“HUNGRY GHOST, LET GO OF THIS WOMAN!”

I DOUBT THAT MANY PRIESTS, let alone chaplains, have had the opportunity to perform an exorcism. I did once, and the best thing was—it worked.

A social worker called to ask me to help a young Japanese woman. She told me that the doctors were working on controlling the pain that came with the patient’s cancer, but the patient said that spirits had taken over her mind. That’s where the social worker thought I, as a hospice chaplain, might be able to help. I was glad that she trusted me, and I hurried to her office so we could talk about the case.

She explained that sometimes the patient was silent, head tilted, listening as the spirits spoke to her, and at other times she shouted in Japanese, apparently becoming the spirits and giving them a voice. She was living at home with her mother, who had come