Ex-Priest Jailed Over Exorcism Death

A month after I reported that the Pope was setting up exorcism squads (a claim the Vatican denies), another exorcism story is in the news...and this one isn't funny, I'm afraid. A former Romanian priest has received a jail sentence for "murdering a young nun during an exorcism ritual when she was bound, chained to a cross and denied food and water for days." Four nuns aided the ex-priest in this psychotic ritual.

The victim "who had previously been treated for schizophrenia, had believed she heard the devil talking to her."

On a positive note, the Romanian Orthodox Church condemned the "techniques" as "abominable". But I would have preferred to hear them say that devil possession and exorcism are ludicrous superstitions. That this ancient practice has made it to the 21st Century is mind-blowing.

Such is the fine line between comedy and tragedy.