I fell down a rabbit hole when I saw The Exorcism of Emily Rose, an American courtroom horror movie, which led me to watch Requiem, a German drama, two vastly different movies stemming from the same real life incident, which brought me to the book, The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel. I’m going to have to put my interest down and leave the subject vaguely dissatisfied because all these works have objectives other than mere documentation although the book is probably the closest that interested outsiders can get to the truth of the situation.
In the interest of full disclosure, my opinion about The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel should be severely discounted for a variety of reasons. It is the first book that I read after Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. Law school killed my ability to appreciate poetry, and Tim Weiner’s prose (not his superb research skills) almost finished the job by destroying my ability to read for fun. While Felicitas D. Goodman’s narrative is much more approachable, I came to her work stumbling and fatigued from my earlier efforts.
I was brought up fundamentalist in primarily Protestant churches even if I don’t know a lot about denominations. I am not fundamentalist now, and a real fundamentalist would probably reject me as an unbeliever although I do describe myself as a Christian or having an Apostle’s Creed faith with a Jesus centered focus. It is distinct enough from the Roman Catholic tradition that I could not help making comparisons in exorcism styles in which I naturally found the Catholic approach lacking.
Oh yes, I’ve seen exorcisms as a child in charismatic churches, which in retrospect seems like a bad idea and an adulting fail. I’m not asserting that what I witnessed were objective expelling of demons, but that the parties involved genuinely believed that was the activity that they were engaging in. I do believe in evil spirits and the power of Jesus, but I’m also a woman reared by academia and don’t jump to spiritual conclusions first. Oddly enough in my life, the one person whom I genuinely believe is afflicted by a demonic spirit (and that it could be objectively proven based on eyewitness testimony that can’t be explained by anything else) would object to the claim and exhibits none of the symptoms that we traditionally associate with demonic possession. This person is wonderful in almost every way, and my belief does not stem from a desire to diminish this person. I believe that without the demonic presence, this person’s life would even be better, but more importantly I’m black, and unless you’re paying a bill, even demons don’t get to live in my home for free. Go to hell. The blood of Christ compels you!
The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel starts off promisingly by setting the context of the area where the Anneliese lived and describing her life. It began to lose me because I had problems distinguishing all the priests from each other even though she gave descriptions and introduced them. At one point, I reread a chapter and considered repeating the endeavor, but decided that I would have to stay confused. Even though the author, Felicitas D. Goodman, wisely tells the story in chronological order, she does describe how the priests are communicating with each other before Anneliese meets them, and while it is absolutely essential to describe the Roman Catholic Church’s internal process of approving an exorcism, it may have been more helpful to give that insight and introduce the priest after they encounter the main character so I would not struggle to recall which one I’m talking about.
If I could change a single thing about The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel, instead of waiting until Goodman has told the entire story based on her primary sources, I wish that she had critiqued the process throughout the book because by then I had forgotten all the finer points of her discussion. If you’re not reading a book in a short amount of time, but revisiting over the course of a long period due to time constraints, Goodman’s critique is wasted on the reader because I forgot a ton and was already having an inner critique of the exorcism as I was reading the book.
The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel does excel at showing how the medical community failed Anneliese, but never has to answer for their negligence in court like the church, but as another interested party, are asked to blame someone else entirely for a death that they played a small part in and the court gives them disproportionate credibility. Goodman may not be Catholic, but she is definitely invested in an ecumenical spiritual anthropology approach to the situation to lend some credence to Anneliese’s affliction as spiritual, not mental. Because she clearly has a dog in the fight so I was never fully able to sign on to her theories, especially because she waited until the eleventh hour to deliver them.
Reading The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel feels like watching a movie when you’re screaming at the characters to act differently. The Roman Catholic exorcism technique seems oddly polite as if it is counting on the demons to play by a certain set of rules, act honorably and keep their word then the priests were surprised when they didn’t. They’re demons. They already spiritually raped some kid. Why are we asking them when they are leaving and taking breaks when they get tired? Are you kidding me right now? By the way, I’m completely cognizant that outsiders would be astonished at the methods that I would approve of, but I feel the way that I feel.
So was Anneliese possessed or not? How could her death be prevented? I don’t know, but if I were forced to hazard a guess, I would say that if Anneliese did not believe that a follower of Jesus could be possessed, then she would not be. Anneliese was part of a group of women in college who were against the reforms made in the Catholic Church such as saying the mass in English or not having a priest distribute communion. She was devout, but like all of us, a prisoner to her beliefs and unwilling to entertain change regardless of whether or not God actually minded that change. The saddest part of her story is that she was harder on herself than no condemnation Christ was. If you decide to read The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel, read it in a short period of time and expectant that there is an agenda, but if you’re looking for the real story, you’ll have to wait.