The Exorcist Files - BONUS Pt. 1 - Father Martins QnA

Episode Date: April 30, 2023

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While we continue to prepare our final case file, today we are bringing you a little bonus Q&A as promised, with our resident demon disciplinarian, Father Carlos Martins. We've received a lot of questions, which we really do appreciate, and we wanted to give Father an opportunity to share his thoughts on a few of them. If you don't hear your question this episode, don't worry. We'll drop another Q&A at the end of the season, so keep them coming at Exorcist Files at gmail.com if you want a chance at your question being answered. Now, without further ado, here's some excerpts from my conversation with Father.

folks to our special bonus episode, the special Q&A edition. With me in the spiritual sense, well, the Zoom sense, that is. We have the resident demon disciplinarian, the relic guy, and also a friend. Father Martins, thanks for being on the special bonus episode, taking a break from your headspinning schedule. Hey, Ryan, good to be with you here again and hope you're doing well. It's been said that you offer spiritual relief and then I'm here to offer comedic relief. Would you contest that label or would you find that to be an accurate depiction of our roles on this show? I think we have different roles. I think you're much better at comedy than I am.

That's true. So actually, you've enjoyed the dad jokes on the show, right? Yeah, sure. Yeah. I mean, what other Exorcist's show can you get a knock-knock joke in, right? I mean, come on. That's right. Not everybody can pull that off. That's right. Well, I'm glad that I could actually contribute to this show in that way.

So do you ever just go, I can't believe we're actually doing this? Like, I cannot believe that I'm going to be making a show about exorcism. Yeah, I mean, part of it is surreal for me. But the whole enterprise is a work of evangelization, right? It's an extension of my work as a priest to preach and to teach the people of God. And so that in and of itself has a value and is edifying. All right, well, how about we get some questions going? Does that sound all right, Father?

That's great. Now, before we get to the mailback questions, I would like to actually just address the big elephant in the room. The question we get probably more than any other question. Father, will listening to our show open you up to demonic attacks? Absolutely not. if it were possible to merely listening to the podcast to give you demons, then imagine what position I would be in in making the show,

that you Ryan would be in in making the show. And me, in fact, of being an exorcist, you know, I would have been possessed a long time ago. So there are no demons attached to me or to the show. Now, some people can feel very disturbed by listening to an episode because of what they hear. Some people I know have stated that hearing the scary music that we put in makes them scared. Well, then it's done its job. If one's fear is too much, if one shows an excessive fear of the devil, then that in and of itself puts one in a relationship with him.

That being said, there is no personal danger in listening to an episode. And I will say this. On the contrary, each show is a catechesis. It's a teaching. And the purpose of that teaching is empowerment, right? It's to bring us into a deeper relationship with God. Okay. Well, what do you say? We dive right in. We get tons of questions. Let's go to something just really quick. What is one of the weirdest things you've either seen in an exorcism or just in some sort of what you believe to be a demonic interaction that we haven't covered yet. Yeah, so there's been a lot of, a lot of weird things, and a lot of them, I just can't speak publicly because the demon was being scandalous and belligerent, and it would be advertising for the,

he would love nothing more than for me to share a lot of them. But I'm thinking, there's one in particular, one moment when, in this particular exorcism, so I had a very full, team there, and it wasn't the largest room in the world, so it was kind of tight. And then what happened was the demon was making a foul, foul smell in the room. It smells like feces is being held two inches from your nose. So the demons can do that. It is at the end of the day an illusion. There's no feces to be had, but they can manipulate the forces of nature to produce that effect in you. And also, I will say this about that experience of a smell, or even about the experience of when a demon makes the room, say, really cold or really

hot, when the smell goes away, it goes away with the snap of a finger. It doesn't linger. It's instant on, instant off. So as we're experiencing this, on this particular day, there were two of us exorcists, and the other exorcist was pronouncing the prayers. And he, he, used this foul odor in the prayer that he used in in his address to the demon so he heaped insults upon him couched within a command you you cunning foul mouth evil enemy of man i command you to answer me in the name of christ you malodorous fiend and then a demon just stopped looked at him and said me malodorous that smell was you and then he gave a lot of look on his face like he was offended just at the sit. It was something that we, none of us

expected in the entire room burst out laughing. And you couldn't help it. And it's one of those situations where obviously in an exercise, everybody's under great stress. And in those moments when you're stressed out and something really funny happens, well, the more you try to suppress it, the more the laughter comes out. We had to take a 15-minute break just to compose ourselves and get serious again. And, you know, it was part of the demonic tactic. It gave him a reprieve and allowed him a rest and a way to recoup himself. Well, there you go. Even in the midst of an exism, a laugh can occasionally be found. We have a question from T in California. It's a two-parter. When someone is demonized and it takes several sessions for them to become free,

how do you like to close a session with the exposed wound per se still infected by the demonic, assuming they're not going to be fully delivered in that session? And then is there anything you do to try and stop the demonic entity from undoing that progress in between those sessions? So how do you like to close out a session when it's clear that it may not be one and done? Yeah, sure. So what I do is myself and the team, we recite a marry in him, typically the Salve Regina. And that seems to be the magic thing that makes a demon go away. I'll give a command. We're going to bring this to a close now. I command you to stop manifesting and to be a peace and to allow a peace to your victim here. I ask our lady to ratify that prayer.

