Demand for Exorcisms Is Growing in the U.S.

A priest holding a golden chalice during a religious ceremony

As exorcism requests quietly surge across America, a culture that mocked faith for years is now scrambling for answers it cannot find in big government, pop psychology, or woke ideology.

Story Snapshot

U.S. Catholic dioceses report a sharp rise in exorcism inquiries over the last two decades.
Church leaders insist most cases are screened for mental health issues before any rite is considered.
Skeptics blame anxiety, prosperity preaching, and cultural chaos rather than real spiritual warfare.
The trend exposes a deep spiritual void after years of secularism, broken families, and moral drift.

Rising Exorcism Requests Signal a Deep Spiritual Disturbance

Across the United States, Catholic dioceses are quietly fielding more cries for help from people who believe they are battling evil far beyond ordinary stress. A major investigation contacted every U.S. Catholic diocese and archdiocese and found that of the 48 that responded, more than half report an increase in exorcism requests in recent years. One veteran priest says he went from a few requests every couple of months to several every single week.

These numbers track with a broader cultural shift. Surveys over the past few decades show belief in the devil and in demonic possession rising, even as traditional church attendance falls. Americans who have been told for years that everything is just biology or brain chemistry are now looking at the darkness they see online, on the streets, and sometimes in their own homes and wondering if there is more at work than bad policy or bad luck.

How the Modern Church Handles Claims of Demonic Oppression

Despite Hollywood images of spinning heads and instant rituals, the Catholic Church moves slowly when someone claims spiritual attack. Official exorcists emphasize that most people who contact them never receive the solemn rite. Instead, dioceses require medical and psychological evaluations, interviews, and extensive discernment. Only when natural explanations are ruled out, and clear signs of what the Church calls extraordinary demonic influence appear, does a bishop authorize a formal exorcism prayer.

Over the last two decades, the Church has quietly expanded its capacity to respond. Before 2011, the United States reportedly had fewer than 15 trained exorcists. Training programs in cities like Chicago and international centers in Rome and Manila have since helped grow that number to well over 100. Some dioceses now offer online intake forms or hotlines, and well-known exorcists publish books and host podcasts to guide the faithful. The goal is to bring order, accountability, and sober judgment to an area often sensationalized by media.

Competing Explanations: Spiritual Warfare or Cultural Anxiety?

Priests who serve as exorcists say the surge in requests reflects a real intensification of spiritual conflict. They point to lives wrecked by occult practices, drug abuse, pornography, and violent entertainment, arguing that when people invite darkness in, they should not be surprised when it answers. Many see their work as a last-resort act of mercy in a culture that has stripped away guardrails, mocked virtue, and left people exposed to influences they barely understand.

Secular commentators look at the same trend and see something very different. They attribute rising exorcism inquiries to untreated mental illness, financial stress, loneliness, and the spread of prosperity-preaching or superstitious religion. Some frame it as “spiritual anxiety” in an age of social media overload and political polarization. From that perspective, the answer is more funding for psychiatry and social programs, not prayer, fasting, or repentance. The underlying disagreement is not just about demons; it is about what a human being ultimately is.

What the Surge Reveals About America’s Moral and Cultural Breakdown

The growing demand for exorcisms did not appear in a vacuum. For decades, elites pushed a worldview that treated faith as ignorance, family as optional, and moral absolutes as oppression. Children were raised on violent games and occult imagery while being told that right and wrong are just personal choices. Government stepped in as the new savior, promising to fix every wound with another program, another counselor, another bureaucracy—yet the loneliness, addiction, and despair only deepened.

At the same time, waves of horror films and “true possession” docudramas turned the demonic into entertainment, even for kids. Rogue or self-appointed exorcists used social media to market quick spiritual fixes. The result is a confused public, hungry for deliverance but unsure whom to trust. When dioceses report more people begging for help, they are not just measuring religion; they are measuring the fallout of a culture that dismantled faith, mocked parental authority, and then acted surprised when spiritual chaos followed.

Why Faith, Family, and Freedom Still Matter in This Battle

For conservatives who care about ordered liberty, this surge in exorcism requests is not a sideshow; it is a warning flare. A nation cannot expect to erode marriage, ridicule traditional morality, and pump nihilism into its youth without spiritual consequences. Limited government assumes strong families, local churches, and personal responsibility will carry the moral load. When those foundations crack, people do not simply become “more progressive”; they become unmoored, vulnerable to any force—ideological or spiritual—that offers meaning.

In that light, the Church’s cautious, disciplined approach stands in stark contrast to the instant-gratification culture that helped create this mess. Exorcists insist on prayer, community, confession, forgiveness, and concrete changes in how people live. Whether a given case turns out to be psychological or truly preternatural, that prescription aligns with what many readers already know from experience: when families stay intact, churches stay faithful, and communities take evil seriously, darkness has far less room to operate—on earth or in the unseen realm.