Unbound - Bringing people together in Christ!

Neal Lozano

Kristina Cooper reports on an upcoming training course for priests in deliverance and inner healing - 14th-18th October 2024.

This autumn, 70 priests from all over the UK and Ireland, will be spending five days at a Grantham hotel on retreat and learning about the Unbound model of deliverance and inner healing. This has been developed over the last 30 years by Neal Lozano, a Catholic layman from the United States. He is an acknowledged expert in the field having extensive pastoral experience and written several books, on the subject including the well-known 'Unbound'.

This spring, he was a keynote speaker at the annual international gathering of exorcists in Rome. (A few places for the October course are still left for any Catholic priests interested. For further details see the Unbound UK web site: (www.unboundprayer.com )

In the early Church catechumens would be taken through deliverance in the normal course of preparing for baptism. But this has tended to have been forgotten over the years, particularly with increasing secularisation. Susan Walsh who runs the UK charity, Unbound Training & Events UK, which is organising the visit of Lozano and his team comments, "There is a big difference between exorcism and deliverance. Exorcism is a specialist ministry reserved for bishops and appointed priests and uses the Church's formal rite of Exorcism. Praying for deliverance, however, and learning how to do this in a simple and non-confrontational way, is something that would be a useful tool for any priest in his ministry, particularly in confession and spiritual direction."

She explains: "The Unbound model doesn't directly confront the devil but keeps the emphasis on Jesus and his power to heal." Key she says is for people to rediscover their true identities as sons and daughters of God and the authority they have in this through their baptism. Underpinning the Unbound model are Five Keys, which participants are led through to lead them to a deeper freedom in Christ. These are Repentance and Faith, Forgiveness, Renunciation, Authority and the Father's Blessing. The line between deliverance and inner healing is often very close as spirits which can manifest themselves in obsessions and addiction, often find entry point through someone's coping mechanisms to deal with their trauma or suffering.

Participants are led to reflect on how they have responded to difficult events in their lives, and if they responded in a sinful way, and how this is hindering their lives today. The five keys of Unbound have proved a successful model in helping people overcome things like pornography addiction, anger or self hatred and control issues.

There can even be unexpected physical healings if these have a spiritual or emotional root. Susan Walsh says that one of her relatives had been suffering from terrible migraine attacks two or three times a month. These were particularly severe whenever she was about to do something spiritual and were getting worse. In March this year, however, she was ministered to using the five keys of the Unbound process by a priest at an Unbound conference and since then has had no more migraine attacks.

Susan says: "Many people are unaware of how the enemy works in their lives using deceptions and lies to affect the person's thinking about themselves and those around them." The Unbound model she says helps give people a tool and method to deal with issues rather than getting permanently stuck in repetitive sin patterns.

As well as Neal and his lay team, there will be two clerical spiritual directors on the retreat, Bishop Scott McCaid CC from Canada and Fr Antonio Ritaccio, who is the pastoral director of Allen Hall seminary in London. Part of the DNA of the Unbound model, is its strict adherence to the teaching magisterium of the Church and although lay people are involved in the ministry, they are always under the authority of a clerical spiritual director.

Susan has been very touched by the support she has received from the wider Catholic community to sponsor the course to enable the priests to attend. Although each participant is paying £650 themselves, the actual cost per person is £1300 per person. She has managed to raise £30,000 of the £40,000 needed to subsidise the event and is confident that the Lord will provide the rest. She has already received support from the Nottingham Diocese, Little Way Healing Ministries, Celebrate, Divine Renovation, SPUC, Rachel's Vineyard, The Mark 10 Mission, One Hope Project, Fertile Help, and Retrouvaille and individuals who have been helped by the ministry in the past.

Next year there are plans to run more training conferences in Nottingham diocese in spring 2025 and Plymouth diocese in summer 2025. and possibly Brentwood in autumn 2025. A number of online ministry training events for priests and lay people are also planned for next year for ministry teams interested in training to use the five keys.

Those who would be interested in finding out more about the ministry or supporting their work financially are encouraged to sign up to their web site and they will be kept up to date with future events.

LINK

Unbound: www.unboundprayer.com