Dr. Christopher Longhurst KSO
When suffering is attributed to demonic possession, the language of spiritual warfare can become a weapon of abuse rather than a source of healing.
Reports about abuse by the Sons of the Most Holy Redeemer (FSSR), a traditionalist Catholic order operating in Christchurch, continue to reach the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) in Aotearoa New Zealand.
A child is told that Satan has taken hold of them. Their fear is proof. Their tears are proof. Even their resistance becomes proof. There is no escape from the accusation: everything the child feels or does is turned against them.
During catechesis, without their parents present, children are instructed to mortify or harm themselves. One child, aged just eight, is told to beat themselves with nettles. They are warned that telling their mother and father will mean losing all the grace gained through the act.
Pain is sanctified; silence is enforced; parents are kept in the dark.
Young children are taught that the devil inhabits almost everyone around them. Suspicion enters the heart of childhood itself. Brothers and sisters become sources of fear. The people who should offer safety become objects of spiritual dread.
Satan—the ultimate scapegoat
Satan is the perfect suspect: invisible, elusive, impossible to cross-examine, and able to explain almost anything. When the search for supernatural evil blinds us to the people causing harm, the explanation becomes an alibi.
Members contacted SNAP for help and support. Complaints lodged from 2021 by SNAP alleged that children were told they were possessed by Satan, that people underwent prolonged distressing exorcisms without prior medical examination, and that children were isolated from their parents and groomed in the confessional.
The Press reported further allegations of physical abuse during exorcisms, sexual grooming of isolated children by text message, and confessions involving sexual deviancy. The FSSR denies all wrongdoing.
However, after a Holy See-ordered investigation in July 2024, four priests’ faculties were withdrawn, and professed members were directed to leave the diocese. The departure requirement was subsequently suspended during the appeal process. The investigation’s findings were not made public despite the Church’s public commitment to confront abuse “with openness and transparency.” But the appeal was denied. Complainants, including SNAP, were kept in the dark about the findings.
What makes the allegations especially grave is the convergence of three powers: to identify demonic evil; to prescribe the intervention; and to judge whether resistance is itself spiritually suspect. Where one authority holds all three, the person supposedly being helped has the least power to object.
When the victim becomes the battlefield
Imagine being a child told that Satan has taken hold of you. Fear, distress or resistance are no longer read as signs that you need protection, but as evidence of the very presence others claim to be fighting. Imagine being a parent told that your child is possessed, watching rituals meant to expel a demon while those performing them alone define what is happening.
This is a closed system, and closed systems are dangerous. Distress confirms the diagnosis; resistance confirms the diagnosis; outside scepticism is dismissed as spiritual ignorance.
A theory that no evidence can refute cannot be corrected from within. That makes the safeguarding question urgent! What happens when a supernatural interpretation overrides a person’s experience, medical and psychological assessment, dignity and right to protection?
In theory, the Catholic Church recognises this risk. Under Canon 1172, no one may legitimately perform an exorcism without the local bishop’s permission.
The question is not whether believers may hold that demonic possession exists, but whether that belief can justify practices that disregard evidence, consent or human dignity.
The failure of oversight
FSSR conduct is only part of the story. Complaints reached the Christchurch bishop in 2021. The then Bishop of Christchurch says he referred the complaints to his National Office for Professional Standards (NOPS), a church-controlled office whose credibility has been seriously undermined by documented failures in handling complaints.
Exorcisms were suspended in August 2023, after the allegations were broadcast on television. SNAP believes action came only because allegations became public. Whether or not that belief proves correct, a safeguarding system that responds to publicity rather than to complaints has already failed those it was supposed to protect.
Religious conviction cannot replace evidence, spiritual authority cannot override safeguarding, and claims of supernatural danger cannot excuse human harm. Nor should changes in canonical status such as the FSSR’s break with the Catholic Church, erase the duty to investigate credible allegations, and support those who have been harmed.
The ultimate horror
The ultimate horror is the possibility that, in the name of fighting Satan, human beings become instruments of the very terror they believe they are confronting, and the children and families subjected to it are the least able to make themselves heard.
The question is not whether every allegation is true, but whether any religious framework should place spiritual power beyond scrutiny. When the devil explains everything, the most urgent question is the one nobody dares ask: who is accountable for harm done in the name of fighting evil?
Disclosure: The author is national leader of SNAP Aotearoa New Zealand, which lodged complaints concerning the FSSR.
