Christmas 1972, Uncle Joe was in Kansas City for Christmas with friends from Amoco. Attending the same party was Fr Thomas Bowdern, a Jesuit priest whose brother, William Bowdern, was the lead exorcist in the Missouri case. The book by William Peter Blatty was first released in 1971; I am not sure if Uncle Joe had read the book at the time of that letter, although he knew of the stor y, probably from the Jesuits and his education at Campion High School, Loyola University, and at seminary in West Baden, IN. Fr Wm Bowdern was asked to consult on the movie, but was forbidden by the Bishop. Fr Wm Bowdern was the rector at Campion, a private Jesuit run school in Prairie du Chien, WI, from 1937-1942, starting two years after my dad graduated from Campion in 1935. The real exorcism was of a boy 13 years of age, now revealed to be Ronald Edwin Hunkeler. At times he was referred to as Roland Doe. Ronald was baptized in the Lutheran faith. His mother was Lutheran, but his father was baptized Catholic, but a non-practicing as were his parents. A great deal of information is in a transcription of a diary kept by Fr Bishop of St Louis. Fr Bishop, consulted with the family after being asked by a cousin of the boy and that is how the whole thing started in St Louis. You can find a copy of the diary here.
 |
| Fr William Bowdern, SJ |
Fr Wm Bowdern was assisted in the exorcism by Fr Walter Halloran. Halloran graduated from Campion four years after my dad, but also taught at Campion and Marquette University. Fr Mike Montague, SJ, who taught my Uncle Joe at West Baden Seminary in 1957, was with Walter Halloran at St Louis University at the time of the exorcism. Fr Montague had told my Uncle Joe, at a party years before the 1974 letter, that Fr Walt Halloran used to drive Fr Bowdern to a "small home in the country where the boy was kept." Fr Montague had told my uncle that "Walt would show up for breakfast sometimes all scratched up!" Uncle Joe goes on to say that "Evidently he was somewhat of an 'assistant' to the exorcising priest." Fr Halloran's brother was a classmate at Campion with my Uncle Joe. Who knew that a small school in a small rural outpost in Wisconsin had such a deep connection to perhaps the most famous exorcism in the United States, if not the world.
The boy originally played with a Ouji board to contact a recently deceased aunt who was involved in the occult, and with spiritualists. The tale starts in January 1949. Normal during the day, things took a bad turn for the boy at night. Doctors, psychiatrists and other medical professionals were consulted, but to no avail. Two Lutheran ministers took on the task, along with a spiritualist, but they too struck out The ministers, in a rare bit of ecumenism, recommended a Catholic priest. Fr Hughes of Maryland, did not see the boy, but advised holy water, and prayers. The mother sprinkled holy water in the room and placed the jar on a shelf. Directly after placement on the shelf, she reported an unknown force threw the jar across the room, breaking it and spilling the holy water.
 |
| Walter Halloran 1939 Campion Photo |
With little luck in Maryland, the family moved the boy to St Louis where the boy's mother was from and had relatives. It would be too lengthy and disturbing to report all manifestations witnessed, but let me review a few, many of which made the movie, some which did not. Scratches on the boy, bed moved violently, guttural sounds and a trance like state occupied the boy, X scratched on his chest, a pitchfork emblem emblazed on his thigh which moved to ankle. Urinating on the bed and in the room. In March 1949 the family was deciding whether or not to take the boy to St Louis, they found St Louis scratched on the boy, and later Saturday, as the day to take him. Why they obeyed such commands is another matter. A cousin of the boy inquired of his teacher, Fr Bishop, who viewed and did consultations with others, leading to the involvement of Mr. Halloran (he was still in formation and not yet ordained) and Father Bowdern. Bishop also assisted and kept the diary linked above.
