Retired Boise priest Father Thomas Faucher is in jail awaiting trial on numerous charges stemming from child pornography. Months after being served eviction papers by the local archdiocese, the church has sold the house after performing a famous ritual.
The word “exorcism” conjures frightful images of demons, crucifixes and the 1973 horror film. While the movie made an infamous spectacle of the Catholic rite, the practice exists and was recently used to purify the home of Father Faucher.
The Boise Archdiocese had the house blessed by an exorcist and 10-person prayer team. The spiritual cleaning comes in tandem with actual cleaning. Once Faucher was out of the house, the diocese received over a dozen offers on the home off Boise’s Hill Road. The church sold the house for around $250,000.
Father John Worster tells the Statesman when church authorities first went into the home, it was filthy and infested with rodents. The physical dirt removed, Worster says the exorcism was performed to get rid of what he calls the “spiritual filth.”
According to the priest, blessing a house is fairly a common practice. But, Worster also says evil is real and exorcising the house is a way to heal it and give confidence to the public and the new owner.
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