We sing the Salve Regina and, you know, poof, they typically leave. Okay. In fact, I really can't remember a time where they did not. When you say it takes several sessions for someone to be free, is that referring to the pastoral care that it takes for them to come to the place when they are willing to rescind those rights and renounce the thing? Or is it also the strength of the demonic presence that is attached to them? And it will just take more time sessions to weaken that demon before it goes, or are the two just related? Those two factors play a great part of it, but there's something that is head and shoulders over and above those two, and that is the will of God.

It's over when God wants it to be over, and it will not be over until he wants it over. That's the biggest thing. The demons don't hold the power, and I don't hold the power. God holds the power. Yeah, we have some authority bestowed by the church, an authority that God has given to his church, which then it lends to us. That's all fine and good. But God is the real exorcist, and we're just his agents.

Have you seen sessions where someone genuinely is repenting, removing those rights, and the demons are still not leaving? Or is the question of God's sovereignty more about when and where a person will arrive at the place to which they want to rescind those rights? It's all of the above. Okay. You know, I've seen the rights be rescinded,

and yet the demons don't leave. I demand of them, why are you not leaving? And they will say, because the one whom you serve won't allow me. And how do you know they're telling the truth in that instance? Because of the repetition over time. Would demons ever try and high, under the, quote, sovereignty of God argument? They'll try to hide under anything.

But over time, I'm going to direct all my prayers to that particular point. They can't withstand it. If it is a lie, it gets revealed. It breaks down. So these cases are exceptionally rare. These are what cases that we would call a victim's soul. There are some extremely, extremely infrequent cases where God does, desires a particular suffering out of someone in order to accomplish a great good.

Annalise Michelle was one of these St. Mary of Jesus crucified, who was a Carmelite nun who lived in Bethlehem, is called the Holy Demosch. She was possessed for a time. And the demon never wanted to be in her. And there was never an entry point in her. But what was going on there were the demons were being contained within her. So there's kind of a two-part accomplice. of the divine will there. On the one hand, the activity of the demons is curtailed, is limited, because they're forced into this relationship that they really don't want to be in with St. Mary of Jesus crucified. And secondly, that she herself is becoming a victim soul is suffering for the salvation of the world. Now, in the Protestant understanding of Christianity, Protestants typically don't have an appreciation for a

theology of suffering like Catholics would. That theology plays a big part in the Catholic understanding of God and of our vocation here on earth. That God does call us to suffer well. We don't seek suffering. We're not massacus. But when suffering finds us, it is an invitation by God to be with Him on the cross. And so the demons suffer through the work of a victim soul who willingly undertakes suffering for the sake of another. Amen. Father Martin's here. I want to do a quick plug for one of the most powerful tools I've seen for breaking free and growing closer to Christ. Exodus 90. The Exodus 90 challenge begins this year on January 20th, but this isn't just a 90-day program. Exodus 90 is a spirituality for modern

men that is built on three ancient pillars, prayer, self-sacrifice, and fraternity. We all long for something more. We long to be the men God created us to be, sons of a loving father. It's time to turn away from our idols. It's time to break free from the pharaohs that hold us in bondage. If you're ready to make a fresh start and embark on a journey to uncommon freedom in Jesus Christ, then download the Exodus 90 app today. This is your chance to break free, refocus, and rediscover who God is calling you to be in the new year. It starts January 20th. So go to Exodus 90.com slash X-Files to learn more about Exodus 90.

