Faith vs therapy: Inside the Philippine school for exorcists
The Philippines has opened Asia's first dedicated exorcism training center in Metro Manila to address a rising demand for spiritual intervention. The facility emphasizes a collaborative approach, requiring priests to work alongside mental health professionals to distinguish between psychological and spiritual issues.
Why it matters
The center represents a unique intersection of traditional religious practice and modern clinical psychology, highlighting how institutions are adapting to address mental health and spiritual crises.
Asia's only dedicated exorcism centre— designed to train not only Philippine priests but clergy from across the region— sits just off a busy thoroughfare in Metro Manila.
Inside, neatly made-up rooms for visiting priests line warmly lit halls that lead to a chapel where the 400-year-old ritual takes place.
Holy relics employed in the proceedings line one wall, another features a one-way mirror that allows family members and novice exorcists to observe.
The Michael Center for Spiritual Liberation and Exorcism— five months old this week— was built because "cases were piling up", Father Jose Francisco Syquia told AFP .
Trauma driven by bullying, sexual abuse and the pain of separation as family members leave for work abroad has increasingly opened the door to spiritual attacks, he said.
"We had to find a more permanent and secure and private place to pray over people," Mr. Syquia said.
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