Britons holidaying in France this summer should be aware of a risk unlikely to be covered by their travel insurance: the Devil.
Evil is on the rise across the Channel amid family breakdown, unemployment and a deepening social malaise — at least according to the Roman Catholic Church.
Consider, for instance, the number of exorcisms that its priests are having to perform in France. A decade ago they carried out about 15 such rituals a year in the Paris region. Now the figure is running at about 50, according to Father Emmanuel Coquet, the deputy general secretary of the Conference of Bishops of France, who helps to run the National Bureau of Exorcists.
Father Coquet said that the church was taking the issue seriously: “In general, bishops are more and more careful about whom they nominate as exorcists.”
He said that about 2,500 people contact the Paris region diocese every year for advice about an exorcism. Most are told that their problems do not require the intervention of an official diocesan exorcist. Prayers, parish meetings or possibly medical treatment — and sometimes all three — are more appropriate in the majority of cases, Father Coquet said.
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The applicants were often “fragile” people who had been involved in spiritualism and mediumship, he said. The Paris region’s two exorcists are helped by lay people to decide what advice to give those who come to them for help.
Father Coquet said it was not that the Devil had been unleashed on France, rather that modern society offered more openings for evil.
“It is true that we are seeing an increase in the number of people who are fragile and isolated, without family links to support them,” he said. “We live in a worrying society where the Devil can leave his mark.”
Father Coquet said demand for exorcisms also resulted from a modern tendency for people to present themselves as helpless victims. Whereas once they would have tried to sort out their own problems — by going to church to pray, for instance — now they were more likely to place themselves in the hands of an exorcist, he added.
Some commentators believe that the rise in exorcisms is a global trend that can be attributed to the Pope, who told confessors that they should not hesitate to refer parishioners to exorcists in cases of “genuine spiritual disturbance”.
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Father Coquet said: “Pope Francis said we should not be afraid to speak about the reality of evil.”
Some French entrepreneurs have taken him at his word. A growing number of unofficial exorcists are advertising their services on French internet sites, offering to evict demons for €100 an hour or more.
Father Coquet says it is possible to buy a home exorcism kit for €60. The church is seeking to curb private exorcists, accusing the practitioners of exploiting their clients’ suffering.
“It is inconceivable for someone to proclaim themselves an exorcist,” Father Coquet said. “And it is an absolute criteria for us that exorcisms must be free.”
He added that the prayers recited during an official exorcism were kept secret by the church. “We do not want them to circulate,” he said.