Words to Live By: The true story of 'The Exorcist'

"I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." —Matthew 16:18.

One of the best-known books and subsequent films of the 1970s was “The Exorcist.” It tells of 12-year-old Regan McNeil, who begins to display strange behaviors such as levitation, unnatural strength and frequent cursing of God's name. Once all medical possibilities are examined, her mother determines Regan's problems are not medical but spiritual. She then enlists priests to perform an exorcism to remove a demon from Regan's body.