Celebrating daily mass in the morning, Archbishop Charles Scicluna cautioned people against quickly labelling mental health or psychological issues as demonic possession.
Reading an extract from the Gospel of Mark in which Jesus performed an exorcism in the synagogue of Capernaum, the Archbishop highlighted the tendency to mix the ideas of possession with psychological problems.
‘If someone is suffering from psychological problems, we do not label them as being possessed. It is up to our [Church] experts and exorcists to determine possession or devil’s influence on a person’ he said.
These comments follow police stopping interrogations of lead murder suspect Abner Aquilina after he claimed the devil was speaking to him and was admitted to Mount Carmel Hospital. He had also allegedly told police he was doing God’s work but the devil entered his thoughts when the silent attacks occurred.
Abner has also been linked to the controversial church River of Love, despite its leader distancing itself from the suspect. Despite not acknowledging this case, the Archbishop said that even though many cases stem from psychological problems, it does not mean ‘evil spirits or the devil’ do not exist.
He went on to state that ‘God gave the power of exorcism only to the Church and each bishop is given that strength and power of exorcism for their diocese.’
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