Exorcisms increasing in Australia

According to an article in Australia's Sunday Mail, Roman Catholic exorcisms are currently on the rise in the Queensland area. The report suggested that growing interest in satanism and the occult in Australia was connected to an increase in requests for priests to perform the ritual of exorcism -- which involves holy water, the Eucharist, and Scripture readings in a series of actions intended to force demons out of the people that they have possessed. Father Gabriele Amorth, Exorcist-in-Chief for Pope Benedict XVI, said that bishops are increasingly providing special training in exorcism to groups of priests, who can then respond to this need under the church's authorization.