Trained Catholic exorcists in the USCost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad
The number of Catholic exorcists in the United States has risen in lockstep with the price of a Super Bowl ad, which is the kind of correlation that should keep a theologian up at night. Either evil is becoming more expensive, or attention is. Possibly both.
The exorcist count has crept up because the Vatican formally expanded its training programs in the 2010s and US dioceses appointed more designated exorcists in response to growing demand. The Super Bowl ad price has climbed because live sports remain one of the few advertising venues with mass simultaneous attention. Two niche markets, both responding to a society that has fewer reliable rituals and more diffuse anxieties.
So the correlation is two prices on different shelves of the same supermarket of meaning. Both keep going up. Neither is selling a refund.
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Want to learn more about why correlations like “Trained Catholic exorcists in the US” vs “Cost of a 30-second Super Bowl ad” don't prove causation? Read our guide to statistical thinking.
