So here you are, a Romanian priest who’s been ‘trained’ by the Church to perform exorcism, and some poor nun has to die right in the middle of it. To make things worse, the police are at your front door, asking what the hell happened. You casually explain to the officers that you had bound, gagged and starved the woman for three days only for her to later die of asphyxiation. The police don’t seem very impressed with your answer, and all of a sudden, the media shows up. Talk about a bad day!

I wish I was making this story up, but unfortunately, I’m not. Father Daniel, who committed this vile crime, is unapologetic and has no remorse for his actions:

“I don’t understand why journalists are making such a fuss about this. Exorcism is a common practice in the heart of the Romanian Orthodox church and my methods are not at all unknown to other priests.”

In his eyes, he was following church doctrine. The nun was possessed by a demon, so he did the only logical thing: he crucified her, and she eventually died. What is most shocking about this is the fact he doesn’t think he’s done anything wrong. As far as he’s concerned, he saved that woman’s soul.

I predict this whole affair is going to get very messy. There are tons of Romanians who are deeply religious, and may feel the state getting involved is oppressive to their religious beliefs. These poor deluded fools actually trust a man who believes incantations and ‘holy’ water is enough to cure serious mental illnesses. Exorcisms are not only stupid, dangerous, and ignorant; they are quite obviously deadly.

Hopefully this nun’s death will not be in vain. If it can help stop this kind of practice, we can take comfort in the fact her death can at least prevent more tragedies like this from occurring.