Indian Exorcist Priest’s Death Mourned

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Fr. Rufus Pereira, a world renowned exorcist, died of cardiac arrest, just four days before his 79th birthday.

Fr. Pereira’s personal secretary Erika Gibello on May 3 released the news that the Indian priest died during sleep at his residence in London the previous day. He would have turned 79 Sunday.

The body of Fr. Pereira, one of the pioneers of Charismatic Renewal Movement in India, will remain in England until they have completed preparations to take him to India for burial. The date has not yet been disclosed.

Father Pereira, a Bombay archdiocesan priest who had a doctorate in Biblical Theology, was the vice president of the International Association of Exorcists and pioneer of the International Association for the deliverance ministry.

Sister Patricia Kelly of the Institute of Hesed, who was with Fr. Pereira on April 28, wrote in their social networks that she had found the priest “delighted” and “very happy.”

Adamo Vinicius, Fr. Pereira’s translator in Brazil, hailed the priest as “a saint, a tireless preacher of the Gospel, a man in love with Jesus Christ and his mission.”

Fr. Pereira was ordained in Rome in 1956 and on his return to India for several years he served as director of four secondary schools in Mumbai. He also edited the National Charismatic India “Charisindia,” and taught Scripture in various seminaries.

The priest joined the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in 1972, just when the ecclesial movement began in India. Cardinal Valerian Gracias, the then archbishop of Bombay, appointed him to lead the movement. Since then, he has conducted preaching meetings, retreats and missions throughout the world.

He has published numerous articles, especially on evangelism and healing.

Fr. Pereira acted as the catalyst in bringing lay people into the deliverance ministry and taking the Catholic Church closer to the group engaged in such works.

Father Pereira was also director of the Catholic Charismatic Bible Institute that was recently integrated into the International Catholic Charismatic Renewal Services (ICCRS) in Rome, as responsible for the global ministry of healing and deliverance.

He joined the ICCRS Council in 1997 and represented Asia and the Healing and Deliverance Ministries.

Fr. Pereira considered the deliverance ministry as one of the greatest contributions of the charismatic renewal movement to the Catholic Church. He wrote in www.holyspiritinteractive.net that several exorcists have shared with him that the deliverance ministry compliments and supports the Church’s ministry of Exorcism.

Source: UCAN India

UCA News

The Union of Catholic Asian News (UCA News, UCAN) is the leading independent Catholic news source in Asia. A network of journalists and editors that spans East, South and Southeast Asia, UCA News has for four decades aimed to provide the most accurate and up-to-date news, feature, commentary and analysis, and multimedia content on social, political and religious developments that relate or are of interest to the Catholic Church in Asia.

2 thoughts on “Indian Exorcist Priest’s Death Mourned

  • May 7, 2012 at 5:08 pm
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    pls let me know about his burial.

    Reply
  • April 24, 2022 at 6:31 pm
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    This year is the 10th Anniversary of Fr Rufus’s death. He is vividly present in our lives in Croatia, the country for which he prayed on several occasions (among other things for deliverance from the thousand years old curse imposed by a Croatian king Zvonimir who cursed his own people when they refused to join the Crusades.) Fr Rufus is a great consolation and blessing from God to the Church in Croatia. Pray for us from Heaven, dear Father!

    Reply

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