Father Vincent Lampert, exorcist for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, holds a crucifix Dec. 2, 2020, in St. Michael Church in Brookville, Ind. He is pastor at St. Michael and at St. Peter Church in Franklin County, Ind. (CNS photo/Sean Gallagher, The Criterion)
By Sean Gallagher
Catholic News Service
BROOKVILLE, Ind. — Father Vincent Lampert has traveled to the ends of the earth in his ministry fighting the devil as an exorcist.
From South Africa to Alaska and points in between, the pastor of St. Michael Parish in Brookville and St. Peter Parish in Franklin County has carried out this ministry since 2005.
When Indianapolis Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein appointed him to this ministry 16 years ago, there were only 12 priests in the U.S. who were exorcists. Today, there are 125.
Now, one of the senior exorcists in the U.S., Father Lampert is often called upon to mentor priests newly appointed to the ministry, or sometimes to perform exorcisms in far-flung locales.
In 2019, he traveled to Alaska to help a newly appointed exorcist with a special case.
“We were in an Eskimo village about 300 miles west of Anchorage,” Father Lampert said. “A small, little village. And there we were in the church doing an exorcism.”
The priest shared some of his experiences in his book, “Exorcism: The Battle Against Satan and His Demons,” published last fall by Emmaus Road Publishing.
In the book, he compared exorcists to medical specialists who travel and consult far and wide to help people with their specialized knowledge.
He wrote that Catholics, with the help of their parish priests, can fend off the devil through their ordinary life of faith.
“Ultimately, it’s the very normal aspects of our faith that protect us from evil: going to Mass, celebrating the sacraments, praying, reading Scripture,” Father Lampert said. “It’s the ordinary aspects of our faith that will protect us from the evil one.”
The priest was appointed to serve as the archdiocese’s exorcist after the death of his predecessor, Msgr. John Ryan, who had been discreet in his ministry, not speaking about it publicly.
Because of that, and because there were so few exorcists in the United States in 2005, Father Lampert was unsure how to learn about this ministry.
“There was nobody I could turn to,” he recalled. “The knowledge of Msgr. Ryan had died with him,” he told The Criterion, archdiocesan newspaper of Indianapolis.
While on a sabbatical in Rome soon after being appointed as an exorcist, he was mentored by a Franciscan priest there who had been trained as an exorcist by Passionist Father Candido Amantini, the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome for decades.
“The church says the best way to become an exorcist is the apprenticeship model,” Father Lampert said.
Observing his mentor perform exorcisms, though, was shocking at times, the priest wrote, saying his mentor never flinched, even when an afflicted person started levitating.
“As the demon laughed hysterically and began to levitate, the priest put his hand on the person’s head and pushed the manifesting demon back into the chair, all the while never pausing with the exorcism prayer of the church,” Father Lampert wrote. “I must say at that moment I thought, ‘What has my bishop gotten me into?’”
Years later and with experience under his belt, Father Lampert isn’t taken aback by the manifestation of demons.
“I’m not interested in seeing the theatrics of the devil,” he said. “The focus should be on the power of God and what God is doing in the lives of people who are afflicted.”
He is happy to see the growth in the ministry of exorcists in the U.S. and credits this in part to attention drawn to exorcism by recent popes.
“If the church isn’t prepared to help people who turn to her and who believe that they’re dealing with demonic influence, then they’ll turn elsewhere,” he said. “And where they turn elsewhere may not necessarily bring them the help that they need. It may actually fracture and break them even further.”
He said the growth also could be from the openness of speaking about this ministry, which he has done around the world.
“More people today are fascinated by the devil than they are with the power of God,” Father Lampert said. “We should never believe that God and the devil are on the same playing field. The devil is still a creature.”