My uncle writes to my mother that "it was all hush-hush, and no one in the SJ community knew what was going on. Evidently, Fr Bowdern and "Mr" Halloran were sworn to secrecy ('sworn' at least in the sense of professional ethics prevented any mention of the case.)" My uncle notes that as the news articles say the exorcism was a success. He goes on to say the "man today is happily married and has no memory of it all." Ronald would go on to be an engineer with NASA, his name as the one involved only revealed after his death in 2020.
 |
| Halloran grave marker, Cavalry Cemetery Milwaukee, WI |
Fathers Bishop and Bowdern and Mr Halloran first met and said prayers on 7 Mar. and then again daily from 9 March to 15 March. For the intervention on 16 March, Bowdern had received permission for the Rite of Exorcism to be performed. Ronald decided to become a Catholic and on 23 March began instruction for entering the Church. On Friday, Apr 1, he was baptized, but the devil fought the baptism, which took a long time to complete. Prayers of exorcism continued after the baptism. Due to the toll on the family it was decided to go back, by train, to Washington DC area. The entourage, including Fr Bowdern and another priest, left on Monday, 4 April, but by 7 Apr they had to return to St Louis due to doctors not wishing his placement in a medical institution run by the Daughters of Charity. Bowdern made arrangements at the Alexian Brothers Hospital in St Louis. Exorcisms continued daily at the hospital until Easter Monday, 18 Apr, when prayers, placement of holy relics and medals on the boy, against the desires of the demon, started to work. Eventually that night, the demon decided to depart the boy. According to the Bishop diary, the most extraordinary event occurred at 10:45 pm that night with the following: "In clear, commanding tones, and with dignity, a voice broke into
the prayers. The following is an accurate quotation: 'Satan! Satan! I am Saint Michael, and I command you,
Satan, and the other evil spirits to leave the body in the
name of Dominus, immediately. -- Now! NOW! N O W!'" A very violent seven to eight minute encounter occurred and then as accounted: "R, in a tome of complete relief said, 'He’s gone!'"
R, or Ronald, then described the battle that occurred between Michael the Archangel and Satan. Satan called in reinforcements, but the power of St Michael overwhelmed them all. (See p 28 of the above linked diary.)
My uncle, in concluding the section of the letter regarding The Exorcist, would state: "It is a movie of doubtful value, of strong and disturbing imagery ...not for the young and immature. You'd be out of your cotton pickin' head if you let Greg or Tom see it." We were 16 at the time, and certainly my twin brother was of a high level of maturity to have watched the movie, but we were almost a year shy of our 17th birthday for an R rated movie. I suppose it represented a dilemma for our parents as to allow Greg but not Tom to watch the movie. I have seen it a couple times, all on DVD. Uncle Joe also included a copy of an article written by Fr O'Malley, SJ, who played father Dyer in the movie, and was a consultant on the film.
Ronald, in later life, had told a person he made it all up, he was simply a bad boy. I wonder why he all of a sudden became a good boy that Easter Monday? I don't think bad behavior changes that quickly. The events have several witnesses, many independent from the others, such as parents, aunts and uncles, Lutheran ministers and later Catholic priests. While Fr Hughes had been consulted by the Lutheran ministers in Maryland, he never saw the boy. Actual involvement of Catholic priests with the boy only came upon the family move to the St Louis area to the home of an uncle and aunt. His comment is an easy one to avoid getting involved.
Is not getting involved part of the devil's plan? I participated in five zoom sessions over the past five weeks on Laudate Deum (the Pope's Apostolic Exhortation on climate change), arranged by the Catholic Multi-cultural Center in Madison. It centered on the effects of climate change in various parts of the world, with speakers from Central America, Africa, and the US and the effects and efforts being used to combat climate change. On Monday, 2/12, we had a fifth session which allowed more discussion by the group on the document. During that group discussion, one person relayed the following story: The devil asked three little devils how they would convince people to have their soul destroyed. The first one said to tell people there is no heaven, which the devil dismissed as people have hope; the second said tell people there is no hell, which was dismissed as it would not long last; the third said to whisper to people there is no hurry. Getting over the reticence of climate change in much of the population requires a change of heart. And, perhaps simply saying he was a bad boy was Ronald's way of explaining what occurred, after all, he may have had no memory of it at all.
Evil is all around us today, although it has been common in history. The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are just two of varied ongoing conflicts. There are conflicts in Nigeria, Indonesia, India, and the Philippines, just to mention a few. The boy in Maryland may have or have not been possessed by the devil 75 years ago. If he did not it must have been quite an elaborate ruse given the observations provided by a variety of observers. Today there are many procedures, as well there should be, for an exorcism to take place, at least in the Catholic Church. Exorcisms are apparently practiced in some eastern religions, such as Buddhism. It may be human way of dealing with bad events. I am not sure what really happened with Ronald 75 years ago, but an exorcism was performed, and Jesuit Fr William Bowdern was the exorcist.
No comments:
Post a Comment