Anneliese Michel I

Prosecutors took more than 2 years to to take Annaliese's case to court, using that time to sort through the bizarre facts. Anneliese's parents and the two exorcists were accused of negligent homicide. The evidence pointed to her starving to death. Specialists claimed that if the accused would have begun with forced feeding one week before her death, Anneliese's life would have been saved. However, according to her sister, Anneliese did not want to go to a mental home where she would be sedated and forced to eat.

To prove the presences of demons, the exorcists played tape recordings of the exorcism. None of those present during the exorcisms doubted her possession. The psychiatrists, whom had been ordered to testify by the court, spoke about the "Doctrinaire Induction". They said that the priests had provided Anneliese with the contents of her psychotic behavior. Therefore, accepting her behavior as possession. They also offered that Anneliese's unsettled sexual development, along with her diagnosed Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, had influenced the psychosis.

Anneliese's parents and the exorcists were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and omitting first aid and was sentenced to 6 months in prison and probation. The court added that the accused should have helped by taking care of the medical treatment that the girl needed, but instead, their use of naive practices aggrivated Anneliese's already poor constitution.

Later, a commission of the German Bishop-Conference declared that Anneliese had never been possessed, but it didn't stop people from believing otherwise. The problem with that is her body was exhumed eleven and a half years after her death as a result to confirm that it had decayed as would have been expected under normal circumstances. Today, her grave remains a place of pilgrimage for rosary-praying and for those who believe that Anneliese Michel bravely fought the devil.

In 1999, Cardinal Medina Estevez presented journalists in Vatican-City the new version of the "Rituale Romanum" that has been used by the Catholic Church since 1614. The updates came after more than 10 years of editing and is called "The exorcism of the new millennium". The Pope approbated the new Exorcism Rite, which is now allowed for worldwide use. This new form of exorcism came after the German Bishop-Conference demanded to ultimately abolish the "Rituale Romun". It also came more than 20 years after Anneliese Michel had died.

It's unfortunate how she died, but I hope she did find peace after everything.


Source:: http://modern-wiccan.blogspot.com