Dear Omar:

Historically, all of us could say deliverance/exorcism without restriction. Later, perhaps around the 3rd Century, the Church made exorcism a formal sacramental of the Church, thereby restricting exorcism to those who are official deputed to perform exorcisms, either one in the Minor Order of Exorcist, or to a priest. This was done because of the danger of exorcism that needed the full protection of the Church that is accorded by Holy Orders, or back then the Minor Order of Exorcism.

In the late 20th Century Catholic Deliverance counselors began to perform deliverance that included talking to the demons, asking them their names, and pretty much doing the same thing a priest does in a formal exorcism except not in the name of the Church. I myself have performed this type of exorcism (deliverance).

This was permissible until 1985 when, after reports of abuses among Charismatic deliverance ministers, the Church through then Cardinal Ratzinger of the Congregation on the Doctrine of the Faith issued an instruction that restricted what could be done by deliverance ministers outside of a formal exorcism.

One of those restrictions was that we were (are) not to talk with the demons to ask them questions or to solicit information from them.

The reason to restrict this direct communication with demons is the danger of such close-encounter. Any sort of deliverance work is dangerous. To have conversations with demons raises the danger level significantly. Thus, this direct approach of conversing with demons is now restricted to a formal solemn exorcism.

The specific dangers are many. Physical attack is certainly possible, seduction of a weak deliverance counselor is possible, and other such things. Now, these dangers are possible in what I do too, but the danger increases when we converse with demons.

We can pray imperative commands, such as "I rebuke you demon of anger", but we must never seek information from demons.

I have been physically attacked by a demon. I have had a bottle grabbed out of my hand and thrown across the room by an invisible force.

Doing this work is not a game and not for the light-hearted or the faint-of-heart.

I am not familiar with the 17th century case that you mentioned. If the priest went insane after the exorcism, and the cause was not psychiatric but demonological, he must have been very vulnerable and shouldn't have participated in the exorcism. Such an circumstance is very rare.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary