A Catholic bishop has launched what he calls a “delivery ministry” to rid people of dark spirits and combat forces of evil terrifying his diocese in rural Ireland. So far, he claims to have received “several requests” for help.

Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan has already taken on his first apprentice, who will be trained in defense against the dark arts at his diocese of Waterford and Lismore. He warns that reiki and other new-age techniques for healing and cleansing the soul may, in fact, welcome in dark forces or even “the devil” himself.

“You're channelling energies, in inverted commas, you could well be opening yourself up to letting a spirit in which is not good and is dangerous stuff, actually,” Cullinan told local radio station WLR FM, as cited by The Irish Times.

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He claims the brother of a local reiki healer says “he saw a vision of Satan” while performing the hands-on-healing, through which universal energy is transferred to encourage emotional or physical healing, on a client. The healer was reportedly “scared out of his wits, dropped the reiki and went back to the Church.”

Cullinan wants to protect members of his newfound order from evil spirits and those who “have been involved in some kind of new-age thing or some kind of séance or that kind of thing,” who may have inadvertently, “opened up a door to an evil force, Satan.”

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The bishop recalls one horrifying incident which exemplifies the power of the evil forces he is confronting.

“I remember one particular priest, a friend of mine who I knew who was involved in one particular case, and it was a girl, a professional girl, young, who came with her mother, and there were four men, kind of rugby types, to hold her down in the chair, such strength she had,” Cullinan recalls.

He added that, despite warning the men to purge themselves of their sins by going to confession beforehand, one of them failed to heed his warning.

“The girl [spoke] with a voice that wasn’t hers, it was a male voice coming out of her, actually called out the sins of your man, the guy who hadn’t gone to Confession,” the bishop said.

“I’m sorry if I’m scaring anybody.”

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