Originally published at The Catholic Thing
In William Peter Blatty’s famous novel The Exorcist (1971), Chris McNeill, the mother of Regan (a mysteriously disturbed child) and a professional actress, arranged to meet Fr. Karras at the Key Bridge near Georgetown in Washington, D.C. Her awkwardness could not have been more obvious. She was not a Catholic; indeed, she wasn’t even a believer. But she was desperate to find help for her daughter.
Probably to tamp down her anxiety, Chris decided to ask Fr. Karras, first, about his education. She thought Fr. Karras had originally been a psychiatrist and then left that life behind to become a priest. Fr. Karras explained that, no, he was, first, a priest, and then his Order, the Jesuits, sent him to medical school, and then on to training in psychiatry.
Chris was working her way up to the real reason for meeting with Fr. Karras. All of a sudden, she just blurted it out. “How do you go about getting an exorcism?” Fr. Karras was stupefied. “[I]t just doesn’t happen anymore,” he said. Chris interjected, “Since when?” Without missing a beat, the priest replied, “Since we learned about mental illness. All these things that they taught me at Harvard.”
The Harvard
