Father Halloran was the last living Jesuit priest who assisted in the 1949 Missouri exorcisms. He was a 27-year-old Jesuit student at St. Louis University when Father William Bowdern, pastor of St. Francis Catholic Church, St. Louis called him to help Father Raymond Bishop, director of the St. Louis University Department of Education, Jesuit Priest Rev. William Van Roo, other priests and himself with the exorcism of the possessed.
After the exorcism, Father Halloran completed his studies and returned to Wisconsin where he taught theology and history at Campion Jesuit High School, then taught history at Marquette University.
He served in Vietnam as an Army paratrooper chaplain, earning two Bronze Stars at age 48. Halloran worked for a year as St. Louis University’s Director of Alumni Relations. He was pastor of St. Matthew’s Church.
Halloran had various assignments, including positions at St. Luke’s Church and Creighton University’s chaplain. He worked at parishes in the San Diego area. In 2003 he was diagnosed with cancer and retired to St. Camillus Jesuit Community.
He died March 1, 2005 at age 83.
Father Halloran and the Exorcism
Father Bowdern summoned Halloran on March 16, 1949 to help with the ritual because he was strong and young. Exorcisms have the potential to be violent.
Halloran was a reluctant assistant until the rites ended on April 18, 1949. They were performed at the Alexian Brothers Hospital, a neighboring rectory and in the boy’s favorite aunt’s home.
Halloran wouldn’t document that Roland was demonically possessed. He felt he wasn’t qualified to form an opinion because he hadn’t studied the phenomenon. He only reported what he saw.
Roland had violent seizures. As a result, he broke Halloran’s nose when he restrained the writing boy. The priests saw streaks, arrows and words such as "hell" on the boy's body. The Lutheran boy who knew no Latin frequently used that language’s phrases. Roland had cursing, vomiting and urinating episodes.
Father Halloran, the Diary and The Exorcist
Father Eugene B. Gallagher, a Georgetown faculty member, was lecturing about exorcism when one of his students, son of a Washington DC psychiatrist, talked about a diary kept by the Jesuits involved in Roland’s exorcisms. Gallagher asked the doctor, who might have been one of the professionals involved in the early stages of the case, for a copy of the diary and was given a sixteen page document.
Blatty asked to see a copy of the diary. His request was refused, but later, he claimed to have a copy.
Blatty tried contacting the Rev. William S. Bowdern, but the exorcist refused to cooperate before he died in 1983. Bowdern never publicly acknowledged that he was involved in Roland’s exorcisms, but talked about it with other Jesuits.
Author Thomas Allen contacted Halloran who admitted there was a diary and sent him a copy. In 1993, Allen wrote Possessed, using the journal as a reference.
Some sources say the document was a twenty-six page diary that was found in the Alexian Brothers Hospital when the psychiatric wing was being demolished in 1978. One of the workers found it in a desk drawer and gave it to his supervisors who gave it to hospital administrators. It was identified as the work of Rev. Raymond Bishop, a priest who had participated in the exorcisms.
Related Reading
Readers may also enjoy learning more about the case that The Exorcist is based on, along with Demonic Possession and Exorcism and Filming The Exorcist.
Sources:
- Diabolical Possession and Exorcism, Rev. John J. Nicola, (Tan Books and Publishers, Inc. 1974).
- The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits, Rosemary Ellen Guiley, (Facts on File, Inc., 1992).
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