Father Ripperger has created concern in some traditional circles over his Deliverance Prayers for the Laity.
These such prayers are often said to be protestant in origin. However, Catholics have usually referred to them as prayers of ‘adjuration’.
St. Anthony is well known as the patron of lost items, but he also has a great prayer of ‘deliverance’, which Pope Sixtus V had inscribed on the obelisk in Saint Peter’s Square.
In the original Latin, the prayer says:
Ecce Crucem Domini!
Fugite partes adversae!Vicit Leo de tribu Juda,
Radix David! Alleluia!
And translated, it reads
Behold, the Cross of the Lord!
Begone, all evil powers!The Lion of the tribe of Judah,The Root of David, has conquered!
Alleluia, Alleluia!
Here’s what the Saint Alphonsus Ligouri, the greatest Moral Theologian in Church history and a Doctor of the Faith, said about them (translation by Ryan Grant):
… Read the restIV. Privately it is lawful for anyone to adjure [bind] a demon; but solemnly only for the ministers of the Church constituted for this purpose, and with the express license of the Bishop. (The Salamancans, ibid. n. 5, in common with others, from Luke 10:19: “Behold, I have given you power to tread over serpents and scorpions, and over every power of the enemy.” And from Mark 16:17: “In my name they will cast out demons.”)V. Moreover, especially in regard to the adjuration of demons, two things must especially be noted here: 1) That with them the adjuration is