Roman Church retains them in the Traditionalist clerical communities operating under the provisions of Ecclesia Dei.

[cappie]

Just an addition given the part of your question re exorcists

Satan's Strategy of Confusion (Part 1)
Interview With Father Mendoza Pantoja of Archdiocese of Mexico

MEXICO CITY, SEPT. 16, 2004 (Zenit.org).- Satan exists and his strategy is to confuse, says the exorcist of the Archdiocese of Mexico.

Father Pedro Mendoza Pantoja was one of the organizers of Mexico's first National Meeting of Exorcists and Auxiliaries of Liberation, held Aug. 31-Sept. 2 at the headquarters of the bishops' conference. The meeting drew 500 participants.

Father Mendoza Pantoja coordinates the work of eight exorcists, one for each of the territorial vicariates of that diocese. He spoke of his work with ZENIT. Part of this interview appears Friday.

Q: Who is an exorcist?

Father Mendoza Pantoja: He can be a bishop or a priest designated by him, who by the mandate of Jesus Christ and in the name of God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit recites a prayer in which, in an imperative way, in the case of diabolic possession, orders Satan to depart from the one possessed and leave him in total freedom, or in a deprecating form, that is, of intercession or supplication, asking that, by the precious blood of Christ and the intercession of the Virgin Mary, a person, place, house or object be liberated from every demonic influence, be it infestation, obsession or oppression.

Q: Can anyone be an exorcist?

Father Mendoza Pantoja: No. According to the Gospel, Christ enriched his apostles with charismatic gifts when he sent them to evangelize.

In Matthew 10:1 it says: "And he called to him his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every infirmity." See also Matthew 16:17-18.

With that authority, it corresponds to bishops, successors of the apostles, to exercise this ministry of expelling demons. But, according to Canon 1172, they can designate, to exercise this ministry in a stable manner or for a special case, a "pious, learned, prudent priest with integrity of life." This is true for diabolic possessions and, therefore, for exorcism itself, also called solemn exorcism.

But every priest through his ordination participates in the priesthood of Christ and, with him, has the mission to liberate the faithful from all obsessions, oppressions or demonic influences, with deprecating prayers of intercession and supplication, with evangelization and administration of the sacraments, primarily penance and the Eucharist.

Similarly, all priests are exorcists in regard to the pastoral endeavor of liberation within their mission to evangelize, and this is true, by the command of Christ; he does not need to be designated to carry out so-called minor exorcism. Lay people cannot be exorcists.

Q: The meeting you organized also gathered "Auxiliaries of Liberation." Who are these persons and what do they do?

Father Mendoza Pantoja: Auxiliaries of Liberation are: priests who do not have the character of official exorcists; doctors; psychiatrists; religious; and lay people who help the exorcist priest in discernment or in the exercise of his ministry, either with prayer of intercession or in different eventualities.

Priests help with prayer of liberation and the laity with prayer of intercession. A priest who is not an official exorcist can carry out a minor exorcism, also called prayer of liberation, helped in turn by all the laity who support him in discernment and with prayers of intercession. The laity cannot recite prayers of liberation.

Q: If I am not mistaken, this was Mexico's first meeting of exorcists and one of the first of these characteristics in the world. It seems that in the last 40 years the figure of the exorcist was disappearing. Is this an impression that corresponds with reality?

Father Mendoza Pantoja: Indeed, it is. The causes are varied, but we could say that they are included in the great challenge that the second half of the last century presented to the Church in her task of evangelization.

In the first half, Satan attacked humanity in the field of ideas and thought: rationalism, materialism, Gnosticism, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, sectarianism, Socialism, Marxism-Leninism, etc., which separate man from God. On one hand, the negation of a personal God and also the negation of the existence of Satan as a personal being, exchanging the true God for an impersonal god that identifies itself with this material world and reducing Satan to a mere symbol.

Such an influence also infected our theologians, who in recent times no longer spoke of the devil or the angels.

But as a counterbalance, man felt nostalgia for God. His search for the supernatural, as a solution to the problems afflicting him because of his separation from God, made him fall into the clutches of the New Age, which with its deceitful spiritualities and fictitious magical and esoteric solutions has opened the doors to the manifestations of the devil in many persons who have fallen into New Age esoteric and magical practices.

For this reason, in the permanent mission of the New Evangelization the Church has found it necessary to revive something that she felt was of the past, but which is urgent in our times: to proclaim to those who have fallen away the redemption of Christ who came to liberate us from Satan's threats.

Q: It is said that in some countries the progress of Satanic sects has not been addressed adequately by the Church for lack of exorcists. Do you think there is some truth in this?

Father Mendoza Pantoja: The answer to this question is related to the previous one.

Indeed, our faithful and priests themselves have been engulfed in the sea of confusions to which the New Age leads us with its mixture of ideas, deceits and lies, manipulating Eastern spiritualities mixed with pantheism, as well as traditional medicines, which in themselves are a gift from God and have nothing diabolical, but whose efficacy is used by promoters of the New Age to give themselves credit and make one believe that everything they say is true.

It also took us bishops and priests by surprise, without knowing what to do or how to act in this sea of confusions. And some were filled with fear by the phenomenology presented in those affected by the devil. Or it led them to protect themselves in a crass skepticism in the face of these realities, attributing them to psychological problems or illnesses that are difficult to cure and so did not attend to them.

Moreover, seminaries have not given preparation to address these problems. For all these reasons, through meetings and congresses both at the national as well as the international level, we are seeking formation both for ourselves, the official exorcists, as well as for all priests and for the laity involved in the pastoral endeavor of liberation.