I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve truly enjoyed starting my day with breakfast and a long commute to work with Fr. Carlos Martin’s incredible podcast The Exorcist Files playing in the background. If there was an early 2000s movie about my life, the opening scene wouldn’t be a cute hype-up song; viewer discretion would be announced. And when Fr. Martins’s content is not enough, there’s interviews with Fr. Ripperger, there’s Fr. Dan Reehil’s shows Battle Ready and Ask the Exorcist, and so much more. I can attest that the content out there is pretty much endless, and now that it has been so out in the open for a few years, the question arises: What is all this exorcism content for?
Previous generations had the myths and horror movies, we have the exorcists themselves retelling their experiences. There’s nothing new about exorcists and their ministries, but in the last few years, the priests who spend their lives driving out demons went from being the Church’s most guarded (even mysterious) ministers to one of its most bookable guests. We have Fr. Carlos Martins, who built an entire hit podcast around his own case notes, and others followed but mostly as guests in major podcasts. What used to happen behind a rectory door with the blinds drawn is now something many like me have queued up for my morning commute. It is well narrated, dramatized, and downloaded by millions. You get the quality of Hollywood and the education no Sunday school tends to give.
Personally, I grew up exposed to this content from a very young age. My grandfather was a holder (which is a lay person who assists in the deliverance ministry as physical and spiritual support) until his old age didn’t allow him to continue. He always instilled in his children and grandchildren that the worst thing the devil can do is make one believe that neither him nor God are real, and that’s the truly evil thing about him. Everything else, everything we see in movies—the levitations and ugly faces—is just for show. This was the reason he prudently shared some of his experiences, and I perceive that is also the reason exorcists are booking podcasts.
More than any other ministry, becoming a holder is something one gets called to and receives the graces for. In my grandfather’s case, there was no sign-up sheet at his parish. Instead, on a random day, he sat next to a young man in a rectory, and they waited for the priest after Mass. When the priest stepped into the room, the man manifested and launched himself towards the priest, who was caught completely off-guard. In that moment, my grandfather jumped on top of the man and managed to pin him to the ground while the priest got hold of his stole and proceeded to help the inflicted. My grandfather reflected on that moment as his invitation to the ministry, one he hadn’t thought of at all but by mere instinct literally jumped at. After that, the bishop got in contact, and my grandparents joined the ministry. My grandfather was a holder, and my grandmother would pray the Rosary outside.
What used to happen behind a rectory door with the blinds drawn is now something many like me have queued up for my morning commute.
While my grandfather would never speak on the matter, it was obvious he had a conviction about the importance of being aware of the enemy’s dirty work because people rarely fall into it intentionally; instead, it is mostly driven by naivety, by worshipping things and beings that aren’t God. Some people fall into it (or as the exorcism lingo would say, “open doors”) somewhat unintentionally and sometimes because of our own human brokenness. If we think that our actions don’t have spiritual consequences and engage with things we shouldn’t, we slip into breaking the first commandment: to love God above all things. And by looking around at our world, there’s no doubt that many doors are wide open. That is one of the main reasons for all this exorcism content.
But there is another half of this truth: This is not a topic for everybody. Like every ministry in the Church, this one is a calling, not a curiosity or entertainment alone, and that’s the danger of some of this content. I do think the exorcists are being careful and prudent in how they share the content, but they certainly have no control over what people and the devil himself will do with this information. My grandfather recognized his experiences as a holder were a gift God gave him, and like all gifts from God, he was meant to share it; but slowly, prudently, and considering the state of the person receiving it. And while he shared it with his family, I now recognize that he did not share it equally, since it was not appropriate or necessary for everybody.
Similarly in The Rite, the book by Matt Baglio that later inspired the film, follows the true story of Fr. Gary Thomas, an American priest sent by his bishop to Rome to train in the ministry of exorcism. Before the calling to the priesthood and the ministry of deliverance, Fr. Thomas spent years in his family’s mortuary business, embalming bodies in Los Gatos, California, following his own father into a trade most of us would find unbearable. Looking back, that was not a simple coincidence; it was how God prepared him from childhood for his vocation.
But podcasts are not like that. There’s an overload of information available to unprepared eyes, ears, and, most importantly, hearts.
The Exorcist Files shot to the top of Spotify’s religion and spirituality charts within six days of its January 2023 launch and has stayed high up since. Fr. Chad Ripperger and Fr. Dan Reehil each command online followings in the hundreds of thousands. Exorcism—once the most guarded corner of priestly life—is now something we can not only consume but consume in excess.
Which brings us back to the matter on the table: These are lay people in large numbers learning about something that was never meant to be lay. So what is all this content actually for? I think the honest answer runs in two directions at once, and both are true.
The first direction is a caution, and it’s aimed squarely at whoever is listening. This material is heavy, and it does impact people whether they want it to or not. Fr. Carlos Martins says at the beginning of every episode that discretion is advised, and this is not for everyone. But I am afraid that the disclaimer gets ignored. And when approached with sadistic curiosity and an appetite for shock rather than the desire for understanding, it can genuinely harm you. If suddenly one starts to think that everything is demonic and everything is the devil’s fault, one may slip into unintentionally giving him control of our psyche, our emotions, and eventually, our whole lives.
