Page 31 - Pastiche Vol 1 Edition 1 January 2019

Priest Ernst Alt believed Michel was suffering from
demonic possession as "she didn't look like an epileptic"
and that he did not see her having seizures, he urged the
local bishop to allow an exorcism. Michel wrote to Alt in
1975, "I am nothing; everything about me is vanity. What
should I do? I have to improve. You pray for me" and also
once told him, "I want to suffer for other people...but this
is so cruel". Bishop Josef Stangl approved priest Arnold
Renz permission to exorcise according to the Rituale
Romanum of 1614, but ordered total secrecy. Renz
performed the first session on 24 September, 1975 Anneliese Michel few days before death
Michel began talking increasingly about "dying to atone for the wayward youth of the day and
the apostate priests of the modern church". She stopped eating and her parents stopped
consulting doctors on her request and relied solely on the exorcism rites.

After 67 exorcism sessions, Michel died in her home on 1 July 1976. According to the priests,
the demons identified themselves as Lucifer, Cain, Judas Iscariot, Hitler, and Nero among
others, and she was finally freed because of the exorcism just before her death.
The autopsy report stated malnutrition and dehydration as the cause of her death due to
being in a semi-starvation state for almost a year while the rites of exorcism were performed
along with broken knees due to continuous genuflections and was reported to have
contracted pneumonia.

After an investigation, Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz was charged by the state prosecutor
with negligent homicide in 1976, stating that Michel's death could have been prevented even
one week before she died. Michel's body was exhumed and exorcism tapes over the eleven
months which led to her death were played to the court. Church sponsored lawyers Erich
Schmidt-Leichner defended the parents. The priests were fined, while the prosecution
concluded that the parents should be exempt from punishment as they had "suffered
enough", which is a criterion in German penal law.

In the trial that started on 30 March 1978, the doctors testified that this was a psychological
effect because of her strict religious upbringing and her epilepsy rather than demonic
possession. To assert their claim that Michel was possessed, the defense played tapes
recorded at the exorcism sessions, sometimes featuring what was claimed to be "demons
arguing". The bishop however said that he was not aware of her alarming health condition
when he approved of the exorcism and did not testify. Michel's parents and the two priests
were found guilty of manslaughter resulting from negligence and were sentenced to six
months in jail which was later reduced to three years of probation. According to academic
Heike Schwarz, the Anneliese Michel case showed demonic possession as a variation
of multiple personality disorder.

Post- trial, the parents asked the authorities for permission to exhume the remains of their
daughter as Michel had been buried in undue hurry in a cheap coffin. Almost two years after
the burial, on 25 February 1978, her remains were replaced in a new oak coffin lined with
tin. On 6th June 2013, a fire broke out in the house where Anneliese Michel lived, and,
although the local police said it was a case of arson, some locals attributed it to the exorcism
case.

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