That's Exodus 90.com slash E-X-Files. files to join tens of thousands of men from all over the world for Exodus 90. Again, it begins Monday, January 20th. God bless you. We're going to slither in to another question. We're going to talk about Harry Potter because how can we not? Obviously, this is the most valuable probably IP in the world. The story is widely beloved by so many people.

invites a lot of controversy. So in the broader context of what we should be or should not be consuming and the topics of magic, et cetera, I would love to get your thoughts on Harry Potter. So the Harry Potter thing requires a little bit of nuance. I have read, I think, the first five books in the series. It's good storytelling. And for kids, they like it. The thing is that Harry Potter itself, I never found anything within it that was ipso facto evil, to put it in its simplest terms. However, what is different about it, and this is where its influence on particularly the young, can be had, is the lines between good and evil are blurred. You have children, you have the good guys using magical spells, where in the past that was always relegated to evil because magic

is evil. The occult manipulation of the powers of nature through spiritual means, done verbally, done by invocation, done by either following a formula or just through like sheer willing something to be, that is an instance of occultism. So that by definition is repulsive to God. It's against his will. So what you have in Harry Potter is a blurring of the proper behavior of someone who is good and someone who is evil. So that being said, there's no doubt that some people, the way they were made by God, their imaginations are very active. And this is not a defect in them. This is just the way they're made. That they have a difficult time distinguishing imaginative reality from reality. And a big part of their growing up is learning that kind of

distinction. The point being, though, that you're going to have kids dabbling into spells, and all spells are evil because they are an attempt to manipulate people or things in a manner that is incongruent with God's will. So, in essence, basically what we're saying is that there's nothing inherently wrong with Harry Potter. It's just the idea that it can inadvertently invite a certain subset perhaps of people to be more fascinated with something that while being used for good in this series is actually in reality from a scriptural standpoint tied to demonic and dark things. So it sort of blurs those lines and that's where the trouble arises. Traditionally, in the stories that we give our children, those stories are infused with morality.

There are good guys and they're bad guys because we want to educate our children to be people that do good. when you blur that, then it gets dangerous. So if I had my own children, would I have them read Harry Potter? No. I think there are far better books for them to read. Would it be the end of the world? Would I freak out if one of my children picked up a Harry Potter book? No.

But I would have a talk with that child. But also you could say too, because obviously clearly in Harry Potter, there is evil. And Harry Potter and the friends are, you know, encouraged and grow to. exhibit and exude the virtues, right? Self-sacrifice, honoring mother and father, generosity, loyalty to friends. Like, there's good lessons, right? You talk about morality. I mean, couldn't one say that there's a lot of great morality modeled in Harry Potter. And it's very clear who the enemy is, and the enemy is motivated by vices that we, know, pride and arrogance and envy. So as long as someone could have a talk per se,

would that perhaps make it more acceptable and just being able to parse out what to take from it versus what to discard? Again, I think it would be helpful, but if I had my own children, I think there are far better stories for them to read. I wouldn't start sounding the church bells alerting to the village that there's, you know, danger at 12 o'clock. I would do that for way other things before I would do it for Harry Potter. Okay, well, that's good to know.

And so I will then, the next question was going to be what house of Harry Potter would you be in, but we'll just go on to another question then since we're not into that. All right, let's leave the world of Harry Potter, and let's go to another question. Is it possible for a person to be under diabolical influence or demonic possession and still actively practice the Catholic faith? As an example, frequently receiving the sacrament of reconciliation, frequent reception of the Holy Communion, and routinely spend hours in front of the Blessed Sacrament during adoration,

also while praying the Daily Rosary as well as the chaplain of St. Michael. So the short answer is yes. When somebody is possessed, ordinarily, the demons will prevent those things. They'll prevent holy things. Even anything beautiful, they are perverted. And so they like ugly things. But with regard to the spiritual living out of somebody's faith life, when the demon is inside somebody that finds it horrifically painful to be subjected to Holy Communion. to confession and so forth. And so its first mode is to try to prevent those things. But at a certain point, his power may be so lessened that he can't stop the victim. Now, he may still be able to affect the victim by causing a certain pain or confusion, agitation within mass, within doing something spiritual. But even that too may go away, and yet the possession is still there.

Now, by this point, if you can't stop the person from practicing his or her faith, liberation is very close at hand. But if it still continues, which I have seen, then God has a purpose. And that purpose is just mysterious. Now, I believe, even in those cases, that God has a plan for the beauty, for the salvation, the goodness, and the eternal happiness of the victim involved. So at the end of the day, we just trust God. A recurrent theme throughout this show, trust God.

The bumper sticker. So much should make that. Let's go to a question that came in several days ago. It has been reported by both yourself and the podcast and the church fathers when they talk about relics. And actually even in scripture, too, that these items actually can cause demonic entities to depart from the people afflicted. The question is, how could merely touching or coming into contact with a relic free someone from demonic oppression if the rights and the access points for that demon have not been dealt with? Right. Okay. That's a really good question. Demons are legalistic. Each demon is a lawyer who lives in a world of rights. And they do this because they've got nothing else. But not all lawyers are demons, right?

