(ZENIT News / Rome, 02.09.2025) – Following some media claims about the supposed costs of an exorcism session, the International Association of Exorcists (IAE) issued a statement on September 1, 2025, which we offer below.
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The «news,» or rather the «hoax,» has been circulating since at least 2017, and we will not cite its primary source or its «authoritarian» repetition in Italy, as it is more convenient to ignore the issue. In short, exorcists in a country on the other side of the Alps — according to Trans-Alpine and national media — would earn up to 12,000 euros a month, 500 euros per session.
In short, a very lucrative profession: managerial, we might say. It’s a shame this isn’t true and that, as often happens in the «copy-and-paste» information age, this lie has spread not so much despite any denials, but rather despite common sense or the logical rigor one would expect from certain illustrated or illuminated newsrooms. Thus, the «myth» of a paid, lucrative exorcism has not only been born, but has also been consolidated, both abroad and in Italy. Finally, some «sensationalist journalism,» in an attempt to give itself a semblance of credibility, even goes so far as to cite the International Association of Exorcists as a source. However, the reality is very different and must remain so: the exorcist ministry is absolutely free of charge.
Obviously, we are talking about exorcism regulated by the Catholic Church and administered by Catholic priests designated for this service by their respective Bishops, with a special and express license (cf. canon 1172 of the Code of Canon Law). As for what other supposed exorcists belonging to other, more or less religious, more or less esoteric-occult, or more or less fraudulent realities do, it is up to other entities to judge, starting with law enforcement and the judiciary.
As far as the Catholic Church is concerned, as the «Guidelines for the Ministry of Exorcism» recalls, prayers of healing and deliverance, like the pastoral action of exorcism, are and must be unrelated to any form of monetary offering, in order to demonstrate the gratuitousness of the Lord’s gifts. Indeed, no faithful should encounter obstacles or limits in benefiting from divine grace, nor should they feel obliged to pay «compensation» for the welcome and listening they receive from an exorcist priest. From this also follows the strong advice to reject any free offering in order to put into practice the Lord’s words: «Freely you received, freely give» (Matthew 10:8).
Will this clarification of ours suffice to refute both the unfounded news and its renewed dissemination?
