They may be able to bless the house, but exorcisms are for people.
Um, okay...
‘Hired’ a Catholic priest???
No God-fearing clergy worth his salvation should go anywhere near this circus masquerading as an exorcism. What the Hell (and I use that word intentionally) was he thinking?
Must be so open-minded that his brains long ago leaked out of his ears.
People give God and the Church such a bad name.
This story does not add up. Can a house be possessed by the devil? Maybe the priest came to the house, said some prayers, and blessed the house. Catholic priests bless animals, but I have never heard of an exorcism of an animal.
I don't think any priest would do a house exorcism unless he had permission from his bishop. Any kind of exorcism is potentially dangerous business. They won't do it unless there are documented supernatural problems in the home involving demonic entities. And if the people who request this exorcism go on to be involved with the occult or engage in evil practices, the demon can come right back. So everybody has to absolutely abstain from any freelance engagement with demons: certainly you don't seek them out, even for the purpose of combating them.
I've only heard of this kind of exorcism happening once, witnessed by a friend of mine in Louisiana.
Before the house exorcism, they had to thoroughly search the house from top to bottom to be sure to remove any occult objects left there by previous occupants (Ouija boards, divination devices, tarot cards, satanic images or paraphernalia, sodomite porn, etc.)
This friend said the priest, who had fasted and gone to Confession in preparation, was very low-key, systematic and "workmanlike": nothing dramatic, much less cinematic; but everybody felt challenged by an oppressive presence before the unseen entities were forced by the Lord Jesus to abandon the place. Objective things were observed by everyone: things moving. His description seriously creeped me out.
You are correct. If it was a Catholic priest, he would have had to get special permission from the diocese and then some. Before a priest can do an exorcism there has to be a demonic presence in the house.
This was probably a blessing which priests can so anytime.
I toured one of the concentration camps in Germany. I believe places can be possessed. There were no birds. Nothing alive. It was very, very unsettling.
The traditional prayers to bless holy water contain an exorcism.
They also add exorcised salt to the holy water.
Exorcism of Water
O water, creature of God, I exorcise you in the name of God the Father almighty, and in the name of Jesus Christ His Son, our Lord, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. I exorcise you so that you may put to flight all the power of the Enemy, and be able to root out and supplant that Enemy with his apostate angels: through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who will come to judge the living and the dead and the world by fire. Amen.