Religious Promotes "Exorcism" Sessions of Healing and Liberation in São Paulo

07/07/2015 - 09h02

"In the name of Jesus, get out through the hands, the feet, the mouth!" The phrase is exalted over and over again in the masses celebrated by monsignor Joaquim José Stein, 70, and they aim to fight the evil that supposedly afflicts hundreds of faithful who take part in the "healing and liberation" sessions.

Three times a week this routine takes place just a few meters from Paulista avenue, at the church Our Lady of Paradise –which follows one of the branches of Catholicism, but is independent from the Archdiocese of São Paulo.

Stein directs his assistants, dressed in white, to place themselves in front of the altar and pray for "healing of evil, protection against gossip, curing illnesses and diseases, resentments, traumas".

He approaches the faithful and touches their foreheads. Some of them fall back and, anchored by the assistants, they end up lying down, leaving their belongings on the altar floor.

The ceremony is considered an "experience of a gift of rest in the Holy Spirit." The priest says it's a moment of physical relaxation for spiritual healing.

Some people are given a more intense prayer, made by Stein. He touches the body of the faithful with the cross, and, in extreme cases, puts his foot on the chest of the one who is lying on the ground. "Evil does not want to be stepped on, so I humiliate it by the power of the Holy Spirit", he says.

"I'm not here to explain that the devil exists. It´s the Bible that says that", the monsignor says.

Translated by DENISE MOTA

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