Vatican not involved in series on exorcism

VATICAN CITY, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- The Discovery Channel admits it made an exaggerated claim that the Vatican is officially involved in the cable TV channel's series on exorcism.

Gary Auerbach, producer of the 10-part "Exorcist Files," said he did meet with some Vatican officials, the Italian news agency ANSA said. He also said priests authorized to perform exorcism who helped with the show had to get permission from their bishops to do so.

Discovery denied any intent to mislead.

"We did meet in an unofficial capacity with individual members of the Vatican staff," the channel said in a statement issued Monday. "We didn't intend to imply that we had a 'sanctioned' partnership."

The Vatican said this week there was no official agreement with Discovery about the series and the channel had not been given access to secret archives or to some sort of pool of sanctioned exorcists. While any priest has the power of exorcism, in practice the rite, involving prayers for the help of God in ridding a possessed person of demons, is performed by very few. Authorization to perform exorcisms is handled at the diocesan level.