But not all lawyers are demons. No. So they live in a world of rights and they don't live in the blessing of God any longer. So they can't rely on that. They've got to manipulate and rely on the moral structure that God has left inherent in the universe. And so they try to usurp that structure for their own selfish ends. But there are many factors at play that puts a demon's rights at risk, okay, even though he's got rights, right? So the victim's guardian angel is at work. The victim's patron saints are at work. In fact, the entire heavenly court is at work. And the heavenly court, like every soul that is in heaven is a member,

is a body part of the body of Christ, you know, to use an analogy from St. Paul. And so they're not disinterested parties, but are very much involved in working against the power of the devil. But most of all, God is at work, and God has every single right in the universe, and his rights supersede any and every demonic right. So God can intervene at any point and give power to anyone or anything that he chooses to become his agent, and he does that with relics, in order to overpower demons. So demons will often claim to have more rights. rights than what they do. I have a right to your body. I have a right to your freedom. I have a right to this. When in actual fact, they don't. But they lie and they say they do. If you believe that lie,

then you've just handed over those rights. I mean, do you see how manipulative that is? They are liars. And so that's why the proper response to a demon is always confrontation with a command. Never dialogue. I Never dialogue with a demon. I issue commands. That's it. I demand answers. I demand action. I don't answer his questions ever. I'm commanding him to be in a relationship with me, and nothing he is doing is putting me in a relationship with him. So essentially, if someone is liberated from touching a relic, we could distill that down to that just falls under the mystery of God and why he heals and liberates in the manner and fashion of which he so chooses. A lot of variables beyond our. Yeah. Like it falls under the mystery of God because God is a mystery. However, God is a proud parent. And he is happy when one of his children

accomplishes a good deed. And he wants to draw attention to his saints. He allows them through their relics to accomplish these great good things. And it's humiliating to the demons. These incarnate souls now who have left this world and turned into dust in some cases for them, they cause the demons to howl, to use the words of St. Jerome, the Church Father. Their presence is a vehemently aversive, caustic danger to them. And they let you know. They cause them immense pain. So essentially, could one plausible explanation be that the sheer power and whatever that relic is imbued with is so offensive to that demon that the demon might just leave and say it may have gained some rights, but it actually is so wanting to get lost that it will forfeit those rights and depart. Absolutely. Okay, well, there you go.

Father, many people have written in with deep theological questions, things that have kept them up all night, wondering. about these mysteries of God. However, none perhaps as great as the question about what father does in his spare time. When you're not casting out demons and when heads aren't spinning, which we know they don't do total 360 from our earlier episodes, what are you doing in spare time? What's spare time? Gosh, from the moment I get up in the morning until I go to bed sometimes, typically between 2 and 3 a.m., my day is pretty packed. But what I try to make some time for when I'm able to is I enjoy reading. I mean, I love nothing more than a good novel. But I only have the time to read a novel, and I always read two of them for one week a year. I go camping in the

wilderness by myself, away from civilization, away from cell phone towers, away from other human beings. I always bring along two novels, and I love reading them. So what are some novels that have knocked your proverbial socks off? You know, there's one novelist, Taylor Caldwell, who, she's long dead now. She wrote something like 48 or 50 novels, and they're not all stellar, but they have some of the best storytelling that I've ever seen. She wrote one called Grandma, and the priests. And it's absolutely one of the best books in the English language. It is absolutely fantastic. On tap for this summer is going to be Betty Smith. She wrote a book called A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. And this is one of kind of the classic American novels that are there was written,

oh gosh, many decades, probably 80 years ago. It says 1943. It was published. Is that right? Okay. 80 years this year. I will do other reading, but it's either spiritual reading that I will use in prayer, or it will be more technical stuff, maybe theology or a scripture study, that I can use to guide my life as well, but to aid in my teaching. I do a tremendous amount of repairing of relics for the church. I'm one of the few people in the world that does it. It is very much an art, and there are very few of us in the world that have competence, but I enjoy doing that. I enjoy doing writing. I will write humilies. I will write stories. I will write chapters of books that one day may or may not be published. But if I get a notion and idea, I start putting words down on paper. I also love a good cigar when there's warm weather.

I will not sit out in the cold and have a cigar. I don't love it that much. But if the weather is nice, there is nothing more glorious than sitting out on the deck and having a cigar. Okay. All right. Always a good day speaking with Father. All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

We'll talk to you soon. Okay, Ryan. Talk to you soon. All right. All right. Thank you for joining us, folks. We are so grateful for all the support and the incredible success we've been fortunate to have. Next week, we do have one more bonus episode coming,

a fascinating exploration of relics and Father Martin's teaching. that we just didn't have time to integrate into the episodes. I also have some good and some sad news. The sad news? We are approaching our final case file of the season. But the good news, it's a rare three-parter, and might I add, one of the weirdest cases on a very serious subject, witchcraft. Thanks for joining us, folks.

And remember, when it comes to emailing, flattery will get you everywhere with us. See you soon.