The country’s top exorcist claims demonic activities are rife in Christian Philippines amid social injustice, moral decline and a growing “anti-life” culture.
In his latest book, Fr. Jose Francisco Syquia, director of the Archdiocese of Manila’s Office of Exorcism, calls on Filipino Catholics to increase their knowledge of the faith to guard against demonic “obsession, oppression, possession and infestation.”
“A growing challenge in the Philippine Church today is to prepare ourselves to detect, confront, draw out and defeat the devil when he attacks and subjugates Christians in an extraordinary manner,” Fr. Syquia says in Exorcist: Spiritual Warfare and Discernment.
The 547-page book is the third installment of the Exorcist series. The first two books are “Exorcist: A Spiritual Journey” and “Exorcist: Spiritual Battle Lines.” His first book, a local bestseller, is titled Exorcism.
According to Fr. Syquia, an alumnus of the Central Seminary, demonic possession is not always seen, because it hides itself in people’s seemingly normal actions. Disbelief in the existence of demons makes demonic activity more powerful and cunning, he points out.
False Christian religions, the proliferation of drugs, pornography, materialism and secularism are “tactical possessions” of the devil, he adds. The general loss of faith and sense of sin in society also give the devil and his demons power to influence people, he says.
Spiritual warfare
Compared with his previous works, the new book highlights the more technical and practical aspects of demonic possessions, stressing the growing number of cases in different archdioceses and dioceses. There are testimonies of different people who have experienced cases of demonic possession.
He describes exorcism as one of the most effective ways to fight the devil as it is “directed at the expulsion of demons or to the liberation from demonic possession through the spiritual authority which Jesus entrusted to his Church.”
Pagan habits
The book also warns that even the most prayerful persons are not immune to demonic attacks within their environs.
Fr. Syquia cites a case of demonic infestation of a religious convent. “Objects where seen to move by themselves; or objects suddenly disappeared and were never found; or objects disappeared and reappeared later but in other locations,” Fr. Syquia says.
The convent, it turns out, was built on a former graveyard and location of tribal practices. But that was not the worst problem, he says. Novices were engaged in crystal and energy healing sessions, which Fr. Syquia describes as pagan.
Fr. Syquia says his office, which consists of three exorcists and three volunteers, instructed the novices to break the pagan habits before the initial exorcism.
“It was a case of ignorance since in their province it was normal to turn to occult practitioners for aid when these types of phenomena occurred. It did not enter their minds that since they are Catholics, Jesus should have been their only recourse,” he says.
Holy Mass, sacramental blessing and individual deliverances from demons were used by the exorcism team to remove the demons from the religious community.
Still the best defense
Demonic attacks may be weakened through a prayerful life, Fr. Syquia says. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Holy Rosary protect Christians against the devil, he adds.
Humility, obedience and charity are also considered efficient protection against all forms of demonic attacks. John Gabriel M. Agcaoili and Lea Mat P. Vicencio
Religious places are more prone to attacks because that is what the devil wants to cause trouble and division on the Church. Some people who are Christians like in Mexico and Philippines try to mix occult practices with christian beliefs which are only the basis of superstition.
Some Filipinos are insecure, that they have to combine different beliefs like placing the Santo Nino next to a statue of Buddha. I think Exorcism blessings should be practice at every place and every object either religious or not.