So Close, and yet...

	Y'know, first they pardoned Galileo, and I thought, hmmm, this
could be a good sign.  Then they actually convened a committee to
determine whether or not the Inquisition warranted an apology, and I
thought, hey, maybe they're actually ready to join the 20th century.

	And then there was this, which, while I suppose it's progressive
after a fashion, is nonetheless mind numbing.

	Jeff, does Grumble ever use Associated Press articles?

					Jer =)

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"There is a very fine line between 'hobby' and 'mental illness.'"
					- Dave Barry
Jeremy N. Bernstein	       		waoreafgrva@jrfyrlna.rqh 
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New Vatican Guidelines revise rite of exorcism

By Associated Press, 01/27/99 

                             
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican issued new guidelines yesterday for driving out
devils. It urged priests serving as exorcists not to mistake psychiatric
illness for diabolic possession, but it also stressed the power of evil. 

	The new exorcism rite, in Latin and contained in a red,
leather-bound, 84-page book, also reflects Pope John Paul II's efforts to
convince the skeptical that the devil is very much in the world. 

	''The existence of the devil isn't an opinion, something to take
or leave as you wish,'' said Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, a Vatican
official who presented the revisions. ''Anyone who says he doesn't exist
wouldn't have the fullness of the Catholic faith.''

	John Paul has denounced the devil in a series of recent homilies
as a ''cosmic liar and murderer.''
                       
	In today's world, the cardinal said, the devil's force comes
through widespread acceptance of ''lies and deceit ... the idolatry of
money ... the idolatry of sex.''

	The new guidelines are the first revision to the exorcism rite
since 1614. They did not drastically change the words or the gestures used
by exorcists, but they do provide optional texts for priests to use. 

	The revision appears largely in the cautions offered to exorcists
to take psychiatric medicine into account. 

	Exorcists must ''not think possessed by a demon someone who is
suffering from some illness, above all psychic,'' or who is ''the victim
of one's own imagination,'' the guidelines advise. 

	Among the widely accepted signs of possession are speaking in
unknown tongues and demonstrating physical force beyond one's natural 
capacity. 

	The rite itself remains essentially the same. It involves making
the sign of the cross, laying on hands, sprinkling holy water, and
ordering the devil to leave the possessed person. 

	John Paul himself performed an exorcism once in his papacy,
according to the memoirs of Cardinal Jacques Martin, the former prefect of
the pontifical household. 

	Quoting the late cardinal's book, ''My Six Popes,'' the Italian
news agency ANSA said John Paul	carried out the rite in 1982, driving out
the devil from a woman who was brought to him writhing on the ground. 

	This story ran on page A06 of the Boston Globe on 01/27/99. 
	Copyright 1999 Globe Newspaper Company.