There’s also the classic danger that every exorcist is trained to guard against from the first day: untamed curiosity. The fascination with the occult as if it were a spectator sport is one of the more common ways people end up needing an exorcist in the first place. This is largely because we end up amazed by the evil one and his powers, and we lose sight of God’s place. It is important to keep in mind that exorcisms aren’t about the power of demons but about God’s incredible love, mercy, and desire to be close to us. And on our end, we must remember the importance of choosing God freely above all things. So ask yourself before you press play on the next one: Why are you even listening? The exorcists’ work is both possible and successful due to their prudence and restraint, which is what we should maintain as listeners.
The second direction is the reason why the priests keep saying yes to the microphone in the first place. A great many people end up in the devil’s hands not through some dramatic occult ritual but through plain ignorance. Fr. Martins was candid about this when The Exorcist Files launched: A growing share of young adults had drifted from organized religion entirely, and yet a majority of that same age group told pollsters they believed people could become possessed by demons. That gap is exactly where danger awaits: the belief in the demonic with no framework for resisting it, no sacraments, nowhere to turn but Google. Fr. Martins reaches those people—the Catholics and non-Catholics alike. With the practicality of a podcast, he provides the Sunday school education most people never got.
It is also important to keep in mind that the reason we have all this content is not because the exorcists simply woke up on a random day and collectively decided it was time to try the influencer route. Instead, the Church asked them to. Rome is treating this as urgent, and this spring, Pope Leo XIV convened exorcists from around the world for a summit the Church itself framed as a response to a rise in cases driven largely by tarot, witchcraft, and casual occultism going mainstream online. Terms like “manifesting” have become normalized and well marketed into the world of “self-help.” It is presented as innocent, harmless, and even healthy, while it is actually the opposite.
The fascination with the occult as if it were a spectator sport is one of the more common ways people end up needing an exorcist in the first place.
The Vatican has two priorities on the matter at this moment: more priests who are well trained and ready and quality education on the matter so fewer people have to learn the hard way. But there are still many questions about how to best achieve this, and while I think the podcasts are working, they aren’t side-effect-proof, so the tension continues. And while I understand why many don’t want this topic to be mainstream, exorcisms have never actually been absent from popular culture. Therefore, we might as well take the reins and make sure the matter is properly addressed. The fact that a Google search now lands you at The Exorcist Files or an interview with an actual exorcist instead of the trailer of the ’70s film The Exorcist is progress.
William Peter Blatty’s novel-turned-film seared the ministry into the public imagination in 1971 and gave the culture a framework most people still hold: spinning heads, crawling up the walls, a mystery kept firmly in the dark, etc. It has all proven to sell tickets. But it is also entirely wrong about what an exorcism actually is and what it’s for. Measured against that, the current wave of priest-led, theologically careful content isn’t a loss of the Church’s discretion; if anything, I would say it is a recovery. Priests wary of the spotlight agree that silence has a cost of its own because, for better or worse, when the Church goes quiet on this topic, people don’t stop seeking help, they just start seeking it somewhere else.
That last clause is why the Church has allowed, even encouraged exorcism content. Somebody will answer the questions regarding evil when people ask, and better a priest with a stole than an influencer shuffling tarot cards. While I think it brings an incredible and much needed education to the general public, this is no easy task. I think it is making the work of these exorcists quite difficult. Their schedules are already busy, they are already understaffed, and they must operate at a high level of discipline and humility.
Fr. Martins has mentioned more than once in his podcast that during an exorcism one should never engage in conversation with a demon, and this same restraint must apply when we talk about them because through conversation we establish relationships. We may even fall into giving them the admiration they seek. Some priests have gotten in trouble for not following this rule, so discussing them in podcasts makes this even more difficult for them.
There’s also the fact that the moment the ministry becomes about the man undertaking it rather than the God he’s serving, one is in troubled waters. Undoubtedly, these priests have become celebrities and influencers in their own right, and while (again) this is not a bad thing in itself, it does make their job more difficult. But if difficulty level was the determining factor in what the priests or the Church should do, I don’t think we would have the two-thousand-year-old tradition that we do. Prudence for these priests doesn’t mean silence; it means always staying a servant and steward to the ministry to which God has called them.
The purpose of all this content is to remind us of the first commandment and the dangers of not putting God above all things. Consuming this content should make one want to go to confession and seek the sacraments and closeness to God—not due to fear but out of love and awe for his love and mercy towards us. That is what makes the exorcists’ side-gig as influencers and podcasters worth their precious time. And I do think they are succeeding. I initially discovered The Exorcists Files from a friend who was not attending Mass at the time but had her views and life changed by the podcast and soon after returned to the sacraments. Then I showed the podcast to another friend, and after two years of listening (or shall we say, being catechized), he started going to Mass for the first time in over a decade. The polls claim that Catholicism is on the rise, and I do think all this exorcism content has something to do with it.
My grandfather started sharing his experiences with me at the ripe age of seven when he was also helping prepare me for my First Communion, and like the priests on the podcasts, he did it for the sake of helping me understand the incredible gift of the sacraments.
Whatever you take from these podcasts on your own commute, in your own kitchen, on some ordinary afternoon, instead of pondering whether the devil is real or what his deal is, ponder in gratitude the God who loves us so immensely and is generous in his grace. While we will continue fighting our own battles, he already conquered all evil and won the ultimate war for our sake.