While a priest can out of charity or love of the person and God preform an exorcism on someone who is not a Catholic, the Catholic Church does not claim jurisdiction or authority over non-catholics.

I worked with a young girl who told this story of her chilhood. She lived in the Phillipines, her father is a very anti-Catholic Protestant Minister. While living in the islands his mission was to “convert Cathoics to Christianity.” She tells the story of how she began to exibit signs of demonic posession, her father and ministers from her Sect tried to preform an exorcism, with no success. Finally they went to the local Catholic parish priest, who using the Roman Ritual for exorcism was successful in casting out the unclean spirits. She and her family are still Protestants to this day and her father is “Pastor” of a little Church with about 25 people today.

Anyone may say the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel, or preform a simple exorcism, or prayer to remove the influence of the devil from the area or persons. It is best to consult one’s local priest if there are difficulties, or there seems to be a true full posession.

The Devil is the Father of lies, he can easily confound someone, knowing what we have done in the past, Satan can (speaking through a posessed person) make public hidden sins from our past. Sometimes people who exibit signs of posession are in fact mentally or physically ill. Someone who has rabies may foam at the mouth, or sometimes epileptics may have a fit (seizure) and it can be mistaken by people who do not know better to be a sign of posession. Because of this when a difficult case is brought to the local parish priest if after investigation to rule out a mental or physical disorder, there appears to be a true case of posession, the case will be taken to the Local bishop who will authorize the exorcism, and usually appoint at least one priest who has experience with exorcisms and an assistant who are known for holiness, prayerful lives, and physically fit for the task. The priest(s) usually fast and pray prior to the exorcism, go to confession, and generally prepare themselves. There are usually other assistants to help protect the posessed person, as they can flail around or may need to be held down for their own protection. A nurse or doctor are usually nearby. While these hard cases are not the standard, or usual case I’d rather have someone who knew what they where doing, than try something like this myself.