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Witchcraft is rarely mentioned in official documents of the contemporary Roman Catholic church, but ideas about the dangers of witchcraft and other forms of occultism underpin the recent revival of interest in exorcism in the church. This Element examines hierarchical and clerical understandings of witchcraft within the contemporary Roman Catholic church. The Element considers the difficulties faced by clergy in parts of the developing world, where belief in witchcraft is so dominant it has the potential to undermine the church's doctrine and authority. The Element also considers the revival of interest in witchcraft and cursing among Catholic demonologists and exorcists in the developed world. The Element explores whether it is possible for a global church to adopt any kind of coherent approach to a phenomenon appraised so differently across different cultures that the church's responses to witchcraft in one context are likely to seem irrelevant in another.
List of contents
1. Introduction; 2. Historical background; 3. Witchcraft in modern Vatican documents; 4. Witchcraft and the exorcists; 5. Catholicism and witchcraft in the developing world; 6. Conclusions.
About the author
Francis Young is Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and achieved his PhD in History from the University of Cambridge, UK. He is the author of The Gages of Hengrave and Suffolk Catholicism, 1640-1767 (2015) and The Abbey of Bury St Edmunds: History, Legacy and Discovery (2016), amongst others.
Summary
This Element examines hierarchical and clerical understandings of witchcraft within the contemporary Roman Catholic church. It explores whether it is possible to adopt any kind of coherent approach to a phenomenon appraised so differently across different cultures that the church's responses in one context are likely to seem irrelevant in another.
