The Nocilla Trilogy: Nocilla Dream ; Nocilla Experience ; Nocilla Lab by Agustín Fernández Mallo

Author:Agustín Fernández Mallo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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Walter H. Halloran, one of the Jesuit priests who took part in the exorcism of a boy in St. Louis, Missouri, which formed the basis for the book The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty and for the subsequent William Friedkin film, died on March 1 at the age of 83 in Wisconsin. In January 1949, Halloran was a 28-year-old seminarian when Father William Bowdern called him, along with 4 other priests, to the Saint Francis Catholic Church in St. Louis to assist in the exorcism of an 11-year-old boy named Robbie. The boy had been exhibiting extremely violent tendencies and behavioral issues and his parents had taken him to doctors and psychiatrists, but to no effect. Believing their son in the possession of a demon, they sought the advice of the Archbishop of Maryland, who sent them to Father Bowdern. The exorcism sessions took place over a period of 3 months. Robbie recovered and went on to live a normal life, carrying no memories of the experience and never showing any signs of psychic imbalance thereafter. The Catholic Church never recognized it as a bona fide exorcism and doctors and other experts discussed the case, concluding that he had been suffering from a mental illness. Halloran kept silent on the matter until a few years ago, by which time he was working as a curate at Saint Martin of Tours Church, San Diego. He had vivid memories of the case, and confirmed that a number of inexplicable things had taken place during the ritual, that the boy had reacted very badly to the holy water, to Communion, and whenever he heard the names of Jesus, God, or the Virgin Mary. The exorcism of Robbie Brady had strengthened his faith, he said. He said that he and Father Bowdern had gone to see the film together, but that they had not liked it. It struck them as the usual Hollywood fare, he said, a horror movie intended to make people scream, nothing more.

EL PAÍS OBITUARIES, MARCH 14, 2005

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